The NCAA tournament has officially ended, with the UConn Huskies reclaiming the throne from the South Carolina Gamecocks and winning a 12th title for the esteemed women’s college basketball program in Storrs, Connecticut.
Now an NCAA Champion, star guard Paige Bueckers is set to enter the 2025 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm and currently projected to go No. 1 overall to the Dallas Wings. Bueckers’ entry into the draft is a long time coming, and she’s set to be one of the more closely watched rookies this season.
Outside of Bueckers, there are many standout players that fans are keen on seeing hit the stage and join a WNBA franchise, especially after some fabulous tournament performances from players like TCU’s Hailey Van Lith, LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, and USC’s Kiki Iriafen, to name a few. Their departure from their respective college programs will have just as big of an impact as Bueckers’ departure will, which just goes to show how strong this incoming class is projected to be.
Let’s dive into five names to watch for ahead of the Wings being on the clock.
Paige Bueckers
Let’s start with Paige Bueckers, the senior guard out of UConn who has dazzled the basketball stage for several seasons. Under head coach Geno Auriemma and alongside teammates Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong, Bueckers has finally managed to secure the one piece of hardware she was missing from her mantel with just one week to go until she hears her name called during the draft – an NCAA championship.
Bueckers averaged 19.9 points per-game along with 4.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 2.1 steals in 2024. In the tournament, she averaged 24.8 points, 4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.8 steals, and 1.3 blocks per-game in six games en route to the title.
Bueckers’ accolades stretch beyond the stuffing the stat sheet, of course. She scored the most points of any UConn Husky in women’s basketball program history, passing Maya Moore for the honor, and is now third overall in women’s college basketball history in scoring during the NCAA Tournament with 477 total points. These records are all the more impressive when considering she missed the 2022 season with a torn ACL.
The multi-time All-American, former AP Player of the Year, Big East legend, and now NCAA champion is set to enter the league as the favorite to land Rookie of the Year honors.
Hailey Van Lith
In a different path from Bueckers, Van Lith has gone through three college programs on her journey to the draft stage. Between her time with the Louisville Cardinals, LSU Tigers, and TCU Horned Frogs, Van Lith averaged 15.2 points per-game along with 4.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.3 steals. At LSU, Van Lith departed from the norm and was the teams’ main on-ball facilitator. She used her last year of eligibility to play with TCU as a shooting guard once again.
Her shooting was fairly consistent while with TCU in 2024-25, and she also averaged the most assists per-game she ever had in her final collegiate year with the Horned Frogs and while surrounded with some great shooting.
Van Lith is entering the league at a time where guards, and specifically the art of passing first, is more appreciated than ever. Thinking of great point guards like Chelsea Gray, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Natasha Cloud, and others who elevate players around them with their facilitating, it’s fun to imagine what Van Lith will bring to the league with her passing skills.
Kiki Iriafen
Moving off guard talk, it’s time to give some flowers to future star forward Kiki Iriafen. The USC Trojan nearly put the team on her back in the NCAA Tournament with the loss of JuJu Watkins to an ACL tear during the second round, averaging 16.5 points per-game along with nine rebounds and 1.5 assists.
Iriafen has been considered a top prospect for several years because of her footwork, ability to score in the post consistently, and her ability to defend the paint. She stood out for these reasons alongside Cameron Brink at Stanford University, where she began her collegiate career, and she’s going to be an invaluable piece to any teams’ frontcourt this season and beyond.
Thinking of bigs in the league similar to Iriafen like A’ja Wilson, Napheesa Collier, Angel Reese, and Breanna Stewart – essentially, forwards that can create their own shot in the paint, have ball handling skills, and are defensive presences that seriously deter other teams from looking at the paint at all – it’s clear to see how she’ll find success in the league almost immediately.
Dominique Malonga
When discussing a draft riser, you have to mention Dominique Malonga’s name. The silver medalist and rising French basketball star has both experience to offer a WNBA team looking to draft an untraditional rookie, and the skills to back up such a selection. The 6-foot-6 center averaged 15 points per-game along with 10 rebounds with Lyons in 2024.
Malonga moves with the fluidity of a guard while knowing she has the height and strength of a center. For someone who will only be 19 years old by the time she heard her name called by commissioner Cathy Engelbert in this year’s draft, that’s extremely impressive. You have to respect Malonga’s jumper, paint presence, and ball handling. Think of how difficult it is to defend Las Vegas’ Wilson – that’s what teams might need to consider defensively when guarding Malonga very soon.
Malonga, similarly to Iriafen, has a translatable bag of skills that’ll likely make her a contender for rookie of the year. Looking up any highlights of Malonga’s performances over the past year will leave you wondering how it’ll be possible to defend someone as surgical as her as she’s running to the rim.
Aneesah Morrow
Morrow is entering this year’s draft after an amazing NCAA Tournament run with the LSU Tigers in 2025. Despite being eliminated in the Elite 8, Morrow’s impact was felt throughout the teams’ four games in the tournament. She averaged nearly 21 points per-game along with 12.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.5 steals during the postseason. Her regular season stats were even more eye-popping – going for 18.7 points per-game along with 13.5 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 2.5 steals.
The former standout at DePaul University is entering this draft as one of the best forwards in the class, and she certainly should be gone off the board for teams within the top 5 of the draft order. Her paint prowess as a rebounder and scorer, and her ability to defend players that could give her trouble with their size advantage over her, will make her a likely day one starter for whoever drafts her.
Her scoring and footwork in the paint are almost one of one in this draft class. It’s hard to find a comparison for her to anyone currently in the league because she moves like a center but would be considered undersized for that label. Her skills are extremely transferable to the WNBA given her ability to tough out rebounds, score over bigger defenders, and her passing out of double and triple teams under the basket.
She’s sure to power her way through the league this season, and likely remind fans why she was such a crucial transfer for LSU’s tournament hopes over the last two seasons.
