Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins lead the highest gamers for the upcoming girls’s basketball season

For the final two seasons, headlines targeted on Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese as girls’s school basketball continued to surge in curiosity and viewership. With each stars now doing the identical within the WNBA, there’s no scarcity of expertise in school hoops.

If something, that new consideration gave followers the prospect to see all they had been lacking.

Heading into a brand new season, which begins on Monday, the highest 10 gamers within the nation stretch the spectrum of sophistication. From freshman who made their presence identified from day one to the freshman-turned-seniors who’re taking again the highlight dimmed by harm, there’s loads of expertise to observe in what must be one other thrilling girls’s hoops season.

We break down the ten greatest gamers heading into the beginning of the season.

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10. Georgia Amoore | Kentucky Wildcats

23-24 Stats: 18.8 ppg, 6.8 apg, 2.6 rpg

When head coach Kenny Brooks left the Virginia Tech Hokies for the Kentucky Wildcats, level guard Georgia Amoore wasn’t too far behind.

Amoore led the Hokies to a Last 4 run in 2023 and was even higher within the 23-24 season. The guard had a profession excessive 18.8 factors and 6.8 assists, incomes an AP All-American honor, enjoying alongside fellow All-American Elizabeth Kiley.

Amoore was as key to that duo as Kitley, and offers Brooks a robust basis on each ends of the courtroom heading into his first 12 months making an attempt to turnaround a Kentucky facet that didn’t make the NCAA Match in two straight seasons.

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9. Rori Harmon | Texas Longhorns

22-23 Stats: 11.2 ppg, 7.4 apg, 5.6 rpg

Final season, Rori Harmon suffered an ACL tear on Dec. 20 that took away the Longhorns’ chief out for the rest of the season. Harmon is again, bringing a mixture of three-level scoring and discovering open teammates higher than most level guards within the nation. In 12 video games, Harmon was on her method to a profession scoring and help season, averaging 14.1 factors and seven.8 assists.

Now, Harmon returns with one other title on this prime 10 checklist and Michigan Wolverines switch Laila Phelia, which means Texas is within the dialog for a deep match run.

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8. Lauren Betts | UCLA Bruins

23-24 Stats: 14.9 ppg, 9.3 rpg, 2.0 bpg

UCLA head coach Cori Shut transferred Betts in from the Stanford bench and the 6-foot-7 middle made the Bruins a squad to be reckoned with.

In her first season beginning, Betts virtually averaged a double-double with 14.9 factors and 9.3 rebounds, plus two blocks per sport. Now, Betts has a brand new problem enjoying within the expanded Large Ten, going up in opposition to bigs like Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke, Illinois’ Kendall Bostic and Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski.

If Betts can shut them down, and enhance on the offensive facet of the ball, she’s within the dialog for her first AP All-American honor.

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7. Aneesah Morrow | LSU Tigers

23-24 Stats: 16.4 ppg, 10.0 rpg, 2.5 spg

In the summertime of 2023, Aneesah Morrow was a prime switch goal after wowing the nation in her sophomore season at DePaul. Head coach Kim Mulkey satisfied Morrow to come back to Baton Rouge, and Morrow lived as much as the billing.

Sharing the stage with the likes of Reese and the subsequent title on the checklist, Morrow nonetheless got here up large when the Tigers wanted it. In postseason play, Morrow averaged 15.1 factors and 9.7 rebounds per sport.

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6. Flau’jae Johnson | LSU Tigers

23-24 Stats: 14.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 2.1 spg

Enjoying alongside Morrow final season was the reigning SEC Freshman of the 12 months Flau’jae Johnson, who does all of it. Johnson will come out of nowhere to intercept passes and pressure turnovers. On offense, Johnson’s methodical in the best way the guard strikes round defenders, pulls up for midrange jumpers or Euro steps round opponents contained in the paint.

Now an upperclassmen, Johnson brings two years of expertise together with an NCAA Championship in 2023 and an Elite Eight berth in 2024.

Anticipate Johnson to make a bounce this season into probably the greatest within the SEC.

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5. Kiki Iriafen | USC Trojans

23-24 Stats: 19.4 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 2.3 apg

It took Iriafen just a few seasons, however the ahead went from bench participant for legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer to a prime participant within the nation.

Iriafen is the perfect inside menace within the nation. Not solely can the 6-foot-3 Iriafen go at defenders beneath the basket, however she will be able to seize rebounds in opposition to elite opponents. Again in March, in opposition to Iowa State’s star Audi Crooks, Iriafen grabbed 16 rebounds and held Crooks to 10 factors, 9 factors beneath her scoring common.

Offensively, Iriafen added 41 factors within the additional time win to assist Stanford advance to the Candy 16. Now, Iriafen joins a USC staff that might be within the dialog as a nationwide title contender and that’s due partially to her transfer to Los Angeles.

4 . Madison Booker | Texas Longhorns

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23-24 Stats: 16.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 5.0 apg

With Harmon’s season-ending harm, Booker went from the No. 12 freshman recruit to a Large 12 Participant of the 12 months.

The hybrid guard/ahead performed like knowledgeable in her first collegiate season. Booker averaged 16.5 factors, 5 rebounds and 5 assists per sport and now provides Harmon and the aforementioned Phelia.

Booker’s supporting forged strikes her from a convention participant of the 12 months into a possible Nationwide Participant of the 12 months dialog beneath Texas coach Vic Schaefer.

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3. Hannah Hidalgo | Notre Dame Preventing Irish

23-24 Stats: 22.6 ppg, 5.5 apg, 4.6 spg

Like Booker, Hidalgo got here into her college as a well-regarded freshman who performed like an upperclassmen on a facet marred with harm. Hidalgo’s small 5-foot-6 body isn’t a weak spot, she makes use of it to her benefit dribbling between defenders and never afraid to go in and take contact close to the rim.

Defensively, as a freshman, the guard led the nation in steals, averaging 4.6 per sport.

It’s no shock that just about any award Hidalgo was eligible for she gained. Exterior of ACC Participant of the 12 months, Hidalgo gained Freshman of the 12 months, Defensive Participant of the 12 months, All-Freshman Crew and solely certainly one of two freshman named First Crew AP All-American.

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2. JuJu Watkins | USC Trojans

23-24 Stats: 27.1 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 3.3 apg

Selecting between JuJu Watkins and the No. 1 ranked participant on this checklist is greater than troublesome. It’s virtually a 1A and 1B scenario.

Watkins confirmed poise from the second she stepped onto an NCAA courtroom. Final season, in an 83-74 win over a extremely regarded protection of the Ohio State Buckeyes, Watkins scored 32 factors and that was in a sport the place she was in foul hassle late. Regardless of having to sit down, Watkins stored her composure and led the Trojans to their first win of many who season.

The guard led the Trojans to the Elite Eight for the primary time since 1994, 11 years earlier than Watkins was born. On the best way to the Regional Last, Watkins was second within the nation in scoring with 27.1 factors and added in 7.3 rebounds and three.3 assists per sport.

Watkins turned the most important title in girls’s basketball within the metropolis of Los Angeles since Candace Parker gained Rookie of the 12 months and MVP with the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA in 2008, virtually doing the identical within the Pac 12 if not for Stanford’s Cameron Brink edging Watkins out for Pac 12 Participant of the 12 months.

Now, Watkins takes her sport to the Large Ten, the place she replaces Caitlin Clark because the premier title within the convention.

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1. Paige Bueckers | UConn Huskies

23-24 Stats: 21.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 3.8 apg

Earlier than there was Clark or Reese, there was Paige Bueckers — and she or he’s nonetheless right here.

Bueckers hasn’t performed a full season in three years, as a result of accidents. On the courtroom, Bueckers, like Watkins, makes the sport of basketball look too simple with an easy type of play that just about appears to be like like she sees the sport in sluggish movement.

Due to accidents throughout the Huskies’ program, Bueckers confirmed she will be able to play wherever coach Geno Auriemma wants. Bueckers performed, a extra conventional guard position and even slid in as an influence ahead. Bueckers was in every single place and was pivotal in getting UConn to the Last 4, after beating Watkins and the Trojans within the Elite Eight.

Now, in what might be her last season, Bueckers brings her well-rounded sport again to Storrs and again into the Nationwide Participant of the 12 months operating after successful it in 2021.

Throw in a wholesome Azzi Fudd later in 2024 calendar 12 months and No. 1 freshman recruit Sarah Robust and Bueckers has an opportunity to win her first Nationwide Championship at UConn.