Clemson Women’s Basketball Makes Huge Addition in Transfer Portal
The Clemson Tigers women’s basketball team landed one of the most prolific scorers in the Southern Conference for next season.
Rachael Rose may not be as well-known as high major players, but the former Wofford star will have a chance to make an impact on that stage next season.
Rose announced on her Instagram her commitment to the Clemson Tigers earlier this week, making her one of the biggest additions through the transfer portal of coach Shawn Poppie’s year-plus tenure.
She is also a player that Poppie is familiar with. Before he took over at Clemson, Poppie was the head coach at Chattanooga. The Mocs played Rose’s Wofford Terriers in Southern Conference action and during Poppie’s last two seasons there Rose was one of the best players in the conference.
During that 2023-24 campaign, she led the SoCon in scoring (22.3 points per game), points (670), assist/turnover ratio (2.26), assists (163), assists per game (5.4), free throw percentage (87.0) and steals per game (2.13). She was also seventh in the country in scoring average.
During that campaign, she also set single-season program records for points, free throw percentage and assists. She was also a 40% 3-point shooter. At season’s end, she was named SoCon player of the year for the second straight season.
Last season she only played six games with the Terriers due to injury. She averaged 12.5 points and 4.3 rebounds. Her two best games of the season were against high-major programs — 23 points against Duke and 20 points against Clemson’s rival South Carolina.
In 2022-23, she led the Terriers to the regular season Southern Conference championship, which was the first for Wofford in any women’s sport.
That season she led the Terriers in scoring (550 points, 17.2 per game), shooting percentage (.513), three-point percentage (.413), rebounding (182, 5.7 per game), assists (133, 4.2 per game) and minutes (1,097, 34:16 per game). She helped the Terriers to an invitation in the WNIT.
Even though she was born in Scranton, Penn., she knows the state. She started her college career with USC Upstate, where she averaged 13.1 points on 54.6 percent shooting. She was named the Big South freshman of the year.
She could be a huge piece of the puzzle for Poppie as he enters his second season hoping to get the Tigers closer to NCAA Tournament contention.
The Tigers went 14-17 overall and 6-12 in ACC action in his first season. The campaign ended with a second-round loss in the ACC Tournament. Poppie had hoped the Tigers might manage an invitation to the WBIT or the WNIT, but an invitation was not extended.
