Amari DeBerry and Inês Bettencourt find new homes; Raegan Beers picks Oklahoma

UConn women’s basketball’s two outgoing transfers each found new homes this past week. Amari DeBerry picked Maryland while Inês Bettencourt committed to Gonzaga.

Both schools are perennial NCAA Tournament teams and made it this past season. The Bulldogs were a 4-seed and reached the Sweet Sixteen before falling to Texas in Portland while the Terrapins were a 10-seed and lost to Iowa State in the first round.

Gonzaga has won either the WCC regular season, tournament or both over the last eight seasons. Maryland frequently makes it to the second weekend of March Madness and has taken three trips to the Final Four this century, capped by a national title in 2006.

DeBerry will reunite with former UConn guard Saylor Poffenbarger, who transferred from Arkansas to Maryland this offseason. The two overlapped in Storrs at the start of the 2021-22 season before Poffenbarger left a few games in.

Speaking of one-time Huskies, Mir McLean entered the transfer portal from Virginia. She did not play this past season due to a knee injury she suffered during the 2022-23 campaign.

Raegan Beers picks Oklahoma

While UConn landed its top backcourt target in the transfer portal with Kaitlyn Chen, it couldn’t do the same in the frontcourt. Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers picked Oklahoma over the Huskies.

Beers visited Oklahoma two weekends back. During her time in Norman, the school rolled out the red carpet and treated her “like a football player in the portal”, according to one person with knowledge of the visit.

Last season, Beers averaged 17.5 points and 10.3 rebounds from an Oregon State squad that reached the Elite Eight. Beers earned two All-Pac 12 selections and was an AP Third Team All-American as a sophomore.

UConn still has one scholarship open for next season to use on a post player. There’s still plenty of talented frontcourt players available, such as Liza Karlen (Marquette), Timea Gardiner (Oregon State) and Janiah Barker (Texas A&M).