Tulane Women Make Staff Changes, Working in the Transfer Portal

As the NCAA basketball transfer portal begins to wind down its open season, Tulane women's coach Ashley Langford announced a trio of changes to her staff.

A Greenie Follows Langford Back Home

Harlyn Wyatt, a 2019 graduate of Tulane, returns to Uptown as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Additionally, Shyan Mwai moves into solely an assistant coach role as Johnny Flores adds video coordinator responsibilities to his role of graduate assistant coach.

Wyatt spent the last three seasons in the American Conferrence with Memphis, where she also served as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. During her time with the Tigers, Wyatt worked with the post players and helped develop Alasia Smith into one of the most decorated defenders in program history.

Mwai came to Uptown with Langford two seasons ago as an assistant coach and video coordinator. She will now serve solely as an assistant coach.

Flores continues as a graduate assistant coach while adding the video coordinator role to his duties.

What the Wave is Looking for in the Portal

We spoke to Langford just days before the window opened in the transfer portal and asked her what she was looking for.

"There's more of an emphasis on forwards because that's where we're really slim at," Langford told us. "We only have Jayda Brown and Madison Gordon in those forward spots. So, there's a bigger emphasis on like a must have for forwards.

"The way I look at our frontcourt is we play our forwards, like Jayda Brown, more like guards. In my first year, Cherise Pittman, it's more like she was a really good forward player for us, but with inside and out, could do both, more guard oriented.

"So that's what I prefer, players like Jayda, I preferred that four spot. Then at the five spot, the ideal would be combining Dyllan Hanna and Amira Mabry.

"That would be the ideal center for us," Langford explained, "because I felt like, Dyllan was really good defender, rebounder, a really good athlete. And I think Amira was scaled more of a scorer on the offensive end. So that's ideally what I would like is a five player that can do both.

"In the four spot, just similar to Jayda, in terms of being able to handle the ball, being able to be on the perimeter, being able to make threes," Langford told us. "I mean, that's a big area of growth in general across the board that we have to get better with is making threes, and that's at guard and the four spot. Ideally I want everybody to be able to shoot the threes on the court at a higher clip. The five, I would love her to be able to shoot threes, but that's not necessary.

Things Change Rapidly

Since our interview, Tulane has had their back-to-back conference freshmen of the year who have entered the portal: 2025 American Frosh, Kendall Sneed and this year's honoree Mecailin Marshall. So, there may be an emphasis on the guard slot as well.

Time Frame Longer Than the Portal Window

"You could do that as soon as possible, but I mean, realistically, we're looking probably at, we won't be done until I hope by the end of May," Langford told us when we asked about a time line for all signees. "If we could be done in the middle of May, I would be, that would be even better. We're really kind of looking at a month of just, you know, being really intense and having a lot of visits.

"I do like it (the later transfer window), and I think maybe too, it'll help players for them to understand that can give them a little bit more time to really assess what they want and where they want to go. And, you know, some of them get agents during that time, so I think it just gives everybody a little bit more time. And I hope with the more time that everybody's a little bit more focused and knows what they want. So there was not just like a, wait, I like this school, I like this school, I like this school. It's like, nah, you have the time to figure out exactly what you want, and they can take their time.

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