In the midst of Notre Dame’s four-player transfer portal exodus a couple of weeks ago, Kylee Watson tried to defuse some of the finger-pointing and speculation about the Irish women’s basketball team’s voluntary roster turnover.
“I love Notre Dame. I love Coach [Niele] Ivey, and I love the entire program,” she began on her Twitter/X account back on April 3. “This decision was not about leaving something, but instead embracing something new for my final year of college basketball.”
On Tuesday night, her “something new” was revealed to be Villanova, a source confirmed of a multiple reports. The Wildcats finished 21-15 overall this past season and in fifth place in the 11-team Big East with an 11-7 league mark.
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It will be the third school for the 6-foot-4 forward and former McDonald’s All-American from Linwood, N.J., who spent all of her third and final season at ND rehabbing from a March 2024 ACL tear.
She played for two seasons at Oregon, then two at ND before suffering the knee injury during the 2024 ACC Tournament. Watson was a two-year starter for the Irish, averaging 6.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in 33 games in 2023 and 6.2/5.0 in 2024 in 31 games.
She is the fourth and final player of the four outgoing transfers and the second on Tuesday to settle on a landing spot. Earlier in the day, injured reserve sophomore guard Emma Risch announced she’ll transfer to Florida State.
Previously, freshman center Kate Koval (LSU) and All-American grad senior point guard Olivia Miles (TCU) announced where their next chapters will unfold. Notre Dame finished 28-6 this past season, losing to Miles’ new team, 71-62, March 29 in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16 round in Birmingham, Ala.
The last day women’s basketball players can submit their names to the transfer portal this offseason is April 23.
Meanwhile, the Irish return two-time All-American Hannah Hidalgo, Canadian Olympian Cass Prosper and 2024-25 redshirt KK Bransford — all guards, and added Wake Forest grad transfer forward Malaya Cowles this past Friday.
The Irish signed just one high school prospect in the 2025 class, McDonald’s All-American Leah Macy, but the 6-3 forward’s availability for next season is in doubt because of a knee injury she suffered late in her senior season.
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