Watkins, Bueckers headline women’s Wooden list

Alexa Philippou, ESPN
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- Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
- Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer

USC‘s JuJu Watkins, UConn‘s Paige Bueckers, Notre Dame‘s Hannah Hidalgo and UCLA‘s Lauren Betts headline the Wooden Award midseason top 25 list announced Tuesday.

UConn (Bueckers, Sarah Strong), USC (Watkins, Kiki Iriafen), Notre Dame (Hidalgo, Olivia Miles), LSU (Flau’Jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow) and TCU (Sedona Prince, Hailey Van Lith) are well represented with two players on the list. Defending national champion South Carolina has one player, Te-Hina Paopao.

Other notable inclusions are former Wooden Award All-American Georgia Amoore (Kentucky), Texas‘ Madison Booker, Oklahoma‘s Raegan Beers and Florida State‘s Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer.

Strong is the only freshman featured.

Iowa‘s Caitlin Clark won the Wooden Award — given to the most outstanding player in college basketball — the previous two seasons, and Bueckers won it in 2021 as a freshman.

Players not selected for the midseason list are eligible to be included on the late-season edition as well as the national ballot, which features 15 players. An All-American team will eventually be announced the week of the Elite Eight, with the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player named soon after.

The complete Wooden Award midseason top 25:

Georgia Amoore, Kentucky

Aziaha James, NC State

Flau’Jae Johnson, LSU

Cotie McMahon, Ohio State

Raegan Beers, Oklahoma

Lauren Betts, UCLA

Madison Booker, Texas

Paige Bueckers, UConn

Audi Crooks, Iowa State

Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga

Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame