This story has been updated to reflect Cameron Williams and Elise Stuck’s COVID-19 year of eligibility.
Just days after the Michigan women’s basketball team’s season ended, senior forwards Cameron Williams and Elise Stuck entered the transfer portal, according to the Next’s portal tracker. Both Williams and Stuck will be exercising their fifth year of eligibility granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic after graduating from Michigan and playing for four years for the Wolverines.
Both Williams and Stuck had statistically underwhelming seasons for the Wolverines, but provided critical veteran leadership and NCAA Tournament experience as two of the five rostered players who experienced Michigan’s Elite Eight run in 2022.
“The senior class is really special,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said Saturday. “First and foremost, the ones that have been with us for four years … came in during an interesting time. They supported each other. They rallied around, and they’ve just been phenomenal. They’re Michigan women. They represent what this program stands for, and they left it all with our team. So I’m really proud of them.”
Despite being a starter in every game last season and averaging 6.4 points and 3.8 rebounds, Williams lost her starting role December 10 against Illinois to sophomore forward Chyra Evans. While she started in brief stints later on, her playing time fluctuated greatly throughout the season as she averaged just 7.5 points and 4.6 rebounds.
However, her play in the post was an important asset for the Wolverines, and peaked as the season reached its end as she scored a career-high 23 points against Rutgers. Her production in the paint and ability to facilitate Michigan’s inside-out offense was critical in resume-boosting wins against then-No. 15 Ohio State and then-No. 12 Indiana.
Williams left everything on the court in her final minutes for Michigan, scoring a team-high 18 points in the Wolverines’ season-ending loss to Kansas despite fouling out in the closing minutes. Perhaps she knew then that those would be her final minutes on the court as a Wolverine, but now, that is certain.
Williams improved significantly year-over-year, but now Michigan will have to find another go-to player to account for her minutes in the paint, as she will be taking that relentless pursuit to another program.
Stuck was expected to have a larger role this year after standout performances in the Big Ten Tournament and first-round NCAA Tournament games, but largely took a backseat to freshman forward Taylor Woodson as the primary player off the bench as the season took its course. Earning three starts, Stuck averaged just 2 rebounds and 1.9 points per game, and her hustle off the bench provided a spark and temporary relief defensively for Michigan’s starters.
Both Cameron and Stuck both provided significant veteran leadership for Michigan in a year where experience was hard to come by and infused into the program via graduate transfers. So now, when the Wolverines were expected to return to their roots of player development with the No. 7-ranked recruiting class of five — highlighted by All-American guards Syla Swords and Olivia Olson — enrolling in the fall, that same player development will be even more critical.
When just eight players took the floor in the NCAA Tournament for the Wolverines — and only seven with meaningful minutes — there will still be a large lack of experience on the court. With Evans, junior guard Laila Phelia and junior guard Jordan Hobbs leading the way, Michigan will have even more of a new look next season.