Minnesota went into the transfer portal looking for a guard who could help replace the ball-handling and pace Amaya Battle and Brylee Glenn left behind. The Gophers found one in Leah Harmon, a UCF transfer who arrives with two seasons of college experience and the kind of quickness Minnesota’s roster may need.
Harmon’s path to Minneapolis started with a big-time recruiting pedigree. Out of high school, she committed to Miami (FL) as a consensus top 10 PG nationally in the 2024 recruiting class. Her first college season was a reserve role with the Hurricanes, where she played in 23 games and averaged 10.2 minutes and 2.8 points per game.
After that freshman year, Harmon moved on to UCF and immediately took on a much larger responsibility. She became the Knights’ leading scorer over the first 20 games of her sophomore season, putting up 15.7 points per game before an injury ended her year early. She entered the portal again and committed to Minnesota on April 16th.
What stands out most about Harmon’s sophomore season is how much UCF leaned on her. The Knights finished tied for 14th in the Big 12, and Harmon carried a 28.3% usage rate as the centerpiece of the offense. Minnesota’s top offensive loads last season belonged to Sophie Hart at 23.9% and Amaya Battle at 23.2%, so this is a player used to having the offense run through her.
She also had to do it with limited help around her. Outside of her own work from deep, UCF shot just 22.1% from three-point range as a team.
That made life easier for defenses, which could crowd the paint and focus on Harmon without much fear of getting burned elsewhere. The result was a 46.9% effective field goal percentage and 3.2 turnovers per game.
Even in a tough team environment, Harmon had some huge scoring nights. She scored 38 points in a loss to Kansas, a team that also beat Minnesota, and added 29 points in an overtime loss to Cincinnati.
Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit pointed to Harmon’s ability to work without the ball as a useful fit for the Gophers’ style. On Minnesota’s positional versatility and Harmon playing off-ball at times, Plitzuweit said: "Yesterday in our workout, Leah Harmon, we were getting up and down the court, and someone else had the ball in her hands. I kept telling her, 'Sprint and get ahead of it.'
"And then, afterwards, 'This is a team that you don't have to get the ball in your hands to make something happen.' Because she's a good shooter too, so let someone else handle it, get ahead of it, let them create, and then once the ball is moved to you, now you can create not off the bounce, but you can create off of a pass, and that's a totally different way to create."
Plitzuweit also said Minnesota’s speed should be a strength this season. "I think our team speed is going to be...appears to be really good.
It may be a step up, although Brylee and Amaya had really good speed, and they've graduated. We brought in Leah, who has very good speed.
I think all four of our freshmen have really good speed, and in all reality, Tayla is fast. Tayla has really good speed."
That speed may be the most interesting part of Harmon’s fit. Minnesota has been a taller team under Plitzuweit, with only Brynn Senden under 5' 10" on last season’s roster. Harmon, like Senden, is 5' 6", and while she won’t bring length, she should bring a different kind of burst to the Gophers’ offense.
That matters because one of Minnesota’s recurring issues has been handling pressure. Over the past three years, the Gophers have had stretches where full-court pressure slowed the offense and turned games into survival mode. They improved as last season went on, but Harmon gives them another chance to clean that up.
Her 46.9% effective field goal percentage is not eye-popping, but it also came with an enormous offensive burden. With less pressure to create everything herself in Minnesota, that number could move in the right direction. And the Gophers are asking her to replace players who posted lower marks anyway, since Brylee Glenn finished at 43.9% and Amaya Battle at 40.0%.
The biggest adjustment for Harmon may be role-based, not skill-based. Minnesota does not need her to do everything.
It needs her to fit into a group that should shoot better around her, move the ball more cleanly, and let her use her speed in space. If that happens, her assist numbers could be the clearest sign that she’s settling into exactly what the Gophers brought her here to do.
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Minnesota Faces A Recruiting Crunch That Could Reshape The Entire Roster
Minnesotas womens basketball roster is already headed for a reset, and the timing makes the next recruiting cycle especially important. The Gophers are set to carry four seniors on the 2026-27 roster, while the current group is full at 15 players, so the staff is staring at a coming squeeze that will force some combination of recruiting wins and transfer-market flexibility to keep the roster balanced.
Two players are also in position to potentially use an extra year under the new eligibility rule, which adds another layer to an offseason that already has more questions than room. Depending on how those decisions shake out, Minnesota could be looking at anywhere from a couple of openings to several, and the way those spots are filled could shape not just next seasons depth chart but the broader direction of the program. [Read more 🡒]