This post was updated April 10 at 9:25 p.m.
UCLA women’s basketball juniors guard Londynn Jones and forward Janiah Barker entered the transfer portal Thursday morning, according to Bruin Report Online.
The news comes just two days after all four members of coach Cori Close’s 2024 recruiting class – guards Elina Aarnisalo, Kendall Dudley and Avary Cain and forward Zania Socka-Nguemen – entered the transfer portal. With the quartet’s departure, the Bruins will have no returning sophomores for the 2025-2026 season.
Jones – the Bruins’ starting shooting guard – set UCLA’s single-season record for 3-pointers made with 87 in the 2023-2024 season, when she averaged 12.6 points per game. Her scoring average dipped to 8.5 points a game following the move to the Big Ten, reverting closer to her freshman year numbers.
Graduate student guard Charlisse Leger-Walker will likely fill the two spot next year in light of Jones’ departure. The Washington State transfer redshirted her first year as a Bruin while recovering from an ACL injury. It was announced March 5 that Leger-Walker is cleared to return to play.
Further, Lena Bilić, a shooting guard Close dubbed “the best player out of Europe in her class,” will join the Bruins out of Croatia. At 6-foot-3, Bilić tallied 18 points, 7.1 assists and 6.3 rebounds a game as part of the club ZKK Tresnjevka 2009 last season. Having played in the FIBA U16 European Championships, World Cup and most recently the EuroBasket last summer, Bilić averages 15.5 points a game at the national level.
Meanwhile, Barker transferred from Texas A&M following the conclusion of the 2023-2024 season. During her sophomore campaign with the Aggies, she started 27 of the 30 games she played in – but assumed sixth man duties as a Bruin. This past season, Barker started in just three of her 36 appearances, being awarded as the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the 2024-2025 season.
With experience in the Southeastern Conference and the talent to start on nearly any other roster, Barker was often the engine the Bruins needed to crash the boards, dive for loose balls and flip the team’s energy when it hit a lull.
Averaging 17.5 minutes this past season, Barker capped off her one-and-done year in Westwood posting 7.4 points, six rebounds and 1.4 assists a game. She often entered the court in place of graduate student forward Angela Dugalić. Dugalić has yet to confirm her return to the Bruin squad, but the Daily Bruin got confirmation Tuesday afternoon that she has another year of eligibility following a redshirt season and the COVID-19 season.
Though reasons behind Barker’s decision remain unclear, the arrival of Sienna Betts – No. 2 recruit in the class of 2024 and the McDonald’s All-American MVP – could have further impacted Barker’s minutes off the bench next season. Betts, a five-star prospect, is the younger sister of UCLA’s leading scorer junior center Lauren Betts and will likely fill Barker’s sixth man role.
Jones, Barker and the class of 2024’s departure has left Close’s 2024-2025 squad – one that earned a No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and reached the Final Four – with significant voids to address. But with Dugalić’s return still possible, incoming recruits and the transfer portal at her disposal, Close still has the chance to shore up her roster.
