Women’s Basketball: Dani Carnegie commits to the Hawkeyes

Jan 11, 2026; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; Georgia Bulldogs guard Dani Carnegie (3) drives around South Carolina Gamecocks guard Raven Johnson (25) in the second half at Colonial Life Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Jan Jensen and the Iowa Hawkeyes have landed their first commitment of the offseason with a huge get: former Georgia and Georgia Tech guard Dani Carnegie, who comes to Iowa with two years of eligibility remaining.

Carnegie visited Iowa City on April 10 and announced the decision tonight on social media:

The signing will reunite Carnegie with her former Georgia Tech teammate Chit-Chat Wright and former Georgia Tech assistant coach LaSondra Barrett (who continues to pay dividends for Iowa since joining the coaching staff last year). That chemistry alone makes this a big deal for Iowa, but Carnegie’s stats are even better: she earned first-team All-SEC honors as a sophomore to the tune of 17.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game.

With the departure of Taylor Stremlow to graduation and Addie Deal to the transfer portal, Carnegie figures to slide right into Iowa’s starting lineup next to Wright as the team’s starting shooting guard. I expect we’ll see her play some point as well, but Iowa will almost certainly be grabbing another backup guard to give Wright opportunities to rest.

Carnegie should provide a much needed offensive boost to a Hawkeye team that simply couldn’t make shots in the biggest moments of the year, which resulted in an unexpected early exit from the NCAA Tournament; she scored 20 points in 13 games for Georgia this season and also tallied three double-doubles.

Don’t expect this to be the only addition Iowa makes to its roster this offseason. Between incoming forward McKenna Woliczko being the lone member of the 2026 recruiting class and departures from Deal, Emely Rodriguez, Teagan Mallegni, Callie Levin and Kennise Johnson, Iowa needs some role players to flesh out the roster.

Regardless, this is a huge get for Jensen, Barrett and the Iowa program. While obviously the roster will flesh out, hopefully Carnegie is one of many pieces that will improve a roster that barely went 7 players deep in March. Iowa has the roster opening and runnings now to add key pieces to make deep runs going forward — let’s hope that ends up actually being the case.

GO HAWKS!