After the introduction of Joni Taylor as the new head coach for Texas A&M women’s basketball in 2022, expectations are high for the program.
Taylor’s previous team, the Georgia Bulldogs, finished with its fourth 20-win season in her seven-year tenure, despite missing the NCAA Tournament; meanwhile, the Aggies saw just their second season below .500 in coach Gary Blair’s illustrious career.
But with the move from Athens, Ga., to College Station for Taylor, the tailwinds of her journey see others flying with her. On Wednesday, April 20, the No. 3 recruit in the nation, according to ESPN’s rankings, committed to A&M to pair up alongside Taylor.
Janiah Barker, a 5-star recruit and a 6-foot-2 forward from Montverde Academy in Florida, announced her new destination after having been previously committed to Georgia. She is following Taylor and becoming one of the highest-rated recruits in A&M women’s basketball history.
The day before Barker’s announcement, though, another member of the Bulldogs’ 2022 recruiting class had flipped to the Aggies — Sydney Bowles, a 4-star, 6-foot-1 wing from Woodward Academy in Georgia. She was the recipient of Miss Georgia Basketball, but announced on her Instagram on April 19 that she would be taking her talents to Aggieland.
Barker and Bowles were the only two members in the well of Georgia’s recruiting class, which would be empty if not for the Bulldogs’ new head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson poaching every recruit from her previous school as well, the University of Central Florida.
Beyond the high school Class of 2022, the Aggies acquired a third athlete from Georgia’s grasp. Tineya Hylton, a 5-foot-7 guard from Toronto, was a member of the Bulldogs’ 2022 recruiting class before committing and reclassifying, joining the team as a freshman in November of 2021. She was ineligible until the spring, appearing in eight games, including one against the Aggies on Sunday, Feb. 27, when she posted a career-high three rebounds in just four minutes of action.
She announced her intentions to join Taylor’s new team on April 14 on Twitter. A&M’s three new recruits, as well as coach Taylor and two of her assistant coaches from Georgia, Chelsea Newton and Robert Mosley, make up a new-look squad for the Aggies with the departures of Kayla Wells, a new member of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, Destiny Pitts and Qadashah Hoppie.