Adia Barnes added another player to next year's squad just minutes before the WNBA Draft started Monday night as Sahnya Jah posted her commitment photo on her Instagram account.
Jah, who just had her freshman year at South Carolina joins Paulina Paris, the former North Carolina player, as the two transfer additions to the Wildcats so far.
Jah, a 6-0 forward from the Class of 2023, was ranked No. 40 in ESPN Hoopgurlz and was a four-star prospect out of Alexandria, Virginia. At the time, the evaluation said, Jah was “explosively athletic perimeter performer, drives, attacks defense, makes plays at the rim; quick leaper, active on the glass, finds the charity stripe; emerging perimeter game; versatile with off-the-charts potential.”
Barnes hopes to tap into that potential, despite Jah playing in only 16 games last season after being suspended from the team for “conduct detrimental to the team.”
Sahnya Jah, center, celebrates on the bench in the second half of South Carolina's win at LSU in January. Jah will play for the Arizona Wildcats in 2024-25.
She averaged 3.1 points and 2.0 rebounds per game. She collected 10 steals and 10 assists.
Jah isn’t the first highly-touted recruit to leave the Gamecocks after her freshman season. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley typically has her freshman play behind the upperclassmen and wait their turn to start and earn minutes. Two years ago, Saniya Rivers transferred to N.C. State, after playing sparingly as a rookie (averaging 2.3 points and 1.6 rebounds). Now, she is an integral part of N.C. State’s run to the Final Four. A year ago, she was the ACC’s Sixth player of the year; this year earned an AP All-America honorable mention nod and averaged 12.7 points per game.
Jah hit the game-winning 3-pointer in the 2023 GEICO High School National Championship for Florida’s Montverde Academy. She scored 15 of her 20 points in the second half of the game.
With the additions of Paris and Jah, the Wildcats are starting to fill some of the void that will be felt as Helena Pueyo and Esmery Martinez are moving onto playing professionally. Barnes said that she wanted to add three or four players from the transfer portal, so there is more to come.
Arizona women's basketball coach Adia Barnes and players Skylar Jones and Helena Pueyo discuss the Wildcats' 74-69 NCAA Tournament loss to Syracuse on March 23, 2024. (Courtesy Arizona Athletics/NCAA)
