Purdue women's basketball offseason tracker: Rashunda Jones to portal, names to track
The sophomore guard led the Boilermakers in scoring during the Big Ten season
Coach Katie Gearlds’ 2025-26 roster dwindled by one on Monday when sophomore Rashunda Jones submitted her name to the transfer portal.
Jones announced her decision on social media.
That leaves six players on next year’s roster without any additions from the transfer portal. Gearlds and her staff are working to fill out the roster and hosted former Northern Arizona guard Taylor Feldman over the weekend.
With the return of Lana McCarthy and Kendall Puryear and the addition of freshman Avery Gordon, don’t look for the Boilermakers to pursue centers in the portal.
Purdue is likely to have interest in the following players:
Carter McCray, Wisconsin
Gina Kneepkens, Utah
Kailey Woolston, BYU
Kaylah Ivey, Boston
Yarden Garzon, Indiana
At the end of the season, Jones was expected back since Gearlds discussed finding a point guard in the portal to allow the South Bend native to move to shooting guard.
“I love Spider for everything that she is,” Gearlds said following the final regular-season game against Indiana in early March. “I just told her I was gonna promise to find her a point guard so she could play off the ball. There's not a doubt in my mind that the kid gave me everything she had.”
Jones led the Boilermakers in scoring during Big Ten games, averaging 11.6 points. She scored a career-high 32 points, including 9 of 9 from the line, in the Feb. 27 victory at Penn State. Jones shot 84.9% from the line during the season.
Jones was part of Gearlds’ 2022 recruiting class, which ESPNW ranked No. 21 in the country. Only one player remains from the class - McKenna Layden. Sophie Swanson jumped in the portal earlier this month, and Mary Ashley Stevenson (Stanford) and Emily Monson (Middle Tennessee State) transferred after their first seasons.
According to a social media post, Swanson visited Virginia Tech over the weekend.
Gearlds did add former Boilermaker Madison Layden-Zay from the portal as a graduate transfer.
Jones placed a “do not contact” on her portal submission. Either Jones knows where she’s going, or an agent is involved to handle inquiries.
With Amiyah, Mila and Kira Reynolds no longer part of the program, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the three sisters and Jones land in the same program. They were teammates at South Bend Washington where Steven Reynolds was the coach. Steven Reynolds has resigned from his position, leading to speculation that the family might be moving.
Other players who have left Purdue’s program are Jayla Smith and Jordyn Poole. Smith wasn’t expected to return, and Poole completed her freshman season after playing through an injury.
Purdue updated its roster and removed Alex Guyton from the coaching staff. As we reported, Guyton is no longer on the staff.
Tentative 2025-26 Roster
Senior: Madison Layden-Zay
Junior: McKenna Layden
Sophomores: Lana McCarthy, Kendall Puryear
Freshmen: Avery Gordon, Keona Douwstra
I hate this, but the writing is on the wall for Katie. She was crazy good in the previous job, but she's not turning the corner. The womens program has been basically a bust since Curry's Runnerup year (with other coaches' recruits), and hires since then haven't cut it. I thought Gearlds was a great hire, too. but it's time to move on.
I Think one player that Purdue might look at is Lexus Bargesser from Indiana— she might want to stay in Indiana and she is more athletic than the players that left our team— good defense —see what happens if she would get an offer— at least it would be a start. Hey Katie—take a look—please— start to get the team back on some sound footing— she has 2 years left— might be the fastest player on the team—- just a suggestion— Go Boilers