UPSHOT, a women’s basketball ‘opportunity league,’ announces a team will call Providence home

Detailed summary

The team will play its home games at Amica Mutual Pavilion, home to the Providence Bruins and the Providence College men’s basketball team. Opening Day is May 13.

PROVIDENCE — The departure of the Connecticut Sun has left a void in the New England basketball scene that emerging leagues are lining up to fill.

Starting in May, Providence will be home to a team in the UPSHOT League, which positions itself as the destination for up-and-coming women’s basketball players — in short, a feeder into the WNBA.

But UPSHOT rejects the “development league” label, instead calling itself an “opportunity league.” It doesn’t say that players get “called up” to the WNBA, but instead get “called to” the WNBA.

“The distinction is important because it’s not that the players aren’t good enough,” said former Celtic Dee Brown, UPSHOT’s vice president of basketball operations. “They just don’t have enough spots in the WNBA.”

WNBA rosters are limited to 12 players, meaning there were just 180 spots league-wide this past season. That number will grow as the WNBA continues to expand, but the roster limits mean there is little room for developmental players, and only a handful of top draft picks crack rosters.

With no NBA G League equivalent available to women in the United States, athletes often have to play abroad in hopes of eventually earning a WNBA spot. UPSHOT, it seems, can provide a bridge between college and the WNBA.

Harmoni Turner, a former Ivy League player of the year at Harvard, experienced those roster limitations firsthand.

Turner was drafted 35th by the Las Vegas Aces in the 2025 WNBA Draft but was waived in May of that year. She is entering her second season playing professionally in France and was a member of the Savannah Steel for the inaugural UPSHOT League season.

“Women’s professional basketball deserves opportunities, more visibility, and more communities invested in its future,” said six-time WNBA All-Star Taj McWilliams-Franklin, UPSHOT’s deputy commissioner. “We want to create an environment where rising talent has an opportunity to shine.”

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Boston Globe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.