The 2026–27 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball team will represent Northwestern University during the 2026–27 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Wildcats will be led by first-year head coach Carla Berube and will play their home games at the Welsh–Ryan Arena in Evanston, Illinois as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
Previous season
The Wildcats finished the 2025–26 season 8–21 overall and 2–16 in Big Ten play, to finish in seventeenth place in the conference. They failed to qualify for the Big Ten tournament for the fourth straight season.
On March 24, 2025, after the conclusion of the 2024–25 season, head coach Joe McKeown announced that he would be retiring following the 2025–26 season after his then-upcoming 18th year with the program and his 40th as a head coach. At the time of his retirement, he was the winningest active head coach in the Big Ten, posting 276 wins.
On March 25, 2026, a year after the announcement and following the end of the 2025–26 season, Northwestern athletics Vice President Mark Jackson announced that Princeton women's basketball head coach Carla Berube had been named as the program's new head coach.
Offseason Departures Northwestern departures Tate Lash 4 Guard 5'9" Graduate student Buford, GA Graduated Caroline Lau 7 Guard 5'9" Senior Westport, CT Graduated Angelina Hodgens 11 Guard 5'10" Freshman Staten Island, NY Transferred to Sacred Heart Sammy White 14 Guard 5'6" Graduate student Timonium, MD Graduated Grace Sullivan 22 Forward 6'4" Senior Antioch, IL Graduated; went undrafted in the 2026 WNBA draft, signed a training camp contract with the Dallas Wings Tayla Thomas 23 Forward 6'3" Sophomore East Orange, NJ Transferred to Minnesota DaiJa Turner 24 Forward 6'3" Graduate student Fayetteville, NC Graduated Lauren Trumpy 25 Forward 6'5" Senior Camp Hill, PA Graduated
Incoming transfers Northwestern incoming transfers Lexi Blue 4 Guard 6'2" Junior Orlando, FL Kentucky Lily Carmody 5 Guard 5'11" Junior Melbourne, Australia Boston College Camdyn Nelson 13 Guard 5'8" Sophomore Greenwich, CT Syracuse Jasmyn Cooper-Derba 30 Forward 6'1" Sophomore North Easton, MA Syracuse
Recruiting class
Roster
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=""| Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=""| Regular season
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References