Read Part 1 here.
Desiree Wooten Led a Big 12 Team in Scoring Off the Bench. Now She Wants Her Last Season to Be Her Best
The resume that does not match the starter column
In 2025-26, Wooten played 34 games and started seven. She still averaged 13.4 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.6 steals in 26.6 minutes. She shot 35.2 percent from three and 71.1 percent from the line. She scored in double figures in 28 games, including each of her last 17. She was named All-Big 12 Honorable Mention. Colorado went 22-12, 11-7 in the Big 12, and reached the NCAA Tournament.
The big nights were not empty calories. She dropped 24 on then-No. 19 Iowa State. She matched a career high with 25 at BYU, including four threes. She had 19 points, three threes, and six assists against No. 14 TCU. She put 21 on No. 20 Baylor in the Big 12 quarterfinals and 17 with seven rebounds against Illinois in the NCAA first round. Over three college seasons she has 153 steals.
That is a microwave who can also run an offense. Pierre called the passing “insanely well.” Moore called the assist-to-turnover profile and the steals part of an all-around game. The three-point clip (50 makes on 142 attempts last season) is the piece NC State needed after losing perimeter production in the portal.
The reason some fans may still shrug is the same reason Pierre named it out loud: the transfers. North Texas to Colorado to NC State reads, to a casual roster-scanner, like a player still looking for a home. To the people who watch her every day, it reads like a player who has already learned how to walk into a new locker room and work.
She said as much at Colorado’s Winter Sports Media Day in October 2025, in a BuffsTV interview with Corey Lopez, talking about meeting a new team almost every year.
“Nothing too different than what you experience every year like you meet new people every year, new team almost every year. So, I mean it’s pretty fun getting to meet new personalities. You know, you never know how everybody is, so like just adjusting to them.”
In Colorado’s Newcomer Spotlight Series, she tied that nomadic path to the teammate she has become.
“I feel like having different teammates each year that I play basketball with has shaped me into the teammate I am now.”
That is not a player asking the fan base for patience. That is a veteran describing the job.
Why she picked Raleigh
Wooten committed after an official visit in early May 2026, joining Auburn transfer forward Khady Leye as a key portal addition for a Wolfpack backcourt that needed another scorer and ball-handler after departures that included Zam Jones. She has one season of eligibility left.
In that same 247Sports interview with Smith, she said she knew before she even landed.
“Honestly, I knew before I got there. Coach Wes is such a great coach. He’s a proven coach and that program is known to be a winning program and gives me a bigger stage. It felt like a good basketball decision overall and one that I knew I wanted to make if I got the chance.”
The March piece was the closer. Colorado gave her a first taste of the NCAA Tournament. NC State’s recent Sweet 16 standard gave her a reason to bet the last year on a deeper run.
“The biggest thing I wanted when I entered the transfer portal was an opportunity with a team that I think can make a deep run in March,” she told 247Sports. “Last year with Colorado was my first time experiencing March Madness and getting to play on that stage. I don’t want to just get there, though. I want to win. I’m ready to make my last season my best season yet.”
That tracks with Moore’s read of her: she wants to be great, and she wants the next level. A 5-8 combo guard with 99 Division I games, a scoring title off the bench, and a steal habit does not need a marketing campaign. She needs minutes next to Brooks and a defensive assignment that lets her hunt.
What the Pack is actually getting
Strip away the sleeper label and the profile is simple.
She can create. She can shoot it from deep at a respectable clip. She can get downhill even when the first scout says she is too small. She can pass out of pressure. She can take the ball from people. She has already survived two conference jumps and a bench role that still produced a team-high 13.4 points a night.
The questions are the honest ones. She is not a size solution in the backcourt. Her two-point finishing has room to climb. Consistency is the word she used herself when she talked about the ACC. Those are real. They are also the kind of questions that get answered in October, not in a May commitment graphic.
Pierre already answered the only question that matters to teammates: is she real?
Yes. Overlooked because of the schools. Undersized. Not afraid of the paint. A passer. A shooter. A solid player all around.
Moore answered the roster question: another experienced guard who can score, handle, fill a sheet, and help immediately.
Wooten answered the personal one.
She is ready to make the last season the best one.
For a fan base that has not fully met her yet, that is the introduction. The people inside the program have already let the cat out of the bag. The rest of Reynolds will catch up the first time she rips a steal, hits a three, and throws a pass that makes the building lean forward and ask who that is.
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