The college sports’ landscape has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. More and more athletes are taking advantage of the transfer portal to find better opportunities at a different school.

At Arizona State, the women’s basketball team has benefited from and helped shape transfers for decades. Some of the most impactful players on head coach Charli Turner Thorne’s teams over the years have been players who began at other institutions before coming to ASU where they have shined.

Well-before the NCAA transfer portal came about in 2018, multiple transfers helped the Sun Devils on numerous great teams under Turner Thorne.

After transferring from Old Dominion in 1999, Amanda Levens became a two-time first team All-Pac-10 player for the Sun Devils. She was good enough at ASU to attend training camp with the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting.

In the late 1990s, Melody Johnson was a solid reserve at Colorado. She transferred to ASU and became one of the best players in school history. She finished her career as the program’s all-time leader in field goal percentage (56.2 percent) and she helped lead the Sun Devils to the 2002 Pac-10 tournament title.

Katie Hempen, who starred at ASU from 2013-2016, started her career at Southern Illinois University. In her lone season as a Saluki, she averaged a solid 9.7 points per game but at ASU she finished as the program’s leader in career 3-point field goals (185). She was All-Pac-12 as a senior in 2015-16 and All-Pac-12 honorable mention as a junior in 2014-15.

Turner Thorne discussed why she thinks she has been able to elevate players who transfer to ASU from other schools.

“I think it’s a combination of us being pretty good at developing our talent, or being very good at it, and them wanting it.” Turner Thorne stated. “... We’ve been very blessed in that way. And I think we’re also very selective. Like we just don’t take anybody. We’re going to take kids that we think will fit our culture.”

Turner Thorne also discussed the off the court aspect of her program and how it sets up players for growth on and off the playing surface.

“We have a long-time life coach that does team sessions, individual sessions with our players to help them with their energy management, emotional management, time management …,” Turner Thorne explained. “We always believe if you’re in a good place as a person, basketball takes care of itself.”

In more recent years, Turner Thorne has been able to land transfers such as Courtney (Ekmark) Pecor, Ja’Tavia Tapley and Mael Gilles. All three players improved tremendously after arriving in Tempe.

Pecor went from being a reserve seeing little playing time at UConn to being a two-year starter at ASU. She led the Sun Devils in 3-pointers in 2017-18 and 2018-19 and was named to the All-Pac-12 honorable mention team in 2018-19.

Tapley had an extraordinary season in her lone year in Tempe in 2019-20. She led ASU with 11.6 PPG and 6.2 rebounds per game. She was named U.S. Basketball Writers Association Ann Meyers Drysdale Women’s Player of the Week after she helped ASU to back-to-back wins over top-five teams in early 2020. The success she found at ASU was a stark contrast to her time at USC. As a Trojan, she saw playing time but in her best season she averaged just six points per contest.

This season, Gilles has been the transfer who has brought her play to another level. After transferring to ASU from Rutgers, she is averaging a career-high 9.7 PPG and a career-high 7.7 RPG. She was named Pac-12 All-Defense honorable mention.

Gilles discussed what she thinks ASU has done to elevate her play since transferring to Tempe.

“They really helped me (see) the game and (know) personnel and which angles to make some passes,” Gilles said. … Really did a great job with watching film with my coaches, especially coach Jackie (Moore). How can I be better?”

Gilles said she believes the resources the Sun Devils provide off the court have helped become a better player on the court.

“We have a lot of vocab words that we learn and own to it as a team, like gratitude,” Gilles stated. “Stuff that sometimes we take for granted. Oh we don’t think about it because we (are) going through the motions. (Turner Thorne) has definitely helped me be more aware of the way I carry myself, the way I talk and the way I interact with my teammates.”

Gilles and the Sun Devils begin play in the Pac-12 tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday. ASU is the No. 9 seed and will play the No. 8 seed Oregon State at 3:30 p.m. MST.