When college basketball returns on Nov. 3, it will do so without its most well-known and brightest talent.
JuJu Watkins, the face of both the men’s and women’s game, to fully recover from the ACL tear she sustained in the NCAA Tournament. Watkins, the reigning Naismith and Wooden Player of the Year winner, was set to take full control of the sport in the absence of Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers, the reigning Wade Trophy winner who entered the WNBA. She’s the NCAA’s most marketable star, and had Southern Cal in position to reach its first Final Four since 1984.
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Topping the marquee requires a blend of talent, success, accolades, attention and personal magnetism. A few players are already in a dimmer limelight and can step further into the fold. More can make bigger names for themselves.
JuJu Watkins leaves a major void in the college basketball landscape this season as she recovers from an ACL tear. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)
(Luke Hales via Getty Images)
This, of course, doubles as an early look at the National Player of the Year race for the top four players in our list. The next six are in the conversation, but with more questions to be answered.
There is guaranteed to be a first-time Naismith winner due to Watkins’ injury and the exit of 2021 winner Bueckers. (Iowa’s Caitlin Clark won the two seasons in between.)
The last time a player did not sweep the Naismith and Wooden Awards was in 2019, when Sabrina Ionescu won the Wooden vote and Megan Gustafson the Naismith vote. It’s happened four times since 2004, when the Wooden Award was implemented on the women’s side. The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Wade Trophy has strayed more often, including a year ago when Bueckers won the honor for the first time.
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Lauren Betts, UCLA
Betts is the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year and a Naismith Player of the Year finalist. The senior is a dominant offensive threat who crucially developed as a passer (2.7 assists per game) to break double-and-triple teams. And she’s on one of the nation’s best teams in UCLA, which is ranked No. 3 after Betts led the Bruins to their first NCAA Final Four in program history.
At 6-foot-7, she’s a defensive cheat code setting school records for blocks in a season (90) and a single game (nine). There’s consistency in place for Betts and the Bruins. They return point guard KiKi Rice and wing Gabriela Jaquez, while adding shooter Gianna Kneepkens (Utah) and Betts’ younger sister, Lauren.
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Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame
Hidalgo, a returning Naismith finalist, is a true do-it-all guard who will now be the focal point after backcourt mates Olivia Miles transferred to TCU and Sonia Citron entered the WNBA.
Forget triple-double watch, Hidalgo might as well be on a nightly quadruple-double watch. The 5-foot-6 junior point guard rarely delivers a dull day with her penchant for picking pockets. She averaged 3.7 steals as a sophomore and a Division I-leading 4.6 as a freshman. Hidalgo is the third player in conference history to win both Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, and her career stat line is full: 23.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.2 steals per game.
Sarah Strong, UConn
It’s one thing for fans to say Strong could become the best player to come out of UConn. It’s quite another to hear three-time NCAA champion head coach Dawn Staley say it, . This is a program that counts Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi among its greats.
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Strong is a versatile 6-foot-2 forward who head coach Geno Auriemma said took another step forward this summer in workouts. Big East coaches voted Strong the conference’s preseason player of the year, while the Associated Press named her an All-American. She set the UConn freshman record for rebounding, and ranks second in points, steals and assists.
Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong will lead the UConn Huskies this year after Paige Bueckers’ graduation. (Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Madison Booker, Texas
Booker plays with a poise beyond her years, and has shown that since she stepped onto the Texas campus. The 6-foot-1 junior is a two-time Cheryl Miller Small Forward of the Year winner and two-time first-team All-American. She won her fourth gold medal with Team USA at FIBA Women’s AmeriCup this summer.
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Her mid-range jumper is near automatic, and she in the absence of point guard Rori Harmon her freshman season. Going into their second full season playing alongside each other, and closer to two years removed from Harmon’s ACL tear, will further Booker’s game and production. She’s averaging a consistent 16.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.
The Longhorns are coming off their first Final Four berth since 2003. They were voted to win the SEC Championship by conference head coaches.
The next six players face more preseason questions as player of the year contenders. Still, they’ll be top of fans’ minds and could break out, or continue to ascend, as faces of the game.
Flau’jae Johnson, LSU
Johnson, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, has all of the charisma and cross-platform reach to remain a prominent face of the game. She averaged a career-best 18.6 points per game as a junior and continues to elevate her game come tournament time.
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Head coach Kim Mulkey wants Johnson, one of two players rostered from the 2023 national championship team, in her final season at LSU. She’s a day 1 starter with the Tigers and has developed into a strong defender to add to her offensive ability to get downhill and finish through contact.
Azzi Fudd, UConn
Fudd, a redshirt senior, opted to return for her fifth and final year of eligibility to reach her full potential on the advice of head coach Geno Auriemma. After a litany of injuries over her high school and collegiate career, she said at Big East Media Day this month that it’s the “healthiest I’ve been since I’ve been at UConn.”
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Fudd, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2021 class, is an elite shotmaker with one of the game’s smoothest jumpers. She’s a 45.5% 3-point shooter, peaking at 46.9% a year ago en route to the national championship, where she was named Most Outstanding Player.
Ta’Niya Latson, South Carolina
Latson led Division I in scoring a year ago while at Florida State, averaging 25.2 points per game on a 45.1/34.3/81.8% shooting line. But FSU never made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament. With her final collegiate season on the horizon, she entered the transfer portal and joined one of the nation’s best teams and coaches.
The 5-8 guard will be more of a small fish in a big pond at South Carolina. While she’s one of the most potent guards to don a Gamecocks jersey in recent years, she’ll play within a system that hasn’t featured a player averaging more than 16 points per game since Naismith winner Aliyah Boston in 2021-22. Zia Cooke averaged the most of that span in the backcourt at 15.4 the following year.
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Aaliyah Chavez, Oklahoma
Chavez, the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 class according to , is the unknown of the group. Yet, she enters college with a solid following — including a name, image, likeness deal with Nike — and can break into the conversation with a strong freshman year. The 5-10 point guard will lead a promising group of returners, including All-SEC preseason picks, center Raegan Beers and guard Payton Verhulst.
Syla Swords, Michigan
Swords spent her collegiate offseason playing with Canada at the U-19 camp and for the senior squad at the FIBA AmeriCup, where they won bronze. She was also one of 12 guards to participate in two-time WNBA champion Kelsey Plum’s “Dawg Class.”
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The 6-foot sophomore guard became the first freshman in program history to earn Big Ten All-Tournament team honors and is one of three sophomores starring for Michigan. The Wolverines receive significant contributions from 6-1 guard Olivia Olson and 5-10 guard Mila Holloway.
MiLayshia Fulwiley, LSU
Consistency is the long-running concern for Fulwiley, who transferred from South Carolina, where she won the 2024 NCAA championship as a freshman. The 5-10 junior guard is the reigning SEC Sixth Woman of the Year and SEC Tournament MVP. , she’s a speedy, athletic scorer with moves that drop professional hoopers’ jaws. But, she hasn’t always locked in. She came off the bench for two seasons even as the Gamecocks’ second-highest scorer.
