Women’s college basketball is back as the 2023/24 NCAA season is finally here! We are still far away from Selection Sunday on March 17, but we are already projecting the 68-team brackets as each game goes by.
As the two-site format remains for a second-consecutive year, Oregon and Albany will host the regionals, and will eventually culminate in Cleveland at the Final Four stage, where LSU expect to defend their title.
After only the first match of the season, projecting the future winners is already proving to be a hard case. For example, the reigning champions started 23-0 last year as they remained unbeaten up until February 12. However, the Tigers were stunned by Colorado and lost their first game of the campaign on Monday, falling out as the top overall seed.
We created a select list of players you must watch this NCAA campaign, as these five athletes are expected to play their last season in college before going professional.
Angel Reese, LSU Tigers
Placing Angel Reese at the top of this list is stating quite the obvious, as the young LSU player dominated in her first season at Baton Rouge. She averaged 23 points and 15 rebounds per contest and led the Tigers all the way to a national championship.
The “Bayou Barbie” also set the NCAA single-season record in double-doubles and the SEC single-season record in rebounds. After winning it all, fans and experts throughout the league are expecting even greater things from the 21-year-old, who is probably playing her last year in college.
Caitlin Clark, Iowa Hawkeyes
Watch out, Caitlin Clark is going to shoot for three! We grew accustomed to witness this young Iowa talent try her luck from range throughout the last season and drop the ball inside the rim almost effortlessly. It felt like she almost single-handedly led the Hawkeyes to the championship game against LSU with her contagious confidence.
Caitlin Clark starts off the season with a near triple-double 💪 pic.twitter.com/yCYHcDYFVb
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 7, 2023
Despite losing the final, she averaged 27.8 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 8.6 assists in 2022-23. In what will likely be her last year in Iowa, we expect her to go all the way for the championship this time.
Cameron Brink, Stanford Cardinal
Ever since Cameron landed in Stanford in 2020, she’s been setting a new standard for the Cardinal squad. She isn’t just 2021’s national champion, but her numbers show she still means business in college, as she nearly averaged a double-double last campaign with 15.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per contest.
As she prepares to make her season debut against Hawaii this Wednesday, Brink is expected to clash head-to-head all year long with Alissa Pili in the race for Pac-12 player of the year.
Hailey Van Lith, LSU Tigers
Hailey produced one of the biggest news stories of the summer, as she decided to transfer out of Louisville and head to reigning champ territory in Baton Rouge. Yep, you heard correctly! The 21-year-old will team up with Angel Reese this year in their hopes to raise the NCAA title for a second consecutive time.
Hailey Van Lith with back-to-back THREES for LSU 🔥 pic.twitter.com/e52YcBorKv
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) November 7, 2023
Not only is Van Lith one of the top-ranked college basketball players in the country, she also recently helped the United States bring home the gold medal from there FIBA 3×3 World Cup. The Washington native already scored 14 points in her first match wearing the Tigers jersey.
Paige Bueckers, UConn Huskies
After missing all of last year’s competitions with a torn ACL, Bueckers is back and stronger than ever. Just like in the past, the Huskies are expected to dominate college basketball once again now that the first freshman to ever win the national player of the year is healthy and ready for action.
Even though she won this title three years ago, the last complete season she played in Paige averaged 14.6 points, 4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per match. The UConn guard will make her highly-awaited return this Wednesday when they face Daytona for the year’s opening contest.
