Penn State transfer Gracie Merkle commits to Minnesota
The Minnesota Gophers Women’s Basketball transfer portal additions are officially complete. What seemingly started slow and had fans on red alert, concludes with Dawn Plitzuweit landing a major name. Penn State transfer center Gracie Merkle is heading to the Minnesota Gophers.
What to Know About Gracie Merkle
Gracie Merkle is a 6-foot-6 true center who has been an absolute force in the Big Ten over the last two seasons. She was reportedly down to Minnesota and Washington for her next basketball destination.
A native of Mount Washington, Kentucky, Merkle spent her first two years of collegiate basketball at Bellarmine, where she initially redshirted. As a redshirt freshman in the ASUN, Gracie averaged 15.1 points and 11 rebounds per game. That production immediately carried over to the Big Ten with Penn State, where she averaged 15.5 points and 8.6 rebounds per game as a sophomore.
Last season as a junior, Merkle took it up a notch, putting up 19.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. She started 50 of 54 total games for the Penn State Lady Lions. She earned Big Ten Third Team honors from the media for her efforts.
She also led the entire country in field goal percentage with 72.5% from the field. That made Gracie the only player to shoot better than 70% in the NCAA. She recorded nine double-doubles on the year and had 10 games with 20 or more points, including a season-high 39 points against Princeton, a 26-4 NCAA Tournament team.
What Does Gracie Merkle Bring to the Minnesota Gophers
This addition rounds out a transfer portal class that gives Minnesota a chance to get back to the Sweet Sixteen and potentially even further. She fills the important role the three-year starter Sophie Hart left behind. I think that her game is actually very comparable to Hart’s in general, possibly a bit more elevated as a post scorer. They move similarly, they have similar strengths, and their post presence is what gives Minnesota’s inside-to-outside game life. With a core of eight players returning to Minnesota plus three quality transfer portal additions, it ensures that you don’t have to rush any of the four incoming freshmen into a role if they aren’t ready.
Offensively, we’ve already discussed her high output and quality in the post. That said, her rebounding presence is what really can elevate the Gophers’ ceiling. In her two years at Penn State, she has had 22 games with double-digit rebounds. That includes one 20-rebound outing vs. Purdue last year. On the other end of the court, Gracie brings great interior presence, averaging over one block per game for each of the last three seasons. Her average for blocks per game has actually gone down over each of the last three seasons. I think the Minnesota coaching staff will be aiming to get her locked in defensively and get her closer to the 2.3 blocks per game she had as a redshirt freshman.
If that defensive upside is attained, then this Minnesota Gophers basketball ceiling is extremely high heading into the 2026–27 season.
This will be Gracie’s final season of eligibility to play with the Minnesota Gophers.
You’d have to imagine that Gracie Merkle would slot right into the starting lineup for the Gophers alongside Mara Braun, Tori McKinney, and Grace Grocholski. My intuition says the UCF addition Leah Harmon would get the first shot at the final remaining starter spot, but we will talk rotation thoughts next week after I dive in a bit deeper on the incoming freshmen.
