Ashley Owusu, a former All-Big Ten player at Maryland, is in the transfer portal after playing one season at Virginia Tech, the program confirmed to ESPN on Tuesday.
Owusu, a McDonald's All-American and highly sought-after recruit out of high school, averaged 14.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 5.0 assists during her first three seasons at Maryland. While in College Park, she was named Big Ten tournament MVP in 2020 and 2021 and earned All-Big Ten honors all three years (first team in 2021, second team in 2020 and 2022).
Owusu also won the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, given to the nation's top shooting guard, in 2021, and was named an Associated Press third-team All-American in 2021, and an AP honorable mention All-American in 2022.
Her departure from Maryland following the 2021-22 season -- alongside a slew of other Terps -- was a bit surprising at the time, and she was expected to boost the Hokies, who fell in the first round of the 2022 NCAA tournament but were expected to be ACC contenders in 2022-23.
But Owusu saw a minimal role in Blacksburg, appearing in 17 games and averaging 5.1 points in 15.1 minutes. She was sidelined most of December and January with a broken pinkie, ultimately returning to the floor on Jan. 19. From there, she saw limited playing time and did not appear during Virginia Tech's postseason run, which featured the program's first ACC tournament crown and a trip to the Final Four, where the Hokies lost to eventual champion LSU.
There appeared to be a fraught relationship between Owusu and her teammates. Following Virginia Tech's loss to the Tigers in the national semifinal, guard Kayana Traylor responded to a tweet asking why Owusu wasn't on the bench after halftime with "hmm idk check the lsu bench," a tweet that was liked or retweeted by several other Hokies players.
The school said at the time that Owusu hadn't been feeling well and so did not return to the court after the break.
Owusu has a fifth year of collegiate eligibility remaining.