Clemson Women's Basketball Seeing Changes As Offseason Continues

A month ago, second-year head coach Shawn Poppie achieved a goal for Clemson women’s basketball in a short time: to get back to the NCAA Tournament.

That’s what the Tigers did in the 2025-26 season, being the first time since the 2018-19 season. The seven-year drought was snapped with some key wins over the regular season, including a home win over No. 9 Duke and an ACC Tournament victory over Virginia to cement their spot in the Big Dance for the second time in 25 years.

Then, Poppie’s group went toe-to-toe with No. 9-seeded USC, which was an outstanding team for the seed that it had. From 17 lead changes to a disallowed go-ahead bucket by Mia Moore, the Trojans came out victorious, ending the historic ride.

Retention has been key thus far for Clemson, which is one of three ACC schools to have not lost a player who averages over five points or more per game to enter the transfer portal yet this cycle. The only player that the Tigers lost is sharpshooter Hannah Kohn, who hit the game-winning shot to beat the Blue Devils.

On Friday, Kohn committed to USF, announcing it on her social media.

The only other loss that Poppie has seen from the offseason has been from a recruit, and it was a big one. Trinity Jones, the No. 7 player from the Class of 2026, decommitted from the Tigers a week ago. She’s expected to have interest from TCU, Illinois and Iowa, according to On3.

However, that shouldn’t take away from the work that the program is doing, and it’s “building something special here”, as Poppie says frequently throughout his press conferences.

Nine players are on next season’s current roster, including key returner Rusne Augustinaite, who was a key scorer for the Tigers last season. Clemson is also trying to get another year out of Moore, who was the Tigers’ leader in points and assists last season. That would be an important return for Poppie.

If Moore’s waiver is approved, it means that 10 roster spots are filled on the team, being three short of what this past season’s team had and five off of the maximum number of spots one can have on a team. Because of this, Clemson has been keeping an eye out on the portal.

One name has been mentioned, and it’s an important one. Former five-star recruit Addie Deal is a transfer piece that Clemson has had its eye on, according to On3. Deal spent her freshman season with the Iowa Hawkeyes and is looking elsewhere.

Not to mention that the Tigers have plenty of freshman talent, even without Jones in the mix. Four-star trio Julia Scott, Meeyah Green and Kimora Fields bring a freshman class that is all in the top 60 of recruits. That will bring the potential up for Poppie’s group going into next season.

Similar to men’s basketball, the women’s program is far from done with constructing a full roster for the 2026-27 season. However, Poppie will continue to have something in store until the season tips off next November.

The NCAA Tournament goal has been achieved, and now it will be getting that first win in the Big Dance as another goal of theirs.