Notre Dame women's guard KK Bransford enters NCAA transfer portal

Notre Dame women’s hoops player KK Bransford, a sophomore guard, has entered the transfer portal, according to On3’s Pete Nakos.

Bransford averaged 6.8 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.2 steals per game playing more than 25 minutes a night as a sort of do-everything player off the the bench for the Fighting Irish. As a rookie, her role was quite similar, playing just under 25 minutes per game while averaging 8.2 points, 2.9 rebounds 1.5 assists and 0.9 steals.

KK Bransford was a McDonald’s All-American as a high schooler in the class of 2022 and was rated as a top-30 women’s prospect that season before landing at Notre Dame.

The loss is notable for Notre Dame, but it’s far from the end of the world for Niele Ivey. The Fighting Irish are actually pretty loaded up in the backcourt going forward, obviously spearheaded by Hannah Hidalgo, the freshman sensation who led the NCAA in steals per game and averaged a 22-6-5 points-rebounds-assists stat line. She is certainly one of the future superstars of the sport.

And Hidalgo wasn’t even supposed to be the team’s starting point guard this season. Instead, it would have been Olivia Miles, who averaged 13 points and nearly seven assists per game as a junior last year and appears on track to return for a senior season next fall.

That’s already a star-studded backcourt, but then you throw in the fact that the Irish can get back Sonia Citron, a 17 point-per-game scorer, as well as front-court anchor Maddy Westbeld, who has the option to return for her extra COVID season. If all those names are back in the mix, Notre Dame ought to be a national title contender once again, and should be even stronger than they were this season.

Of course, that’s assuming Miles recovers well and doesn’t transfer, and the same goes for Citron and Westbeld. There’s no reason to think they won’t all be back, but you never know until the ink is dry.

For now, ND is in great shape with a lot of roster options, even if a couple of these players, like Bransford, don’t wind up coming back. Plus, Hidalgo is the type of star that every women’s team in the country wants to have and she looked like the best freshman in the country alongside USC’s JuJu Watkins.

A very bright future for Fighting Irish women’s hoops.