According to Tennessee Athletics, Tennessee women’s basketball head coach Kim Caldwell announced Tuesday that she has received an SEC Grant-in-Aid (GIA) and Institutional Financial Aid Agreement (IFAA) from transfer Rapuluchi Ayodele.
The 6-foot-1 forward, who played in all 32 games and started 15 last season at Pitt, is a native of Móstoles, Spain, and graduate of IES Manuela Malasaña High School. Ayodele will compete as a fifth-year during the 2024-25 campaign and is the fifth player to sign out of the transfer portal with the Lady Vols under the leadership of first-year head coach Kim Caldwell. She joins 6-2 sophomore forward Alyssa Latham (Syracuse), 6-4 junior forward Lazaria Spearman (Miami), 5-7 senior guard Samara Spencer (Arkansas) and 5-11 junior guard Ruby Whitehorn (Clemson).
In her only season with the Panthers, Ayodele produced 4.7 points and 6.2 rebounds while shooting 46.4 percent from the field during an average of 17.7 minutes per contest. Prior to coming to the United States, Ayodele played for CB Pozuelo, a club in Spain’s fourth tier “Liga EBA” in 2019-20. She appeared in 17 games, averaging 6.1 points and 5.1 rebounds as the team’s third-leading scorer and top rebounder while averaging 15.6 minutes per outing.