It’s an open secret how women’s College Basketball suffered perhaps its biggest talent drain ever following a historic 2023-24 campaign, rivaling Candace Parker’s graduation from Tennessee in 2008.
The 2024 NCAA Championship game should serve as a microcosm for the sport’s popularity: 18.7 million people tuned in to watch Dawn Staley’s South Carolina squad top Caitlin Clark and Iowa, making it the most-watched basketball game in five years.
Staley’s team experienced some of the talent drain this summer too, as center Kamilla Cardoso was selected third overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
While speaking at the SEC media day, the longtime South Carolina coach was confident in the NCAA’s remaining star power. “We’re primed. There are household names,” she said.
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“Everybody knows JuJu [Watkins]. Everybody knows Hannah Hidalgo. Everybody knows MiLaysia Fulwiley. Everybody will know Joyce Edwards.”
“The future is incredibly bright. And I’m missing a whole lot, that’s just off the top of my head,” Staley continued. “I know we lost some great ones in Angel [Reese] and Caitlin, but we gained so much more.”
Edwards, the No. 2 recruit in the class of 2024, will join Fulwiley as part of the fearsome South Carolina looking to repeat. The Gamecocks opened the 2024-25 season atop the AP poll.
MiLaysia Fulwiley (R), a preseason All-American, is primed for a breakout season this year with South Carolina (
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The AP also recently named their 2024-25 preseason All-American team featuring the unanimous selections of Watkins (USC) and Paige Bueckers (UConn) along with Hidalgo (Notre Dame), Madison Boker (Texas), and Kiki Irafen (USC).
Watkins set the NCAA single-season freshman scoring record last year with USC as she averaged 27.1 points per game and led the Trojans to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1994.
She will be joined this season by senior transfer Kiki Iriafen, the 2024 Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year with Stanford. The Trojans open the season ranked third in the AP poll.
Bueckers and UConn edged Watkins for the second spot in the poll. The redshirt senior rebounded nicely after missing the entire 2022-23 season with a torn ACL.
Bueckers won the 2021 Wooden Award and started the 2024 preseason on fire, scoring 27 points and grabbing nine rebounds in just 27 minutes against Fort Hayes State on Sunday.
Here are the top ten teams from the opening women’s AP Poll (in order): South Carolina, UConn, USC, Texas, UCLA, Notre Dame, LSU, Iowa State, North Carolina State, and Oklahoma.
