Women’s March Madness: 10 Players to Watch

(*10*)Between their spotlight reel performs and hard-to-believe statistics, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers have change into acquainted not solely to ladies’s school basketball followers however to many individuals with solely a passing curiosity in sports activities.

(*10*)But on this yr’s N.C.A.A. Division I ladies’s basketball match, there might be dozens of different gamers who’re prepared to benefit from their second on the nationwide stage — gamers who’ve been placing up spectacular numbers and making outstanding performs all season, simply with a significantly smaller share of the highlight.

(*10*)Here are 10 gamers with an opportunity to make believers out of this yr’s match followers. They vary from All-Americans and certain first-round W.N.B.A. draft picks to midmajor upstarts on the lookout for a style of March glory.

(*10*)NaLyssa Smith has an opportunity to be the highest decide on this yr’s W.N.B.A. draft. But it’s not simply because, at 6 toes 4 inches, she has the dimensions and energy {of professional} publish gamers. A Baylor energy ahead, Smith has the finesse and talent to play with the very best proper now.

(*10*)She strikes across the courtroom with the benefit and pace of somebody a lot smaller — and for an added benefit, she has been coached this season by Nicki Collen, who arrived at Baylor after three seasons main the W.N.B.A.’s Atlanta Dream.

(*10*)In the match, Smith, who received a nationwide championship with Baylor in her freshman yr, will work to lead the Bears to not less than the spherical of 16 if not the Final Four. She has assist however is undoubtedly Baylor’s centerpiece, rating within the high 10 in Division I in scoring and rebounding whereas persevering with to enhance her gaudy stat strains. Smith reached a brand new profession excessive in rebounding with 20 on Feb. 28 towards Iowa State; within the subsequent recreation, she hit her profession excessive in scoring with 35 factors. Fans have an opportunity not solely to see Smith peaking on the proper time however to scope out a possible future skilled star.

Cameron Brink, Stanford

(*10*)The scariest factor about Stanford isn’t that it’s the defending nationwide champion — it’s that this championship workforce’s most prolific gamers are underclassmen: Haley Jones, a junior, and Cameron Brink, a sophomore.

(*10*)In the Cardinal’s balanced offense, what makes Brink an asset is her effectivity: She has had the third most field-goal makes an attempt on the workforce, however she’s the workforce’s main scorer. Her dominance across the basket made her an integral a part of Stanford’s championship run.

(*10*)In final yr’s N.C.A.A. match, Brink averaged 4 blocks per recreation, together with six in Stanford’s Final Four defeat of South Carolina. Those groups seem to be on a collision course this yr as effectively, and Brink is the Cardinal’s solely potential reply to South Carolina’s Boston, who is probably going to be the nationwide participant of the yr.

(*10*)If Stanford needs to repeat as champion, Brink’s assertive protection might be important. Her capability to set screens and draw defenders away from her workforce’s sharpshooters whereas staying out of foul bother, one thing she struggled along with her freshman yr, may even be vital. It’s a protracted to-do listing, however Brink has proven that she has the expertise to examine all these packing containers.

Destanni Henderson, South Carolina

(*10*)Running the ground for the workforce that has been ranked No. 1 within the nation all season is not any small activity. Before Destanni Henderson almost definitely heads to the W.N.B.A. this summer time (some projections counsel she might be a first-round decide), she would in all probability like to be rewarded for all that work with a visit to the nationwide championship recreation.

(*10*)The Gamecocks will definitely want her so as to get there. Henderson is a real level guard, working performs that assist make Boston, the workforce’s chief, much more unstoppable. The workforce’s greatest offense is predicated across the two of them: Boston attracts defenders to the basket after which passes to Henderson within the nook for a straightforward 3-point shot, or Boston grabs a rebound and tosses it to Henderson in transition to make an uncontested layup.

(*10*)Henderson’s quickness makes her each South Carolina’s spark and the right counterpoint to Boston and her affected person publish play. In these uncommon moments when the South Carolina offense slumps, Henderson can normally reduce to the basket and rating, or nab the ball and dash to the opposite finish for a layup earlier than her defender has even realized what’s taking place. When South Carolina beat Stanford in a redemptive December victory, Henderson had seven steals — a key to the victory she could effectively strive to replicate on this yr’s match.

(*10*)Almost 60 p.c of Iowa’s offense comes from two gamers: Clark, whose relentless capturing catapulted her into the nationwide highlight, and Monika Czinano, a senior publish participant whose reliability offers the Hawkeyes a rock-solid basis.

(*10*)When Clark is having an off night time (which for her means scoring lower than 20 factors), Czinano retains the workforce regular, plugging away across the basket to hold the offense alive. Her capturing proportion is among the many greatest within the nation, thanks to her footwork and fast launch: If Iowa is in rhythm, Clark can move to her and Czinano can have the ball within the basket earlier than opponents have an opportunity to react.

(*10*)Czinano led the workforce in scoring when Iowa received its fourth Big Ten match title final weekend, additional proving how essential each she and Clark are to their workforce. “I just think we have really good chemistry,” Clark instructed reporters earlier this yr.

Kierstan Bell, Florida Gulf Coast

(*10*)Kierstan Bell is a matchup nightmare. At 6 toes 1 inch, she’s a vital couple of inches taller than most of her fellow capturing guards — inches that she takes benefit of to shoot over opponents from principally wherever on the courtroom.

(*10*)The Eagles get the next proportion of their offense from behind the arc than some other workforce in Division I, and Bell definitely contributes on that entrance with almost 10 makes an attempt per recreation. But the place Bell actually shines is in shaking anybody who may strive to forestall her from getting to the basket. Her measurement and energy are mixed with unimaginable quickness, permitting her to spin and juke her well past virtually anybody; she’s averaging 23.1 factors per recreation. A meniscus damage in January threatened her W.N.B.A. draft inventory and her possibilities to showcase within the match, however she returned with speedy double-digit scoring after lacking only a month.

(*10*)Bell shines in massive moments. She had 25 factors within the first spherical of final yr’s N.C.A.A. match, by which Florida Gulf Coast failed to upset Michigan, and 32 factors and 10 rebounds earlier this season when her workforce earned a shock victory over now No. 9-ranked Louisiana State.

Elissa Cunane, North Carolina State

(*10*)The 6-foot-5 middle Elissa Cunane has about as spectacular a résumé as anybody in school basketball: three straight Atlantic Coast Conference titles, two straight convention match Most Valuable Player Awards and a slew of different particular person honors. But the Wolfpack haven’t been ready to capitalize on her expertise on the N.C.A.A. match and haven’t made it previous the spherical of 16 since 1998. Last yr, Cunane’s good-but-not-good-enough performances in San Antonio contributed to top-seeded North Carolina State’s upset loss to fourth-seeded Indiana.

(*10*)As a end result, she enters this match with one thing to show each to N.C. State followers and the W.N.B.A. groups which can be evaluating her for the upcoming draft. The Wolfpack’s energy is their steadiness, and Cunane hasn’t been pushed to pad her statistics. But she’s able to dominating across the basket and hitting essential 3-point photographs whereas additionally main her workforce in rebounding. With N.C. State as soon as once more anticipated to be a No. 1 seed, something lower than a visit to the Final Four might be a disappointment — and it’s up to Cunane to get them there.

Rhyne Howard, Kentucky

(*10*)There may be very little that the 6-foot-2 guard Rhyne Howard does poorly, together with rewriting the Kentucky file books. She is within the high 10 of virtually each statistical class accessible and has scored the second most factors in program historical past, together with women and men. Yet past Kentucky and ladies’s school basketball followers, Howard has remained a relative unknown regardless of her prolific play and her many nationwide honors or the truth that she’s seemingly to be a top-five decide on this yr’s W.N.B.A. draft.

(*10*)That began to change final week, when a swap appeared to flip in Howard as she led Kentucky to its first Southeastern Conference match title since 1982. The workforce, seeded seventh, turned the second-lowest seed ever to win that title, beating the highest three seeds alongside the best way.

(*10*)Though she didn’t hit the electrifying buzzer-beater that earned Kentucky the championship, Howard was a pressure all through, scoring 88 factors over 4 video games for the third-highest level complete in match historical past. Now, she simply has to deliver that splashy play — together with a win over L.S.U. by which she made six of eight 3-point photographs — to the subsequent stage.

Starr Jacobs, University of Texas at Arlington

(*10*)Tournament viewers may get just one alternative to see the redshirt junior ahead Starr Jacobs, however chances are high she’s going to benefit from it. Jacobs, a junior school switch, has placed on a present in her first yr enjoying in Division I, incomes a range because the Sun Belt participant of the yr and main the Lady Mavs to an upset victory for his or her first Sun Belt Conference title with 28 factors, 11 rebounds and three steals.

(*10*)She has already remodeled her workforce by turning into the primary participant in U.T.A. historical past to common over 20 factors per recreation for a whole common season whereas capturing virtually solely from contained in the arc. Now armed with an automated N.C.A.A. match bid, Jacobs and the Lady Mavs have a chance, albeit a slim one, to full the ahead’s unlikely journey into the highlight by garnering this system’s first-ever match win.

Taylor Robertson, Oklahoma

(*10*)Taylor Robertson is the sharpshooter behind one among Division I’s greatest offenses. She doesn’t simply lead the nation in 3-point photographs made, averaging 3.67 per recreation; she is vying for a spot within the historical past books as among the finest 3-point shooters in ladies’s school basketball lore. Robertson, a senior guard, is the one participant in N.C.A.A. historical past who has each made greater than 45 p.c of her 3-point photographs and averaged greater than eight 3-point makes an attempt per recreation.

(*10*)In quick, she’s capturing at an unprecedented charge though the ladies’s 3-point line moved again a bit over a foot (it’s now the identical as the lads’s) in the course of her Oklahoma profession. The Sooners will want her to get scorching in the event that they’re going to benefit from what could possibly be their highest N.C.A.A. match seeding in over a decade. In the Sooners’ solely nationwide match recreation of her profession up to now, Robertson hit six 3s; this season, she has hit as many as 9 in a recreation.

(*10*)A high recruit when she enrolled early at Notre Dame final yr, the freshman guard Olivia Miles has already recorded a triple-double and is among the many Division I assists leaders, with 7.2 per recreation earlier than match play. Miles performs with preternatural ease and reads defenses so shortly that at her greatest, she helps Notre Dame transfer with an virtually professional-level effectivity.

(*10*)In any given recreation, she will rating 30 factors, or seize 13 rebounds, or make 14 assists — but it surely’s her capability to fill within the blanks, to assist her teammates in the best way that’s most helpful, that has helped the Fighting Irish exceed expectations this season.

(*10*)This might be her first time enjoying within the N.C.A.A. match, and if the Irish devoted get their manner, it’ll mark the start of a storied postseason profession for the younger guard — one that would deliver Notre Dame again into the nationwide championship dialog.