Kate Koval played 35 games for LSU last season, started 17 of them and averaged 8.3 points and 6.3 rebounds on 56% shooting. She was penciled in as Kim Mulkey’s starting centre for 2026-27. Instead, the 6ft 5in Ukrainian walked away on 24 August, and on 12 September she signed with Baylor after the NCAA granted her a legislative relief waiver to enter a transfer portal that had closed in April.
The reason she left was not a depth chart or playing time. It was that LSU had signed Anna Minaeva, a 6ft 5in Russian post player who arrived from professional club MBA Moscow.
A waiver the NCAA rarely grants
The mechanics matter here. College basketball’s transfer window shut in April, months before Koval learned of Minaeva’s signing. Under normal rules, a player who leaves a programme in late August has no route to another roster until the following spring — a lost season for a 20-year-old already two years into her college career.
Koval made her case publicly in an Instagram statement on 2 September, after Mulkey had initially said only that she was leaving for “personal reasons” and that the programme would respect her privacy.
“I hope the NCAA recognizes the circumstances surrounding my situation and understands the seriousness and deep nature of this matter,” Koval wrote.
The NCAA agreed. The waiver, approved in the week before her commitment, cleared her to sign immediately and play this season. It is a narrow, fact-specific ruling rather than a new precedent, but it establishes that geopolitical circumstance — not just injury, hardship or coaching change — can qualify as grounds for out-of-window relief.
‘This war is not distant or abstract’
Koval was born in Kyiv on 13 January 2006 and moved to Long Island Lutheran High School in New York in 2021, months before Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Her father serves in the Ukrainian military.
“For me, this war is not distant or abstract,” she wrote. “People close to me have been killed and wounded in Russian attacks.” She has also said that places where she grew up and first began playing basketball have been destroyed by missile strikes.
Her statement was careful to separate the institution from the individual: “While I understand and respect that roster decisions are a part of college basketball, I have to remain true to myself, my values and my country.” She framed the decision as one of timing and proximity rather than blame — that the “deeply personal effect” of the situation on her family “ultimately made me question whether LSU remained the right place for me.”
That distinction is worth holding onto. Minaeva is 17. She has broken no rule and is subject to none of the federation-level bans that removed Russian teams from FIBA and Olympic competition after 2022 — those sanctions apply to national programmes and, in some sports, to individual flags, not to a teenager signing a US college scholarship. The NCAA has no restriction on Russian recruits, and dozens compete across American college sport. What Koval objected to was being asked to share a locker room while her father is at the front.
What Baylor gets, and what comes next
Nicki Collen’s timing could hardly be better. Baylor went 25-9 last season and lost four starters to graduation, returning only senior guard Taliah Scott, who averaged 19.7 points. A starting-calibre centre arriving in September, after the recruiting cycle has effectively ended, is the kind of roster repair that usually isn’t available at any price.
“We are beyond excited to welcome Kate to Baylor,” Collen said. “She has played at an elite level over the last two seasons and has shown the consistent ability to score around the rim and protect the rim.”
The pedigree is real. Koval was ESPN HoopGurlz’s No. 5 overall recruit and No. 1 post player in the class of 2024, a McDonald’s All-American and Miss New York Basketball. She made the ACC All-Freshman team at Notre Dame in 2024-25, averaging 5.3 points and 4.7 rebounds, before transferring to LSU in April 2025 and improving across the board.
There is an obvious subplot in Waco: Baylor is the programme Mulkey built into a national power, winning titles in 2005, 2012 and 2019 before leaving for Baton Rouge in 2021. Koval has now left Mulkey to join it.
- 2024-25 (Notre Dame): 32 games, 10 starts, 5.3 pts, 4.7 reb
- 2025-26 (LSU): 35 games, 17 starts, 8.3 pts, 6.3 reb, 1.2 blk, 56% FG
She is expected to start at centre when Baylor opens its season.
**Sources:** [ESPN — Koval to Baylor](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/49915939/kate-koval-baylor-ukrainian-left-lsu-russian-recruit) · [CBS Sports — NCAA grants waiver](https://www.cbssports.com/womens-college-basketball/news/ncaa-grants-ukrainian-kate-koval-transfer-waiver-lsu/) · [ESPN — Koval details LSU exit](https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/49808403/koval-details-lsu-exit-adding-russian-player-deeply-personal) · [NBC News](https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/basketball/ukraine-kate-koval-baylor-lsu-exit-russian-player-rcna597432) · [Wikipedia — Kate Koval](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Koval)
Article is 762 words. Every quote, stat and date above is sourced; the only thing I added as context rather than reporting is the note that FIBA/Olympic bans apply to national federations rather than to individual college recruits, which is background, not something any of the source pieces stated about Minaeva.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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