11/4/2026 8:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball, Paul Coro, Lopes Insider Blog
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GCU 6-foot guard averaged 12 points over 3 seasons at Boston College
By: Paul Coro
When T'yana Todd chose Grand Canyon for her last season of college basketball, she did not have to wonder if she would feel supported.
GCU head coach Winston Gandy recruited her when he was a Duke assistant coach and saw her thrive at Boston College.
Keana and Maya Foz, now Todd's teammates when the Lopes open their season at home Wednesday vs. Jackson State, also grew up playing for the same Toronto-area basketball club. The Foz sisters played on different age-group teams but connected with Todd beyond basketball.
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    T'yana and Amanda Todd
Todd's mother, Amanda, passed away from cancer in March 2023. Despite not having a close relationship yet with the Todds, Keana Foz named a mother-daughter event and a celebrity basketball game award in honor of Todd's mother as part of her Point Goddess nonprofit organization.
"Amazing," Todd said. "I'm really appreciative of her and her family always welcoming me and my family."
Keana Foz said, "She had a really great relationship with her mom, so it all made sense to collab together. She said, 'I want girls to have this opportunity to have a day with their moms.' "
Held near Mother's Day the past two years, the annual Toronto event brings girls and their mothers together in a workshop environment to strengthen their relationships with sessions on a variety of topics from wealth management to violence prevention and gift bags and roses for the moms.
"Her being gone has been a big adjustment, so I hope you guys take the opportunity to learn more about yourselves and who you come here with to enjoy that quality time," Todd said at the inaugural "Her Legacy: A Tribute to Amanda Todd."
Now, Todd's quality time will be at GCU, where her father, Chris, arrived this week from Toronto to be at her opener with no return flight booked. The 6-foot guard transferred at the start of the semester from Ohio State, where she teamed with Lopes guard Dasha Biriuk, and reached 1,178 career points and 81 career starts with three previous double-digit scoring seasons at Boston College.
"She's very gifted when it comes to scoring the ball and a very proven player," Gandy said. "That was attractive to us, with how young we are, for them to have an example of what it looks like. As a coach, you can tell them what it's going to be like, but sometimes you need that peer-to-peer intangible. She carries herself with tremendously high-level professionalism, has a great work ethic, is a great teammate and a great human.
"It's hard to come in right as school started. I don't know how many players, with what she has accomplished, would be able to do that. That's a credit to her character."
Being a graduate student at a Christian university also feels right for Todd, who says a prayer about her mom before taking the court each game with her mother's name tattooed beneath her jersey.
Todd grew up playing everything but basketball until the sport clicked for her in the third grade. Her older brother, Taryn, drew her to hoops and keeps setting the standard after being an All-Sun Belt first-team player at Arkansas State and now a second-year pro in England.
With the next level in mind, Todd wants to go beyond being an established scorer who led the ACC and ranked fourth nationally in 3-point shooting at 45.9% in 2024-25. She wants to show she can be a playmaker and evolve as a defender and rebounder.
"I really trusted what Coach Gandy had for me and what he saw in me as a player and how he wanted to develop me," Todd said. "I'm still in the works, for sure. I trust in his plan, and the girls are amazing.
"Wins and losses are going to come, but how you feel and how you impact everything around you is what really matters to me. I think I'm going to do that here."
Todd's 2025-26 season at Ohio State was not what she envisioned with 11.7 minutes per game. She did play in her first NCAA Tournament, but the third-seeded Buckeyes wereupset by Notre Dame in the second round. The player who averaged 12.0 points over three seasons for Boston College is ready to resume that impact and then some.
Conference coaches agreed, selecting Todd as the Preseason Mountain West Newcomer of the Year.
She hopes she can honor her mother, who passed away on March 25, 2023, and thrill her father, whose birthday is March 26 by helping GCU extend their season into late March.
The goodbye with her mother came suddenly. Todd did not know about her cancer diagnosis until about a month before she passed during her freshman year, one marked by her mother still visiting her in Boston and a memory of her looking thinner around the holidays without knowing why.
"I've been through a lot," Todd said. "Everybody's journey is different and valuable.
"Every day, I'm being pushed to be different and be better. Every day is a challenge, and I'm going to step up to the challenge every day and just try to be better for me and my team because, at the end of the day, we want those wins."
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Now, Todd's quality time will be at GCU, where her father, Chris, arrived this week from Toronto to be at her opener with no return flight booked. The 6-foot guard transferred at the start of the semester from Ohio State, where she teamed with Lopes guard Dasha Biriuk, and reached 1,178 career points and 81 career starts with three previous double-digit scoring seasons at Boston College.
With the next level in mind, Todd wants to go beyond being an established scorer who led the ACC and ranked fourth nationally in 3-point shooting at 45.9% in 2024-25. She wants to show she can be a playmaker and evolve as a defender and rebounder.
Conference coaches agreed, selecting Todd as the Preseason Mountain West Newcomer of the Year.
