With the ladies’s school hoops season not up to a moment away, it’s moment for a fast refresher on the most productive skill who will dominate the principle degree this season.
The day gone by we counted i’m sick from spots 20 to 11, and nowadays, we divulge the manage 10, with a Negative. 1 spot this is positive to urged arguments and debate all season. Presenting The Athletic’s manage 10 avid gamers for the 2024-25 season, in conjunction with a scout from a lecturer who confronted every participant latter season.
Kansas Order, 6-6 fifth-year senior heart
Key stats: 19.7 PPG, 8.6 RPG, 2.8 BPG, 62% FG
Along with her top and area, Lee, who holds the NCAA Category I single-game scoring file (61 issues), is dominant within the paint even with out the ball in her arms. She performs her competition inside of 3 ft of the basket and given how environment friendly and enforcing she is on offense and protection, there’s refuse reason why for her to area out too a ways. Latter season, Lee shot 62 p.c from the ground and 73 p.c on putbacks, however what makes her distinctive (particularly as a 6-foot-6 heavy) is that she doesn’t produce expensive mistakes. In 2023-24, with a 31 p.c utilization price, Lee ranked a few of the manage 1 p.c of avid gamers in yield proportion.
@AP All-American Honorable Point out @Yokie50 pic.twitter.com/j5VPeFWxeH
— Ok-Order Ladies’s Basketball (@KStateWBB) October 26, 2024
Educator’s scout: “Ayoka is strong. You cannot move her. And it’s not just that. She is so efficient in her movement that she commands so much attention. If you haven’t played her before, you underestimate her. Not only does she have good footwork, but she can hold her ground. You will not move her. The other thing is that the rest of the players are long, too. Kansas State’s perimeter players are long. If you’re a small guard, you can’t pressure the pass enough. That gives her more space almost because they have such long passers.”
South Carolina, 5-9 fifth-year senior safe
Key stats: 11.0 PPG, 3.7 APG, 47% 3pt FG
One of the vital absolute best 3-point shooters within the nation latter season, Paopao is again for her COVID-19 bonus 12 months in Columbia and able to manage South Carolina. The Gamecocks’ paint presence will glance a quantity other with out Kamilla Cardoso, however assuming that simply places extra power on Paopao, South Carolina must really feel assured. As just right of an offensive ultimatum and defensive stalwart as she used to be a season in the past, most likely her absolute best feature is available in how few self-inflicted wounds she reasons. Paopao distributes with out turning over the ball, organizes the Gamecocks protection, and latter season, directed a gaggle that lecturer Break of day Staley known as a “daycare” right into a streamlined undefeated nationwide champ.
Educator’s scout: “On that team of all those terrific players, you can get lulled into thinking that she’s just there to knock down a couple 3s, but she’s a complete basketball player. She knows how to play. She finds the players she is supposed to find. She knocks down big shots when she has to. She runs the team when she has to. She’s just a complete basketball player who is the kind of player who makes championship teams, championship teams. Without her, you’d be missing a big piece.”
LSU, 5-10 young wing
Key stats: 14.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 2.1 SPG
Johnson will want to turn into a high-volume scorer with out Angel Reese. (Andy Lyons / Getty Photographs)
Flau’jae Johnson has proven a minute little bit of the entirety in her first two seasons — the dynamism in transition, level of assault protection and a gentle (if rare) 3-point jumper. Most significantly, she has a knack for being precisely what the Tigers want. As a young, she’ll want to put all of that in combination. Now not is Angel Reese round to singlehandedly win possessions for LSU. Johnson must be an effective and high-volume scorer who could also be their absolute best perimeter defender. There’s refuse reason why to imagine she will’t. She has the rate, the elevation and the IQ to learn the ground and pick out her spots. She additionally has the celebrity energy to imagine that she will assert herself extra frequently.
Educator’s scout: “She’s smooth. She’s smart. And it can kill you. Especially when she had Reese around her. She had a lot around her and I’m sure Kim (Mulkey) has a lot around her again. But she makes it look like everything is easy for her. It looks effortless. And you watch her on film, and it’s like, ‘But how did you do that?’”
UCLA, 6-7 young heart
Key stats: 14.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 2.0 BPG, 64% FG
Fifteen issues, 9 rebounds and a couple of blocks a competition is an noteceable stat order for any participant. Now imagine that Betts performed simply round 25 mins a competition latter season. With any other 12 months in UCLA’s gadget below her belt, be expecting her to claim herself much more and in longer spurts. The addition of Oregon Order switch Timea Gardiner will produce Betts much more bad. Gardiner, a 6-3 young, is proficient enough quantity to attract some consideration clear of Betts, placing her in unmarried protection extra frequently, which must backup her exploit the ones mismatches even higher than latter season.
Educator’s scout: “She’s a unique talent, and she’s one of the most skilled bigs in the country. You just can’t teach 6-7. She changes the trajectory of the game with her presence. She scores with either hand, and so you can’t not account for her at any time. UCLA largely will go as she goes — her foul trouble, her health, her everything. They’re a different team without her. There are some things: How well will she handle double teams, pace and physicality? But for me, her presence puts UCLA at an echelon that I don’t know if they’d be at if they didn’t have her.”
LSU, 6-1 senior safe
Key stats: 16.4 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 2.5 SPG, 1.1 BPG
Morrow has one of the crucial absolute best midrange video games in girls’s school hoops and he or she’s skillful with defensive positioning and execution. Even supposing she’s simplest 6-1, she will out-rebound nearly any person within the SEC. As a freshman at DePaul, she used to be the rustic’s prominent rebounder. With Reese long gone to the WNBA, she has a possibility to be a fair better presence at the flooring, and it’s honest to be expecting Morrow to luckily absorb that field, given the scoring function she assumed ahead of moving.
Educator’s scout: “She’s unorthodox — is explosive, can drive on you, rebound like crazy, just a nightmare matchup. She’s not going to hit you from the 3, but if she touches the ball, it’s going to be a bucket or something positive for their team. And she has this will behind her play. There are a lot of players that rely on their natural gifts, but she has this will to pull her team. It’s those intangibles that you can’t game plan against.”
5. Maddie Booker
Texas, 6-1 sophomore wing
Key stats: 16.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 5.0 APG, 1.5 SPG
Booker had a baptism by means of hearth as a freshman as she used to be thrown into the purpose safe place for Texas later Rori Harmon’s ACL shock 12 video games into latter season. In spite of by no means taking part in the location ahead of, Booker thrived (and so did the Longhorns). Now, again in her herbal place as a wing/heavy safe, Booker could have a possibility to build her shot — one of the crucial smoothest in school hoops — occasion additionally having one of the crucial absolute best level guards within the crowd build for her. Offensively, her midrange competition has at all times thrived, and with an offseason below her belt (learn: any other complete 12 months in Texas’ energy and conditioning program), her relentless motor must be that a lot more unstoppable this season.
Educator’s scout: “Her pull-up jumper is untouchable. And that’s tough. You see the photos and videos of her from SEC media day this season, and her body looks even better. I think this year, there won’t be as much on her, and with that, she’ll flourish even more. From a defensive standpoint, it helps her that Rori is back, too, because I think last year people kind of went at her as a defender. They have a great team defense, but they didn’t have a Rori.”
Notre Dame, 5-6 sophomore safe
Key stats: 22.6 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 5.5 APG, 4.6 SPG
Within the a lack of level safe Olivia Miles latter season, Hannah Hidalgo stepped into the line as a freshman and become probably the most feared backcourt avid gamers in The usa. In spite of give up 3 to 4 inches to her defenders (and six-plus inches to any person within the paint), Hidalgo nonetheless controlled to execute 65 p.c on the rim latter season as she sliced and diced defenses together with her velocity and alter of path. That very same skill made her the most productive pocket-picker within the competition, prominent the crowd in steals latter season. The most important query mark in South Bend this season is what would possibly produce Hidalgo much more bad: the go back of Miles. With the ones two anchoring the Irish backcourt, and Hidalgo no longer desiring to do as a lot on each ends with a more fit and extra proficient workforce round her, she would possibly simply have a better have an effect on at the competition.
Educator’s scout: “She impacts the game in both ways – her quickness and speed and tenaciousness. I’ll be interested to see if that’s still as on display with Olivia Miles back. The fact that she’s smaller — it has no impact whatsoever. It’s probably an advantage for her. She plays so hard. She’s so smart and she puts herself out there. She hunts down the steals. A lot of kids, they’re content to run back on defense and play defense because the coach told them to. She plays defense like she loves it.”
GO DEEPER
Ladies’s school basketball preseason All-American citizens: Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins, Hannah Hidalgo
3. Kiki Iriafen
USC, 6-3 graduate switch ahead
Key stats (Stanford): 19.4 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 2.3 APG
Latter season, Iriafen labored in tandem with Cameron Breaking point at Stanford to build a two-headed monster that combatants couldn’t moderately work out. It’s good-looking dried to improve from taking part in with the Negative. 2 pick out within the WNBA Draft, however Iriafen one way or the other controlled to do it. Now, at USC, she will get to play games off Watkins, Talia von Oelhoffen and Rayah Marshall. She’ll be the most productive rebounder in school hoops this season, discovering excess possessions for herself and her teammates at the offensive glass and announcing herself with second-chance issues. With defenders being compelled to select their poison with this USC founding 5, Iriafen may in finding herself with extra spacing and alternative than latter season.
Educator’s scout: “She always knows how to get the ball and where to get the ball. She’s athletic, and I love her demeanor. She’s not going to be the Player of the Year, but if USC makes the Final Four, USC will thank God she is there. She’s crazy athletic, skilled, great hands. She’s amazingly good when she takes a step off the block. That sounds silly, but when she posts and gets off the block to give herself some space and distance, she makes the shot or creates fouls. She was also 10 times better live than on tape. That’s rare. The last time that happened for me was Maya Moore. She was really good on video. But during the game, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ she was even better.”
USC, 6-2 sophomore wing
Key stats: 27.1 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 3.3 APG, 2.3 SPG, 1.6 BPG
In spite of the highlight-reel performs she made latter season, most likely essentially the most veteran-like facet of Watkins’ competition used to be her cool demeanor. She by no means perceived to get crushed or fazed. Whether or not her shot used to be moving into, whether or not she used to be drawing fouls or getting hacked with out cries, whether or not the Trojans had been prominent — Watkins used to be calmness and picked up. Now, simply believe what she’ll do with an excess 12 months of revel in, particularly as she’s now surrounded with extra founding skill. The important thing to unlocking USC’s possible and Watkins’ upside might be von Oelhoffen from Oregon Order taking some ballhandling power off Watkins and permitting her to perform extra freely in field. Von Oelhoffen and Iriafen will spice up the Trojans’ defensive power, permitting Watkins to get out in transition, which used to be arguably the most productive a part of her competition.
Educator’s scout: “She has size and athletic ability and can score in a lot of different ways, different places. I don’t know if there’s another player in college like her at that size that does those things. There are other good players, but none like her. She just finds a way to get the ball in the basket.”
UConn, 6-0 fifth-year senior safe
Key stats: 22.2 PPG, 59% FG, 42% 3pt FG, 5.2 RPG, 3.8 APG, 2.2 SPG, 1.4 BPG
The controversy over the crowd’s manage participant will likely be argued all season: Is it Paige or JuJu? Legitimate arguments can also be made on all sides, and in the long run, the true winner is everybody who will get to experience their play games and the talk.
In the long run, this is the reason the scales tilted ever so somewhat to Bueckers: She confirmed a virtually unreal sense of urgency latter season when she carried the Huskies to the Ultimate 4. Watkins’ most likely freshman-to-sophomore bump will likely be important, however don’t underestimate how Bueckers, who stated this will likely be her ultimate season of faculty hoops, will carry her competition as soon as once more. Bueckers, who bulked up within the offseason, advantages mightily from the probability to go back to the fringe later a season spent taking part in the 4 (because of UConn’s condition and numbers problems). That are supposed to detectable up her competition much more. Long gone are Nika Mühl and Aaliyah Edwards, however Bueckers could have enough quantity of cast scoring choices round her, which might backup get her assists go back to her freshman season numbers (5.8 in keeping with competition).
Educator’s scout: “Paige is really hard to prepare for. She’s so complete. It’s hard to do a scouting report. She moves well off the ball. She is a danger with the ball in her hands. She can go get the bucket or she can create. I know there’s talk that she needs to be more aggressive, she needs to shoot more. I think what makes her really dangerous though is this idea that it makes it hard to do a game plan on UConn because it’s like, take away this, even if it’s hard, and we can win. Because she is so dynamic. Her defense improved so much last year. There’s just not a lot of holes there.”
(Lead pictures of Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins: Joe Buglewicz / Getty Photographs, Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Photographs))
