Kaczmarski Plans to Transfer

The troubled UCLA’s women’s basketball season grew more troublesome Monday.

Coach Kathy Olivier announced that Nicole Kaczmarski, a member of the Pacific 10 Conference all-freshman team last season, had been granted a letter of release so that she can transfer.

Kaczmarski, once described by Olivier as a potential “Michael Jordan of women’s basketball,” had been out of school for the fall quarter while being treated at her home in Middle Island, N.Y., for a six-month-old foot injury and Lyme disease. She had been expected to enroll this month for UCLA’s winter quarter.

A statement released by UCLA indicated that copies of her release letter had been sent, at Kaczmarski’s request, to Duke, Florida, Georgia and Virginia.

The announcement was made a day after UCLA ended a season-opening six-game losing streak with an 86-60 victory over Long Beach State.

The 5-foot-10 Kaczmarski started all 29 games last season and averaged 11.7 points. She was a first-team high school All-American and was rated the nation’s No. 1 recruit by the Women’s Basketball Journal when she signed with UCLA in November 1998.