Jackrabbit women to have everyone back in 2026-27

BROOKINGS — The South Dakota State women’s basketball team did something this offseason that not many teams can say they did, and that’s have no players enter the transfer portal.

According to Talia Goodman of On3, the Jackrabbits were one of 14 teams that did not have a player enter the portal this offseason. SDSU head coach Aaron Johnston said that would not be possible if it weren’t for the buy-in from the players.

“A lot of that credit has to go to them,” Johnston said. “They’re a great group. I think they see a vision and a plan for them here and how they can contribute to a successful team, and they look at it in terms of the value they get out of this experience, versus just chasing something.

“So many players in the portal right now are just chasing something, and our group has really been good about buying into what we do here at SDSU, and understanding their value, and understanding the value of this.”

In total the Jacks will have 10 players back from the 2025-26 roster. Johnston said when he recruits players out of high school he lets them know that he wants them to stay at SDSU long term.

“We’re pretty adamant in the recruiting process from the beginning that we want to see players come to South Dakota State and hopefully graduate from South Dakota State,” Johnston said. “We don’t want this just to be a tryout. We don’t look at putting a roster together as a one year thing, and we’ve always looked at it as a multiple year plan.

“How are you going to fit in?,” Johnston said. “Who are the players that you’re going to be playing with and how do you all fit together? I think we’ve always tried to look at it that way. Certainly, there are a lot of schools around us at all levels of division one who are building rosters year by year. There’s no long term plan, no long term vision, and that’s okay too. But for us, we’ve always tried to look at this as a multiple year plan and really try and map out how people fit into that multiple year plan.”

With returning 10 players and adding two freshmen, the Jackrabbits will likely not add any other players out of the portal this year. When SDSU has added players in the past, there’s usually only been one or two.

Johnston said part of getting your players to come back is making sure that you’re not adding players that can take their spots.

“There’s a lot of talk that we’re not losing anybody, and I think that’s great, but right now, we don’t have anybody completely set to come in over them, and that’s where schools have to make some choices. Like, you can’t develop young players. You can’t have a four year plan for them and then turn around and bring in a bunch of juniors and seniors every year over the top of them. That doesn’t fit, and that’s why you see young players move on,” Johnston said.

Since the transfer portal came about in 2018, South Dakota State has had multiple players that could have transferred and played for power conference teams. However, the only player that did that was Haleigh Timmer last season and she said she did it because of Oklahoma State’s grad program.

Johnston said there is money to be made in women’s college basketball, even in the Summit League. He added that teams have reached out to his players that are not in the portal and that developing trust with his players makes sure they don’t go chasing more money or more playing time.

“There’s money to be made at South Dakota State and our level of basketball,” Johnston said. “I do believe money is a part of our success, with the revenue share and institutional NIL. Those are absolutely part of our success. If they weren’t part of our process, we would lose people, for sure.

“... There’s just so much tampering that goes on right now. We have teams in our league who are reaching out to players in our league, our roster and other rosters, through coaches and representatives. And this is common on the men’s and women’s side. It’s not specific to us, but you just have so much tampering going on that you have to be able to trust your players, and your players being able to trust you is a really important part of keeping a roster together.”

The three players that did graduate from the 2025-26 team are three key players in Brooklyn Meyer, Madison Mathiowetz and Ellie Colbeck.

Maggie Hartwig came to the team as a transfer this past season and struggled to find a role, but Johnston said with Meyer’s departure, you could see her step up in her senior season next year.

“I just think Maggie is a really good player,” Johnson said. “To her credit, she worked really hard to fit into our style last year and what we had to do to complement that style. I think this next year, we’ll play differently and have a different plan on offense and defense that will fit Maggie really well.

“It would have been easy for Maggie to feel like she didn’t get exactly the role she wanted last year, and for her to bounce and try to find a new home. I give her a ton of credit for seeing that vision we talked about and trusting our plan and knowing that it’s going to be a great year next year.”

SDSU did not redshirt any players this past season and Johnston said giving every player some playing time will pay dividends as they head into the 2026-27 season.

“I think it’s huge,” Johnston said. “I really do. I mean, you can’t say you value somebody and never give them a chance. That doesn’t mean they always get to play as much as they want. … But whether it’s Abby [Hoselton] or Claire [Sheppard]. Jaiden [Dunn], Brooklyn [Felchle], you know there’s just so many players that had opportunities to have expanded goals this year.

“What Mahli [Abdouch] was able to do coming off the bench and then become a starter [with some injuries], that has positioned her to have a really big jump going into her sophomore year. What Hadley [Thul] did coming off the bench and learning and growing and gaining a ton of confidence as a starter later in the year. … There’s really no substitute for gaining experience in some capacity and building that confidence and earning that trust that we talk about.”