Lady Vols basketball is losing another piece of its vaunted freshman class to the transfer portal. Lauren Hurst revealed her intention to leave the program on Thursday, according to a report from VolQuest.
Hurst is the second freshman to announce their intention to transfer. She joins Deniya Prawl in the group, he announced her departure on Monday. Mia and Mya Pauldo and Jaida Civil remain on the roster at this point, though.
Hurst was a four-star recruit and top-50 prospect out of high school. ESPNW ranked her as the No. 45 player in the class and No. 9 wing for the 2026 class. She is from Cleveland, Tennessee, just a drive from UT’s campus.
This season, Hurst didn’t crack the rotation for many minutes early, but was a factor down the stretch. She averaged 2.2 points per game on 48.8% shooting from the field and 41.4% on threes. She also averaged 1.6 rebounds and 0.7 assists per game in 24 appearances and one start.
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Hurst had the best game of her freshman season at Ole Miss. Despite the loss, she posted a career-high 16 points, nine rebounds and two steals in the game. This included four makes from three.
The 6-foot-3 forward is a two-sport star, as well. She also committed to play volleyball at Tennessee, and at the time of her commitment, had the plan to play both sports at UT. Hurst is also the younger sister of Vols basketball guard Grant Hurst.
This season, Tennessee finished 16-14 (8-8 SEC). The Lady Vols were the 6-seed in the SEC Tournament, but lost to Alabama in the second round. They earned a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament, but lost to NC State in the Round of 64 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Hurst is the fourth player to enter the transfer portal, joining Prawl, Alyssa Latham and Kaniya Boyd.
2 Responses
I would like to know the exact reason these 4 are leaving…playing time, record, or coaching by Kim.
Coach Kim made the mistake of recruiting and bringing in a few players that fooled her big time into thinking they could be coached and would hustle and play her style of bball. Those players shut down the other players and clearly started playing to loose when coach Kim started the difficult part of coaching and getting after them. Unfortunately she had to many on the team to right the ship. No coach can win when there are 3-4 main players band together to intentionally loose to get back at a strict coach. She has to make sure to clean house and (do not) let any of those players return and go after coachable players. The bad apples will ruin the barrel. Get rid of them. You can do this and thrive again!!