A look into the 2026 women’s basketball season

In preparation for the upcoming Women’s Basketball season, Utah State University’s Women’s Basketball held its media day to allow fans to get a preview of what this upcoming season will look like. The media day also allowed the media to meet the new players and coaches for the 2026-27 season.
USU Women’s Basketball has not had a winning season since 2018 and has not won more than 10 games since 2021. Entering his third year as head coach, Wesley Brooks is optimistic that change will come this season.
“We’re really excited about our group, really excited about the talent that we have. As I said at the end of last year, our culture has been established. I believe in what we’re doing. Our players, in return, believe in what we’re doing,” Brooks said. “We have enough depth to compete in the Pac-12, and we’re going to go and just be better one day at a time, and we really like our group and really like where we’re headed.”
Brooks also believes this year’s roster is the most talented roster that USU has fielded during his time as coach. This year’s transfer class includes four players who are coming from Power Five conferences.
“You have people who play at a high level and who’ve established themselves. I think with this roster in particular, we had five P5 players. Utah State’s never had five P5 players. I mean, you go look back at the rosters the last 10, 15 years. It’s never been that many people from a P5,” Brooks said. “I just think we have people who’ve been through it, and they know what it takes, and they just — they’re accomplished in their own right. Now we just have to mesh the team together, and once we do that and we work it one day at a time and we bring back what we have returning, I think I think we can have a really good year.”
Some of these important transfer players include guard Lisa Thompson, who played at both Rutgers University and the University of Missouri. Acacia Hayes, who won Conference USA All-Freshman honors while at Western Kentucky University, played with Arizona State University last year. Center Sami Mancini transferred from Providence College, and center Danika Galea transferred from the University of Arkansas. The team feels this level of experience will help them develop together and lead to a successful season.
“When you have a lot of experience on the team, and then when you have a lot of inexperience, it kind of balances out. So you have the experience, which helps the girls, the younger girls, and you can bring them in, and you help them,” Hayes said. “I think just being in tough games, we have a tough schedule, and we’re in a new conference, and I think the girls with experience, we kind of already know how that is, and so I think that will help with the other girls on the team.”
The Aggies non-conference schedule will feature some of the biggest names in women’s college basketball, such as the University of Southern California and Texas Christian University. According to Brookes, these games not only give the team an early test, but they help to strengthen the team’s image around the country.
“In the words of Ric Flair, if you want ‘to be a man, you got to beat the man,’ so that’s exactly what we want to play. Obviously, they’re challenging. You know, one thing you can hear me say, talk about, is, ‘Can we play to our identity?’ We want to play to our identity, so it’s about being the best version of ourselves every night, no matter who we play,” Brooks said. “For some people it’s a stress test. Some people are going to put more stress on you than others. For us to get to where we want to go, we need to be able to see where we are. They’re measuring stick games. How far are we away? What else do we need to do? Do we need to change something? Do we need to adjust something? Who can we put in those situations?”