When the University of Washington retired Kelsey Plum‘s No. 10 jersey earlier this month, making her the first Huskies women’s basketball player with her number in the rafters of Hec Edmundson Pavilion, it was an opportunity for Plum to reflect on the journey that has taken her from UW to the WNBA.
“I look back now,” Plum said, “and it is really cool to have a full-circle moment, look back and say, ‘Dang, that was a lot of points. I never really thought about it.’ It’s cool. I appreciate that time of reflection. I’m really glad that it’s been at this point of my life because I’m at a different point of my life than I’ve ever been.”
Plum, a two-time WNBA champion and three-time All-Star, isn’t alone among WNBA standouts enjoying the opportunity to return as guests of honor to the college campuses where their journeys started. A day after Plum’s jersey retirement, 2024 Las Vegas Aces draft pick Elizabeth Kitley had hers retired at Virginia Tech. And this Sunday, Plum’s former Las Vegas teammate A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark, who broke Plum’s record for all-time career scoring in Division I women’s basketball, will be honored at South Carolina and Iowa, respectively.
They’ll surely experience similar emotions to what Plum felt seeing her jersey unveiled alongside those of Washington’s men’s basketball and volleyball stars.
“When it actually happens, it’s kind of like you’re in shock a little bit,” she said. “I was emotional. There’s just so much that goes into a moment like this.”
Who might be the next former women’s college basketball player to get her jersey hoisted to the rafters? Schools don’t generally talk about retiring jerseys until they announce it’s going to happen, so we don’t know what might be in the works around the country. But ESPN’s Kendra Andrews, Charlie Creme, Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Michael Voepel debate who might be next to receive the honor.
Which player should be next on the list for getting her college jersey retired?
Philippou: Sabrina Ionescu’s No. 20. Oregon doesn’t have a lengthy track record of retiring jersey numbers. (In fact, Ionescu’s teammate Ruthy Hebard wore No. 24 even though it had technically been retired for the contributions of program great Bev Smith). But honoring Ionescu — who, in addition to her robust individual accolades, led the program to two Elite Eight appearances plus the 2019 Final Four — should be a no-brainer for the Ducks. The Oregon legend is the only player in NCAA Division men’s or women’s basketball history with 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 1,000 assists and is the sport’s all-time triple-doubles leader with 26.
Voepel: Just as Clark is having her jersey retired now at Iowa, there’s no need to wait much longer to retire the jersey of another Iowan: Ashley Joens’ No. 24 at Iowa State. Joens is the Cyclones’ all-time leading scorer, a record she set in four seasons. In her fifth season (via the COVID-19 waiver), she became one of 16 Division I women’s players to hit 3,000 points, finishing with 3,060. She also led Iowa State to the 2023 Big 12 tournament title, just the third in school history.
Joens finished her career in 2023 and was drafted into the WNBA. Iowa State doesn’t retire numbers (on the men’s or women’s side) but does retire jerseys. The four retired for Iowa State’s women: Tonya Burns (finished her career in 1985), Jayme Olson (1998), Megan Taylor (2001) and Angie Welle (2002). Joens should be a slam dunk as next.
Creme: Only two women’s players at UConn have their jerseys retired: Rebecca Lobo’s No. 50 and Swin Cash’s No. 32. UConn reserves that honor for only alumni who have been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Two more Huskies legends might get the chance soon, as both Sue Bird and Maya Moore are first-time nominees for the 2025 Hall of Fame class. Whether their induction comes this year or in the near future, UConn would likely get those jersey retirement ceremonies on the calendar quickly for two of the best, and most popular, players in Huskies history. Moore is the program’s all-time leading scorer, the only three-time Wade Trophy winner in the award’s history, and a two-time national champion. Bird was also a two-time champ and won the Wade Trophy as the point guard on the unbeaten 2002 title team considered to be one of the best all time.
Pelton: UConn has retired two more numbers than Stanford, which has never done so. I’d like to see that change with No. 30, which could be retired to honor Nneka Ogwumike and Kate Starbird, both national players of the year. Ogwumike was No. 1 when Voepel ranked the greatest players of the Tara VanDerveer era after the legendary coach’s retirement last year. She has gone on to become a WNBA MVP and president of the players’ association. With due respect to Chris Gobrecht’s great UW teams, Puget Sound native Starbird was the defining women’s basketball player of the 1990s for me. After seven seasons in the ABL and WNBA, Starbird has made an impact on her second career as a professor at UW studying disinformation.
Andrews: LSU has retired only two jerseys, and the third should be Angel Reese’s No. 10. In her two seasons in Baton Rouge, Reese averaged 20.9 points and 14.4 rebounds per game and collected the second-most double-doubles in program history with 61, trailing only Sylvia Fowles. The All-American also led the Tigers to their first NCAA championship in 2023 as the Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Reese continued to make history throughout her WNBA rookie season before a season-ending injury. Reese’s legacy at LSU contributed to the skyrocketing interest in women’s basketball.
Voepel: We also should mention the Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard. But because of Kentucky‘s stringent rules on jersey retirement, it will be a while. Kentucky has established guidelines for all its sports that to have a jersey retired, athletes must have been in the school’s Hall of Fame at least five years. And athletes can’t be inducted into that hall until at least five years after they finish their college careers. In short, the earliest Howard could have her jersey retired is 2032, as she finished college at Kentucky in 2022 and was then picked No. 1 in the WNBA draft.
It seems a shame the wait will be that long for Howard, a two-time SEC player of the year and 2022 league tournament MVP who has gone on to be WNBA Rookie of the Year, a two-time WNBA All-Star and an Olympic bronze medalist in 3×3. Kentucky has only one retired jersey for a women’s basketball player: Valerie Still’s No. 12. She finished her career in 1983, and her jersey was retired in 2003.
Kentucky should add at least one other retired jersey even before Howard is eligible. Consider A’dia Mathies: She graduated in 2013 and entered Kentucky’s Hall of Fame in 2019. The program’s third-leading scorer behind Still and Howard, Mathies is a two-time SEC player of the year and helped Kentucky make the Elite Eight three times.
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