After graduating from the University of Texas last month, Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda decided to move to Nashville, Tenn.
Mwenentanda announced May 30 that she will transfer to Vanderbilt after playing basketball at Texas for three seasons. In addition to appearing in 103 games, Mwenentanda earned a psychology degree while at Texas.
On the surface, Mwenentanda’s decision to transfer isn’t unique. Players transfer all the time. In fact, Mwenentanda was one of four players from the Texas women’s basketball program to enter the transfer portal this offseason. In turn, UT signed four transfers.
Listed on the Texas roster as a guard, the 6-foot-2 Mwenentanda moonlighted as a forward this past season and started 15 times after veteran forward Aaliyah Moore was lost to a knee injury. Mwenentanda averaged just 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game, but Texas would not have won a Southeastern Conference championship without her 15-point, 11-rebound performance at Mississippi State in February. Mwenentanda also scored a career-high 19 points against Illinois in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I love Texas and I got what I needed out of Texas. I got my degree,” Mwenentanda recently told the Keloland Media Group in her native South Dakota. “I just wanted something different.”
What makes Mwenentanda’s move more noteworthy is that it came during the same offseason that Texas guard Jordana Codio transferred to Seton Hall and one year after Amina Muhammad left UT for Oregon. Without Codio, Mwenentanda and Muhammad, no members of the Longhorns’ 2022 recruiting class are left on the Texas campus.
Texas will still have seniors on its roster next season. Sarah Graves is entering her fourth year with the program, but she originally joined the Longhorn as a walk-on. Rori Harmon is a fifth-year veteran. Kyla Oldacre, Teya Sidberry and Ashton Judd are all seniors who transferred to Texas.
But without Codio, Mwenentanda and Muhammad, Texas won’t boast any ties to a Class of 2022 that head coach Vic Schaefer once described as a perfect fit for his program. Since 2000, Texas’ 2017, 2019 and 2022 classes have been the only recruiting classes that failed to produce at least one four-year player for the Longhorns.
Is the 4-year player becoming an anomaly?
Schaefer has often insisted that he enjoys developing young players and guiding them throughout their college careers. But does the exodus of UT’s Class of 2022 signal that the concept of a four-year player is going to become a rarity in college basketball?
Due to the transfer portal, it is now easier than ever for players to look elsewhere in search of new roles, challenges and environments. Conversely, it is just as easy for coaching staffs to use the transfer portal to recruit over the players on their current rosters. NIL incentives have created an additional wrinkle for this era of player movement.
“It’s getting harder and harder (to keep players),” Schaefer told the American-Statesman last month. “That’s concerning, because that’s always been the secret to our success. We recruit to a fit, we retain them and we develop them, and it’s getting harder and harder. It’s a day and age of instant gratification, no patience. For some, it’s about the dollar bill. It’s getting harder and harder, for sure.”
Mwenentanda, Muhammad and Codio were respectively ranked 34th, 63rd and 67th in the ESPN HoopGurlz rankings for the Class of 2022. Of the top-100 recruits in that class, just 34 are still playing for the team they originally signed with. The list of transfers from that class includes All-Americans like Lauren Betts (Stanford to UCLA), Raegan Beers (Oregon State to Oklahoma) and Ta’Niya Latson (Florida State to South Carolina). Oldacre, a 6-foot-6 center who was a top-25 recruit in that class, joined the Longhorns last season after starting her career at Miami.
Class of 2022 recruits will have chances to star elsewhere next season
In her first year at Oregon, Muhammad started 24 times and reached the NCAA Tournament. Codio will attempt to help Seton Hall improve on last season’s 23-10 result.
Mwenentanda, meanwhile, will join an ascending Vanderbilt team that has won 45 games over the past two seasons. Vanderbilt is set to return all-conference honoree Mikalya Blakes and 20-point scorer Khamil Pierre to a roster that also added former LSU center Aalyah Del Rosario this offseason.
When asked by reporters last month at the SEC Spring Meetings if he was told why Mwenentanda left Texas, Scheafer said he had just heard through the grapevine that Mwenentanda wanted a bigger role. On a Texas team that stars All-American Madison Booker and Harmon and prefers to heavily involve its post players on offense, that likely wasn’t going to happen in Austin.
“I’m telling you what we’ve heard. She wants a bigger role. And you know what? That’s fine,” Schaefer said. “I feel like we did a great job with her. We graduated her in three years, we gave her that opportunity. She helped us win a lot of games. I love Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, I love that kid.
“I’m disappointed that she’s not going to be back for her senior year because I invested in that kid for three years. If I haven’t told my staff once, I’ve told them 100 times, Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda needs to be better, and it’s our job to make her better. I would have loved to have seen what a senior year looked like for her after investing three years.”
The SEC has not released its schedule yet for the 2025-26 season. But since Texas hosted Vanderbilt last season, the Longhorns will likely visit Mwenentanda in Nashville this upcoming winter.
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