Lady Vols sophomore point guard Evina Westbrook has entered the NCAA transfer portal according to multiple reports.
Westbrook’s decision comes Tennessee’s search for a new women’s basketball coach. UT Athletics Director Phillip Fulmer and former Lady Vols head coach Holly Warlick decided to part ways on March 27th. Since then, Fulmer has been on a search for her replacement.
Tennessee was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by UCLA, 89-77, two weeks ago. Following the loss, Westbrook became the center of attention with her post-game comments about Warlick and the coaching staff.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know,” Westbrook responded when asked if Warlick would be back for an eighth season. “I just think off-the-court stuff, steps need to be taken with our staff and just overall off the court with the team.”
Westbrook entering her name in the transfer portal doesn’t guarantee that the Salem, Oregon native will transfer, just that coaches from other schools may contact her now. She can choose to stay at Tennessee rather than transfer to another program.
The sophomore point guard led the Lady Vols in scoring, averaging 14.9 points per game. Westbrook also averaged 5.3 assists per game. Coming out of high school, Westbrook was ranked the No. 2 overall player in the country and was a McDonald’s All-American.
The Lady Vols’ loss in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament was just the second time in program history in which the program was eliminated in the first round. Tennessee finished the season 19-13.
It was the first time the Lady Vols failed to reach 20 wins for the first time since 1975-76, and this season marked the first time ever that the Lady Vols failed to finish at least .500 in SEC play. Tennessee went 7-9 in the conference this season.
In 64 games for Tennessee (all starts), Westbrook is averaging 11.5 points, 4.8 assists, and 3.2 rebounds while shooting 35.1 percent from three. She was named to the SEC All-Freshman team in the 2017-18 season.
3 Responses
Let her go. As Geno said, these kids think coaches should cater to them. No loyalty, not a VFL. Bye.
If the lady Vols didn’t have bad luck they would have no luck at all.
The problem is we have to many shooting guard on the team an not a true point guard we let two leave in Hayes an Cooper an to me if u cant deal with coaches yelling at u then u don’t need to play Div. 1 basketball go to JUCO r Div. 3 and play