IU women’s basketball landed a commitment from USC transfer guard Malia Samuels on Wednesday afternoon.
Samuels is a 5-foot-6 guard from Seattle. She has played in 88 career games, all with USC, with 21 starts. She has a year of eligibility remaining.
An athletic, fast and physical guard nicknamed “Pit Bull,” Samuels has career shooting splits of 34.8% overall, 28.3% from three, and 69% from the free throw line. She has 90 career steals in 15.3 minutes per game.
As a junior in 2025-26, Samuels played in 30 games with 19 starts and averaged 23.8 minutes per contest. She averaged 3.4 points 2.4 assists, 2.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game. She had a four steal performance against Indiana.
In her 2024-25 sophomore season, Samuels appeared in all 35 games with one start. She averaged 2.3 points, 1.3 assists and 1.2 rebounds per game.
As a freshman in 2023-24, Samuels appeared in 23 games with one start. She averaged 1.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.6 steals per game.
Samuels was named the 2021-22 3A Washington State Player of the Year as a junior at Garfield High in Seattle, winning 3A State Championships in 2022 and 2023. She averaged 16.5 points, 6.3 assists, 6.1 steals and 3.4 rebounds per game.
Here is the IU women’s basketball offseason roster summary after the addition of Samuels:
RETURNING
- Lenee Beaumont
- Maya Makalusky
- Zania Socka-Nguemen
- Sydney Fenn
INCOMING TRANSFERS
- Alisa Williams, Iowa State
- Kenzie Hare, Iowa State
- Jess Petrie, Nebraska
- Malia Samuels, USC
INCOMING FRESHMEN
- Ashlinn James (top-100, 4-star)
- GiGi Battle (top-100, 4-star)
- Addison Nyemchek (top-100, 4-star)
- Zoe Jackson (Australia)
DEPARTING (ELIGIBILITY)
- Shay Ciezki
- Jerni Kiaku
DEPARTING (TRANSFERS)
- Nevaeh Caffey
- Edessa Noyan
- Chloe Spreen
- Phoenix Stotijn
- Faith Wiseman
- Jade Ondineme
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