Top recruit Betts in portal after 1 year at Stanford

Lauren Betts, the top-ranked women’s basketball recruit from the class of 2022 according to HoopGurlz, is in the transfer portal after spending one season with Stanford.

Betts, a 6-foot-7 center from Grandview High School in Colorado, committed to the Cardinal in January 2021, a couple of months before Stanford won the national championship.

Betts picked Stanford over Notre Dame, Oregon, UCLA, UConn and South Carolina. At the time, she told Premier Basketball’s Shane Laflin, “I chose Stanford not only for the great basketball program, but for the great academics. As far as location, they are just perfect.”

Betts played in 33 of the Cardinal’s 35 games in 2022-23, averaging 5.9 points and 3.5 rebounds in 9.7 minutes per game. Her season high in points (18) came in the second game of the season, and she scored in double figures nine other times.

Stanford, which finished last season 29-6 overall and 15-3 in the Pac-12, tied for the conference regular-season championship, but then lost in the league tournament semifinals to UCLA.

The Cardinal were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, but lost 54-49 to No. 8 Ole Miss in the second round. Betts played 8 minutes and did not score in that game.

Also in the portal from Stanford is Agnes Emma-Nnopu, who played the past three seasons for the Cardinal. The junior guard from Australia started 11 games in 2022-23, averaging 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game.