Virginia Women's Basketball Guard Mir McLean Enters Transfer Portal
Virginia women's basketball has lost another player to the transfer portal as senior guard Mir McLean has reportedly entered her name into the transfer portal, as first reported by Talia Goodman on Wednesday afternoon.
McLean has been sidelined for the last 15 months after having knee surgery following an injury sustained against NC State on January 8th, 2023. After starting her career at UConn, the former McDonald's All-American and 2020 Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year transferred to Virginia in the middle of the 2021-2022 season as the last player to be recruited to UVA by Tina Thompson. The NCAA granted her a waiver of immediate eligibility and she played in 11 games that season, averaging 11.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
McLean was a double-double machine in 2022-2023 before her injury, recording five double-doubles in the first 15 games of the season and averaging 12.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game before suffering the season-ending injury at NC State. In two partial seasons with the Cavaliers, McLean appeared in 26 games, starting 22 of them.
Given the severity of her injury, the rehabilitation process was always going to be a lengthy one for McLean, but those expectations were exceeded as she missed the entire 2023-2024 season. Still, McLean was expected to be a key piece for the Cavaliers when she finally returned to the court and moving forward into the future, as she still has two years of eligibility remaining.
Now, McLean is in the transfer portal and will look for a third program to be her home. It's a tough loss for the Cavaliers, who did well enough without McLean but were certainly looking forward to getting her back on the floor to pair alongside youthful stars Kymora Johnson, Olivia McGhee, and Paris Clark. Instead, Virginia has another key roster piece to replace this offseason.
McLean is the third Virginia player to enter the transfer portal this offseason, joining Cady Pauley and Alexia Smith. UVA picked up its first incoming transfer of the offseason on Tuesday, as Maryland transfer center Hawa Doumbouya, a 6'7" freshman, signed with Virginia with three years of eligibility remaining.
As always, we'll keep an eye on all of the roster movement for the Virginia women's basketball program this offseason at CavaliersNow.