WBB: third portal commit, and second of the week, chooses Wisconsin
Destiny Howell is a grad transfer guard who last played at Howard.
Folks, Robin Pingeton and the Badgers are on a bit of a hot streak in the transfer portal. After securing the commitment of post player Gift Uchenna on Wednesday it was announced (on her Instagram page Thursday) that guard Destiny Howell had ALSO committed to UW.
Howell, who has a medical redshirt year due to missing the 2023-24 season with a torn ACL, entered the portal on March 25 and is now a Badger. When she committed to Howard, head coach Ty Grace said “Destiny is a big versatile wing, who can shoot the three and put it on the deck as well. Her versatility will create opportunities for us on both ends of the floor. She's a natural leader.”
"I'm super excited to be a Badger and bring my New York swag and style of play to Wisconsin! Let's go!" said Howell. Let’s take a look at what else the veteran guard will bring to Madison this upcoming season!
Destiny Howell Fast Facts
Height: 6-foot-0
Position: guard
Eligibility: one year remaining
Previous School: Howard
Hometown: Queens, N.Y.
2024-25 Highlights: First Team All-MEAC
2022-23 Highlights: MEAC Player of the Year; HBCU Co-Player of the Year; First Team All-MEAC; MEAC All-Tournament Team
2021-22 Highlights: MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player; MEAC All-Tournament Team; Second Team All-MEAC
Destiny Howell Fast Stats
Career College Stats (four seasons)
GP/GS: 108/93
MPG: 27.0
PPG: 13.5
RPG: 3.3
APG: 1.7
SPG: 1.1
BPG: 0.5
TOPG: 2.8
FG: 515-of-1,409 (36.6%)
3P: 232-of-715 (32.4%)
FT: 199-of-246 (80.9%)
Destiny Howell Scouting Report
A 30,000 foot view comparison if you don’t want to read more than one sentence? Julia Pospisilova with better ball handling. But you don’t subscribe to a niche women’s basketball newsletter for that! You want to get in the weeds!
Howell is a dynamic, bucket-getting guard who comes to Madison with one season of eligibility remaining. Standing at an even 6-foot-0, Howell possesses good size for the wing position and can even substitute as the lead ball handler for Wisconsin in a pinch.
Coming to UW after five years (four seasons) with the Howard Bison, Howell’s CV is impressive. She was the MEAC Player of the Year as a junior (2022-23) and was named to the MEAC All-Tournament Team twice, showing that when the lights are brightest she plays some of her best ball.
While some might consider an NYC native having the Golden State Warriors as her favorite team (according to her Howard bio) shows poor judgement, my children are growing up in Minnesota and have the Green Bay Packers as their favorite team so I’m willing to give Howell a pass on that one.
You may already be familiar with my predilection for Big City Guards and, folks, the cities don’t get much bigger than the Big Apple. While I am hesitant to use the word “swag” in any context as a 39-year old person, Howell definitely plays with it and Wisconsin will benefit from her having it.
Perhaps due to her Warriors fandom, Howell is a three-point gunner. She has never been lower than the 75th percentile nationally in terms of three-point rate in her career and never below the 78th percentile in “percentage of her points that came from threes.” While watching her highlights embedded above, I came away with a number of positive notes:
hair trigger release
isn’t bothered by closeouts
high release
unlimited range
We can also look at more of her stats to see that she enjoys bombing away from deep. Over her past three seasons she has ranked in the 99th percentile each time in three-point attempts and no lower than the 95th percentile in three-point makes. Her percentages have improved in the second half of her career too.
2020-21: 28.6%
2021-22: 27.8%
2022-23: 35.6%
2024-25: 34.3%
What is also nice to see is that she shot 87.7% (career-high) from the free throw line last year on her most career attempts. As we have discussed, good free throw shooting is the best indicator of good three-point shooting and Howell’s has never shot below 74.6% from the charity stripe for a season.
There weren’t a ton of ball-handling or passing highlights for Howell, but she appears to be an, at worst, competent dribbler and her assist rate was 20.4% (86th percentile) last year and 20.1% (85th percentile) the season before. On defense, her steal numbers are above average and her block numbers are quite good for a guard. I think a lot of that has to do with how long her arms are and that will hopefully translate to the Big Ten.
Now, I do have a few concerns with Howell’s game as well. Her turnover numbers have been bad and, while her turnover rates have been better, there is still some concern there especially since she wasn’t the primary ball-handler for Howard.
Her efficiency numbers? Also bad. HOWEVAH, her usage was extremely high, never falling below the 95th percentile nationally in her past three seasons. Like a lot of players that “up transfer” she could definitely see an uptick in efficiency as her usage goes down. It would also help if she made more shots at the rim, an area at which she only shot 50.7% last season. Per Torvik, she attempted 164 “far twos” last year compared with only 73 “close twos.” She made 29.9% of those far ones and, quite frankly, should try and have those two “attempt” numbers flipped this year.
Of the three transfers Wisconsin has brought in so far this off-season, Howell is the one I am most excited to see out on the court. She is clearly the most proven of the three at the NCAA level and appears to have the potential to go off for 30 points on any given night. Once again, what Robin Pingeton has done in the transfer portal so far has been great. Excited to see who is next.