UGA women's basketball's Katie Abrahamson-Henderson on latest UCF transfer and year two

The transfer portal was good for the Georgia women’s basketball program in coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson’s first season. Key players made the move from UCF to Athens with her.

Another who played for her two years ago on the AAC regular season and tournament champions is a major addition this year for Abrahamson-Henderson’s second Georgia season.

Destiny Thomas, a 6-foot-2, forward, led UCF last year in scoring (10.7 points) and rebounding (11.0) and she’ll play her final college season under the coach she was with her first three seasons.

“Her specific major we didn’t have at Georgia so she really wanted to finish that up,” Abrahamson-Henderson said last week at the SEC spring meetings in Miramar Beach, Fla. “I’m really proud of her for doing that. Her last year she was deciding whether to go in the work force, stay there or come. We just got really blessed with that.”

Guard Diamond Battles and forward Brittney Smith, Georgia’s top two scorers last season finished their college careers as did guard Alisha Lewis, the team’s leader in assists. All transferred from UCF before last season.

Thomas, who majored in architecture at UCF, is from Forest Park High in Atlanta. She’s in the top 10 in UCF history in blocks and rebounds.

“That brings the culture back,” Abrhamson-Henderson said. “Destiny knows our system.”

More: How Katie Abrahamson-Henderson's 'reload' has UGA basketball in NCAA tournament in year one

Four UCF 2022 signees that also followed Abrahamson-Henderson to Georgia now have a year with her at Georgia. Fatima Diakhaté and Stefanie Ingram redshirted, Amiya Evans played 12 games and Savannah Henderson, the coach’s daughter, played in just four games before injury sidelined her.

Georgia returns nine players from last season's team that went 22-12 and reached the NCAA tournament second round, led by top rebounder and third leading scorer Javyn Nicholson.

“We don’t have to fill that many holes,” said Abrahamson-Henderson who did not lose a single player to transfer.

There are three new transfer additions in all, including Asia Avinger from San Diego State and Taniyah Thompson from Penn State. Miyah Verse, a four-star forward from Arizona, is the lone freshman signee.

Avinger was an All-Mountain West guard who averaged 11.6 points and 4.2 assists per game last season. Thompson averaged 7.8 points and 1.9 rebounds a game last season after transferring from East Carolina.

For what it’s worth, Georgia isn’t one of seven SEC teams in an early bracket projection for the 2024 NCAA tournament.

Defending champion LSU, powerhouse South Carolina, Tennessee and Ole Miss lead the conference’s top contenders.

Georgia took LSU to overtime in Baton Rouge last season and hung with NCAA tournament finalist Iowa before dropping a 74-66 decision in Iowa City in a second-round game.

Under Abrahamson-Henderson, Georgia won the most games in five years and knocked off a Power Five team (Florida State) in the NCAA tournament for the first time in 10 years.

The women’s basketball budget passed for fiscal year 2024 is growing from $3.90 million to $4.26 million, according to date provided to the athletic board at its meeting last month. Recruiting and coaches travel is increasing from $300,000 to $392,000.

“I’ve coached in a lot of different leagues and our coaches are phenomenal, the players are phenomenal,” Abrahamson-Henderson said. “Now we’re going to have two new teams coming in (Oklahoma and Texas in 2024-2025). All the coaches are really good. I think every conference I’ve been in there’s always the best teams in the league, but I think in our league, the SEC, at any time, anybody can be really good. We got seven teams in last year, and hopefully we can get more teams in.”

Georgia is still finalizing its nonconference schedule. It will play at a tournament Nov. 20-22 in Nassau, Bahamas that includes Oklahoma State, Purdue, Southern Cal, East Carolina and Seton Hall. Abrahamson-Henderson didn’t know the specific matchups yet.

“I’m excited about that,” she said. “Those are good NET teams to play.”

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia women's basketball again will count on UCF transfer