The Golden State Valkyries are the WNBA’s newest team, and we got our first look at the makings of their inaugural roster in the 2024 Expansion Draft. In the draft, Golden State selected 10 players from existing WNBA teams and one unrestricted free agent to begin building its own team, and the Valkyries will now look forward to the upcoming 2025 free agency period to sign more players for next season.

There’s also the 2025 WNBA Draft to look forward to. The results of the expansion draft didn’t impact next April’s big day very much—no trades were made, and only a few players chosen in the expansion draft figured to have major roles on their previous WNBA teams next season. Almost every team has plenty to address in free agency before thinking about which up-and-coming young players they’re going to choose next spring.

Golden State will have its own WNBA Draft selections to make, though, and that’s reason enough to discuss what a possible draft order might look like—even if that order is likely to change between now and then. Think of this as a checkpoint; let’s strike while the iron is hot and mock out a quick first-round scenario for the 2025 WNBA Draft.

1. Dallas Wings: Paige Bueckers (UConn)

There’s nothing that could have happened in the expansion draft that would have changed this pick. Bueckers is far and away the top player in this class and a blue-chip prospect that the Wings will be able to build around no matter which direction they decide to steer their franchise in.

Right now, Arike Ogunbowale is the face of the Wings, and Dallas will be trying to keep All-Star forward Satou Sabally for 2025 and beyond. Adding Bueckers—a 6-foot-0 lead guard with elite court vision and three-level scoring ability whose path to stardom seems inevitable—could be the move that finally pushes the Wings from also-rans to contenders.

2. Los Angeles Sparks: Olivia Miles (Notre Dame)

We don’t yet know if Miles will declare for the 2025 Draft, but if she does, it’s unlikely she’ll fall past lottery range. A superb playmaker whose abilities as a lead guard make those around her better, Miles would be a home-run draft pick for a Sparks team sorely in need of value-added passing. Miles is currently averaging 16.9 points and 6.4 assists per game for a high-octane Notre Dame offense, and she’s drastically improved her jump shooting, too, knocking down 48.6 percent of her 3-point shots. Adding her to a roster featuring center Cameron Brink and forward Rickea Jackson would set the Sparks up with one of the WNBA’s most talented young cores.

3. Chicago Sky: Te-Hina Paopao (South Carolina)

The Sky are already set in their frontcourt with the trio of Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Elizabeth Williams, but have glaring needs everywhere else. With the futures of Chennedy Carter and Dana Evans uncertain at best, Chicago could use another guard—preferably one who can shoot, as the team ranked last in the WNBA by a country mile in 3-point attempt rate last season.

Paopao would check both of these boxes. Steady-handed with the basketball and a massive threat from deep, Paopao has shot 46.8 percent on 3-pointers since transferring to South Carolina, and her ability to play without the ball would allow her to play with whichever guards Chicago decides to retain from 2024. It’s possible the Sky use this pick on a player with more length instead, but if they want a fast-learning ball handler who has the offensive skillset to fit with their stars in the frontcourt, Paopao would be a safe choice at No. 3.

4. Washington Mystics: Kiki Iriafen (USC)

In a vacuum, No. 4 might be underselling Iriafen as a prospect, but given how pressing the needs of the Sparks and Sky are, those teams may elect to pass on adding another big in the lottery. If that happens, the Mystics could jump at the chance to draft Iriafen, whose first season at USC has been a hands-down success thus far: She’s averaging 18.2 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 51.7 percent from the floor, and the 25.6 percent free throw rate she’s posting is a career-best.

Iriafen’s game is already quite polished for a scoring power forward; her footwork in the post and mid-range jumper should translate to the WNBA immediately. There’s also hope that she’ll eventually stretch her range out to beyond the 3-point line, in which case she’ll be significantly more malleable at the WNBA level.

5. Golden State Valkyries: Dominique Malonga (France)

Let’s be honest: As exciting as they are, expansion teams are typically not very good in their inaugural seasons. We still have an entire free agency period to navigate, but there’s a better chance the Valkyries land a franchise cornerstone in future WNBA Drafts than at No. 5 in this one.

With that in mind, Golden State should have no qualms about drafting a player who may not be a part of its initial roster, as long as they believe in their long-term potential. Malonga just turned 19 years old and may not be ready for the WNBA immediately, but at 6-foot-6 and with more than a few dunks on her highlight reels, she has the ceiling of a player who simply doesn’t come around very often. She’s currently averaging 19.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game for the French basketball club LDLC ASVEL Féminin in EuroCup Women, and given how many international players the Valkyries chose in Friday’s expansion draft, they’d probably be more than happy to stash Malonga and let her develop.

6. Washington Mystics: Sonia Citron (Notre Dame)

The Mystics are the only WNBA team currently without a head coach or general manager, so it’s anyone’s guess what their plans are between now and draft day. Citron, however, is the type of player who can make an impact on just about any roster. A 6-foot-1 wing who can shoot off the catch and operate in the pick-and-roll, Citron has a versatile offensive skillset that would benefit a Mystics team that’s currently a little short on ball handling. Defensively, she uses her length wisely, and would make for a great complement to ballhawks Brittney Sykes and Ariel Atkins.

7. New York Liberty: Azzi Fudd (UConn)

How can the defending champs get even better? Most of that will be addressed in free agency, when we’ll see if the Liberty can re-sign Breanna Stewart, but until then, it’s worth considering which potential draftees would best fit next to her, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones. Fudd is one of the best jump shooters in the country, and while she’s not as strong of a defender as Kayla Thornton, who the Liberty lost in the expansion draft, her tertiary creation skills and off-ball movement would be maximized playing alongside New York’s top-end talent. Fudd needs to prove she can stay healthy first, but if she makes it through the rest of her graduate season unscathed, the Liberty shouldn’t have many reservations about drafting her.

8. Indiana Fever: Aneesah Morrow (LSU)

The Fever are going to need to shore up their frontcourt after losing arguably the best backup big in the WNBA in Temi Fagbenle to the expansion draft, and while Morrow’s skillset is vastly different than Fagbenle’s, she’d nonetheless be right at home playing next to Indiana’s dynamic playmakers.

At 6-foot-1, Morrow is a bit undersized for her position, but her physicality and activity more than make up for it; she’s currently averaging a monstrous 13.3 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game for LSU. Playing her next to Aliyah Boston would help alleviate any size concerns Indiana may have, and Morrow would thrive offensively receiving passes from Caitlin Clark. She already has the jump shot and the touch in the paint to be an effective scorer—we’ve seen that at both LSU and her underclassman seasons at DePaul—and the hope for whichever team drafts her will be that her efficiency will rise playing in a WNBA offensive system.

9. Seattle Storm: Shyanne Sellers (Maryland)

Seattle was the only WNBA team left untouched by the expansion draft, as the Valkyries opted not to choose any Storm player for their own roster. Regardless, the Storm have a lot to get done in the coming months, especially with the recent news of longtime shooting guard Jewell Loyd’s request for a trade out of Seattle.

There may not be a perfect player on the board for the Storm at No. 9, but there may be one who can contribute a little bit of everything. Sellers has become known for her chameleon-esque role changes throughout her time at Maryland, playing both the lead guard and wing positions and using her athleticism to impact the game defensively. Seattle’s roster could look quite different than it did in 2024 when the Storm went all-in for a championship, and though they don’t have optimal draft position, whichever player they choose here will probably end up being more than a benchwarmer.

10. Chicago Sky: Ajsa Sivka (Slovenia)

If the Sky get who they want at No. 3—whether that’s Paopao or someone else—they may be more inclined to take a swing at No. 10. Sivka is the kind of player Chicago desperately needs: a taller forward (6-foot-3) who can play on the perimeter and knock down 3-pointers at a high clip. Through six EuroCup Women games for French basketball club Tarbes, Sivka is averaging 12.7 points and shooting 48.6 percent on 3-pointers, which would be quite valuable to a Chicago roster that lacked firepower on the wing last season. Sivka is far from a finished product—she’s just 19 years old—but if the WNBA is in her future plans, the Sky might be interested in drafting her.

11. Minnesota Lynx: Ja’Naiya Quinerly (West Virginia)

Unlike most of the other WNBA teams in this draft order, the Lynx don’t have many obvious needs. Minnesota made the 2024 WNBA Finals thanks to team defense and an egalitarian offensive approach that featured shooters at every position, and each of its five starters are under contract for 2025.

More backcourt depth never hurt anyone, though. Quinerly is the head of the snake for an über-aggressive West Virginia team, and she’d bring that youthful energy to Minnesota, giving the Lynx a pesky point-of-attack defense who can relentlessly push the ball in transition. Quinerly is currently averaging 18.6 points and three steals for the Mountaineers, and while there may be questions about her ability to play point guard at the next level, the Lynx’s success in 2024 proved that you don’t always need a ball-dominant lead guard to have an efficient and unselfish offense.

12. Phoenix Mercury: Makayla Timpson (Florida State)

The Mercury could stand to get a little younger and more athletic, especially after losing forward Monique Billings to the expansion draft (though she was set to become an unrestricted free agent), and Timpson would be a good choice if Phoenix is looking to bolster its frontcourt. A natural shot-blocker with a long wingspan and top-notch defensive instincts, Timpson has had a productive senior season for the Seminoles thus far, averaging 18.1 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game—all career-highs—and has excelled over the years as an aggressive, roaming type of defensive player. Assuming Brittney Griner will be back in Phoenix in 2025, Timpson playing next to her would allow the Mercury to play some larger lineups (something they weren’t able to do for much of 2024) and inject some much-needed energy into the team’s aging roster.

Note: The Las Vegas Aces forfeited their 2025 first-round pick due a violation of league rules during the 2023 offseason.

SO much is changing in the WNBA right now.

A new teams means more roster spots. But that also means a lot of movement. The Golden State Valkyries just completed their expansion draft, where they selected players from 11 of the 12 other teams to start forming their roster. That alone is a lot more player movement than we are used to a WNBA offseason.

Now that Golden State is starting to build their roster, it means other teams have new vacancies. On top of that, there are a whole lot of free agents getting ready to negotiate contracts in the new year. The soon-to-be-expired collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the WNBPA also adds an interesting wrinkle into free agency this year.

Let’s break down four factors that are going to make free agency particularly entertaining:

1. Golden State’s remaining roster needs

As the WNBA did not release the lists of protected players for the Golden State expansion draft, a few of the selections were surprises. Kate Martin moving to join her former Las Vegas Aces assistant coach Natalie Nakase in the Bay is very exciting, as is Monique Billings, coming from the Phoenix Mercury, getting a well-deserved roster spot. Kayla Thornton leaving the New York Liberty is sad, but she will be great on the Valkyries as well. And it was surprising to learn that the Indiana Fever did not protect Temi Fagbenle.

Looking at this roster, there is a clear need for centers, something the Valkyries can focus on in free agency. They also have yet to use the one core designation allotted to them as a new franchise.

Another factor to consider is that a few of the international players selected may or may not even come over to the WNBA this year. As general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said our Łukasz Muniowski about the team’s perspective, “Our first order of business will be to make them trust our organization and prove that we want to establish a mutually beneficial relationship with them.” Whatever happens, the Valkyries will have wiggle room in free agency to make some big signings.

The overwhelming belief is that the Valkyries could attract one or two BIG free agents. They have plenty of cap space to work with and offer great facilities, as well as the opportunity for a rising star to create their own legacy as the No. 1 option on a new team.

2. CBA uncertainty = player power

As expected, the WNBPA announced they would opt out the current CBA after the 2025 season. That means everything from the salary cap to player benefits and more will be re-negotiated. With that, players who are free agents this offseason have a little leg up in their own negotiations.

A lot of players—think Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird (pre-retirement)—opt to sign one-year deals. It gives them the power to change their deals year by year, along with the freedom to make moves. These No. 1 options have the power to do this—because it’s not like they are going to just not sign somewhere if they want to play. They’ll just take their championship-contending talent elsewhere, if it comes to that.

Due to the forthcoming CBA negotiations, the power of signing a one-year deal extends to a larger population of players, giving more players more power in contract talks. Don’t want to give us what we want? Fine, we just won’t sign and will take our talents somewhere else for one season. Even if organizations try to entice players with multi-year deals, players likely still will prioritize one-year agreements, preserving the opportunity to sign new contracts under the stipulations outlined in the new CBA.

All of this to say, expect A LOT of one-year contracts this free agency.

3. What’s Jewell Loyd’s future?

Jewell Loyd recently requested a trade from the Seattle Storm. The Olympic gold medalist was apparently at the center of a recent investigation into the Storm that focused on player treatment by coaches. The investigation found the team innocent of all accusations, and shortly thereafter the news broke that Loyd was asking out.

However, Loyd has one more year left on her contract. She can’t just sign somewhere this offseason. She has to be traded. She also comes along with a $249,032 contract.

Loyd is a top player in the league so teams could end up shuffling things around to make space to trade for her services. She could end up in Golden State, but other possibilities are the Chicago Sky (her hometown team) or even the Aces, depending on how their free agency shakes out.

Either, way, Loyd’s trade request makes free agency a little more juicy.

4. So many big-name free agents

Here are some of the biggest free agents in the WNBA heading into the 2025 offseason:

• Nneka Ogwumike, Seattle Storm (UFA)
• Elena Delle Donne, Washington Mystics (UFA)
• Tina Charles, Atlanta Dream (UFA)
• DeWanna Bonner, Connecticut Sun (UFA)
• Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Sun (UFA)
• DiJonai Carrington, Connecticut Sun (RFA)
• Satou Sabally, Dallas Wings (UFA)
• Kelsey Mitchell, Indiana Fever (UFA)
• Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces (UFA)
• Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty (UFA)
• Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury (UFA)
• Diana Taurasi, Phoenix Mercury (UFA)

The only difference between unrestricted free agents (UFA) and restricted free agents (RFA) is that the team of the RFA holds their negotiating rights. That means that they have the option to match any offer other teams make; they basically have to pass on a player before that player can go sign elsewhere.

There also is the complication of the core designation. For example, Breanna Stewart was “cored” by the Liberty last season, meaning they essentially claimed her and she wasn’t allowed to go sign anywhere else. Cores last the entirety of a player’s contract, which means Stewart’s first core ended when her current contract ended. Players can only be cored twice by a team, so if the Liberty core her again for this season, it will be last time they can do so.

Last season, Elena Delle Donne wanted to leave the Washington Mystics and play somewhere else. But, they cored her. So instead of just playing in Washington again, she just took the year off. Washington was unable to core anyone else and since Delle Donne’s contract is now up anyway, she can now do what she wants.

It’s going to be an absolutely wild free agency period in the WNBA. If the non-stop entertainment of this offseason is any indication, there will be some spicy signings as we open up free agency in the new year.

Are the contenders beginning to separate themselves from the pretenders in women’s college basketball? Here’s more on the teams and players who made a statement last week:

Gamecocks reestablish greatness

With less than 90 seconds remaining in the first quarter of Sunday night’s game between South Carolina and TCU, South Carolina junior forward Ashlyn Watkins stole the ball from TCU grad guard Madison Conner, raced down the court and dunked the it home over the late contest from TCU grad center Sedona Prince.

Watkins’ right-handed slam—the third of her career—encapsulated the Gamecocks’ win over the erstwhile undefeated Horned Frogs. They took it from them, and then they took it to them.

Before Watkins’ dunk, the Gamecocks were leading by five points, with the early action promising a close contests between the two top-10 teams. Soon thereafter, however, South Carolina proved their superiority. Up 44-23 at the half, the Gamecocks would stretch their advantage to as many as 38 points before cruising to the 85-52 win.

It was a vintage South Carolina domination, with head coach Dawn Staley’s team overwhelming the opponent with aggressiveness, intensity and depth. Sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley led the Gamecocks in scoring with 20 points from off the bench, while senior guard Te-Hina Paopao and junior guard Raven Johnson both added 11 points. The 3-for-6 performance from 3 for Johnson was especially encouraging, as she has struggled with her shot during the season’s first month. Junior forward Chloe Kitts did the most work on the glass for the Gamecocks, bringing down a game-high 12 boards.

Outside of grad guard Hailey Van Lith, TCU found little on the offensive end. Van Lith finished with 21 points and six assists, while Prince, who was averaging a double-double on the season, managed just six points and two rebounds. The Horned Frogs, who were averaging nearly 29 3-point attempts per game, got up just 19 3s and made only five. Those marks are a testament to how the Gamecocks prevented the Frogs from executing their preferred game plan, turning one of the nation’s highest-scoring teams into an adrift, aimless offense.

The victory gave South Carolina four-straight double-digit wins, with the last two of those coming over teams ranked in the top 10, as the Gamecocks defeated Duke on Thursday in the SEC/ACC Challenge. In short, proclamations about a return to parity in women’s college basketball after South Carolina suffered a single loss might have been premature. Whatever happens this season, it looks like it will still run through Columbia.

Standout showings

The best players in women’s college basketball continue to put up big numbers, highlighted by this collection record-breaking, head-turning performers:

• JuJu Watkins notched her first 40-ball of the season on Tuesday, dropping an even 40 points in USC’s 94-52 win over Cal Baptist. The sophomore star drained nine of her 11 3-point attempts, setting a new program. The previous mark was held by assistant coach Courtney Jaco, who made seven in a game in 2017. Watkins also added six boards and three blocks to her stat line.

• UConn’s freshman forward delivered her Strong-est game yet. Sarah Strong scored a season-high 22 points, shooting 75 percent from the field and 4-for-5 from 3, on Tuesday, helping the Huskies shake off a slow start to defeat Holy Cross, 88-52. On Sunday, she made a case that such performances are becoming her new norm, going 5-for-5 from 2 and 3-for-5 from 3 to lead UConn past Louisville, 85-52, with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists. For more on Strong’s promise, check out Edwin Garcia’s breakdown of her game.

• Listen to what Stailee Heard did last week! The Oklahoma State sophomore guard was a sparkling 7-for-7 from 3, scoring a (temporary) career-high 29 points as the Cowgirls trampled Houston Christian, 93-39, on Wednesday. Heard not only grabbed 10 boards for the double-double, but also notched three steals and two blocks for a complete performance. Heard, however, wasn’t done. On Friday, she hit even more 3s and scored even more points! Going 8-for-11 from deep, Heard set another new career-high with 32 points. She again corralled 10 boards, while also tossing six assists as the Cowgirls bested Alabama State, 125-49.

• Down by as many as 18 points, Florida State charged back against Tennessee in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Wednesday before coming up just short, 79-77. While it might have been the Seminoles’ fourth game in seven days, the heavy schedule did not slow junior guard Ta’Niya Latson, who cemented her status as the nation’s leading scorer with 38 points. Sunday, Latson showed she still had more points in reserve, uncorking a season-high 39 points as FSU held off SMU to get their first conference win, 93-85.

• Senior guard Serena Sundell secured her first-career triple-double and Kansas State delivered the largest victory in program history on Thursday. The Wildcats downed SC Upstate 110-24 as Sundell finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists, with her 13 dimes also tying the single-game school record. (The historic game also followed Tuesday’s history-making night in Manhattan; see more on that one below.)

• Arkansas earned their best win of the season on Thursday, beating Boston College 75-64 in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Izzy Higginbottom did the heavy lifting for the Hogs, scoring a season-high 38 points. The senior guard, in her first season at Arkansas after two years at Arkansas State, did all of her damage inside the arc or from the free throw line.

• Small guard, big game. That describes Murray State sophomore guard Halli Poock and what she did on Saturday. Standing just 5-foot-4, Poock finished with 30 points, including six 3-pointers, and eight assists as the Racers ran over Austin Peay, 116-80.

• On Sunday, sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo became the fastest player in Notre Dame history to reach the 1,000-point milestone, doing so in just 44 games. Hidalgo dropped 24 points on Syracuse as the Irish won 93-62. On Thursday, her 30 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals helped Notre Dame take down Texas in overtime in the SEC/ACC Challenge, 80-70.

• LSU senior wing Aneesah Morrow recorded her 83rd career double-double on Sunday, putting up 26 points and pulling down 16 rebounds in the win over Grambling, 100-54. She’s now eighth on the all-time double-doubles list.

All-time Yokie

In Tuesday’s 90-43 win over Eastern Illinois, Kansas State grad center Ayoka Lee became the school’s all-time leading scorer, claiming 2,236 career points. Lee attained the mark in expectedly efficient fashion, making her final seven shot attempts, which included the record-breaking basket midway through the third quarter.

After the game, head coach Jeff Mittie remarked on Lee’s time at K-State, saying:

One of the things that has made her such a great player is you really don’t have to tell her too many things twice. So I haven’t had that conversation with her very often, although there are games where you know you have to, as a coach say, “Hey you’re not getting the position that you need to in this game.” Ayoka had a tremendous ability to take coaching. She’s had a terrific ability of being able to adjust when needed.

On breaking the record, Lee herself said, “It’s crazy, I am so grateful. It takes a lot of games, it takes a lot of passes, it takes a lot of everything, you know, to get to that point. It’s crazy.”

Paige debuts PE

On Saturday, Paige Bueckers became the first college athlete with her own player-edition shoe, as she debuted her Nike GT Hustle 3 PE in UConn’s win over Louisville at the inaugural Women’s Champions Classic in Brooklyn.

Before the big day, Bueckers had said, “It’s definitely motivating to wear your own shoe. I grew up wearing Nikes—all the signature shoes—so it’s surreal to have this Player Edition model. I just want to show out in it.”

That didn’t exactly happen, as Bueckers had a rare, inefficient outing at Barclays Center, going just 2-for-11 from the field and finishing with eight points. As noted above, it was freshman Sarah Strong who occupied the starring role for the victorious Huskies. Yet, sooner than later, it will be no surprise when Bueckers’ lives up the mantra, repeated to her by her dad, that is inscribed on her shoe: “Be You, Be Great.”

A look ahead

The reprisal of the UConn-Notre Dame rivalry highlights the action in the week ahead:

Wednesday, Dec. 11

Iowa State vs. Iowa (9 p.m. ET, FS1)

Thursday, Dec. 12

UConn vs. Notre Dame (7 p.m. ET, ESPN)

Sunday, Dec. 15

Iowa vs. Michigan State (12 p.m. ET, BTN)

NC State vs. Louisville (1 p.m. ET, ABC)

Georgia Tech vs. North Carolina (2 p.m. ET, ACCN)

The business of sports—from schedules to (missing) prize money to merchandise to earnings—dominated the week’s women’s basketball news:

WNBA schedule shenanigans

On Monday, the WNBA surprisingly dropped the 2025 schedule. Why?

First, it seems a bit odd to hype next season’s schedule before the free agency period, where a number of prominent players likely will change teams. Imagining forthcoming matchups—including revenge games—makes more sense when every teams’ roster is mostly set. That’s especially true for the Golden State Valkyries, who only began to build their team in Friday’s expansion draft.

Second, shouldn’t the league try to build some anticipation for the schedule release? The WNBA could take a cue from Unrivaled, which effectively has cultivated fan engagement with it’s various announcements of players, rosters and more (and another example is below). The WNBA, which very much values social media metrics as a barometer of the league’s success (but bizarrely announced the three-time MVP winner early on a Sunday morning), too often wastes opportunities to generate fan excitement.

Yes, the WNBA is more successful and popular then ever. Yet, sometimes it seems it has reached such a status in spite of itself. (The bungled roll out of the team name of the Toronto expansion franchise being the latest example, which our Chelsea Leite wrote about at Raptors HQ.)

Nonetheless, there’s still reason to already be excited about the 2025 season, which will tip off on May 16 and include a record 44 games for every team. The Commissioner’s Cup (more on it below, too) returns for a fourth season, with Cup play scheduled for June 1 through 17, and the Commissioner’s Cup Championship Game to be held on July 1. The 2025 season will also see the debut of the WNBA’s revised playoff format. While the first round will remain three games, the higher-seeded team will host Games 1 and 3, giving the lower-seeded team Game 2 and guaranteeing all playoff teams at least one home game. And, for the first time ever, the WNBA Finals will be a seven-game series, with the higher-seeded team hosting Games 1, 2, 5 and 7.

Will the W pay out promised $750,000 prize pool?

Over at The Athletic, Mike Vorkunov discovered an accounting issue within the WNBA’s 2025 schedule announcement.

As Vorkunov notes, the league announced the $500,000 Commissioner’s Cup prize pool, yet, according to the 2020 CBA, the total prize pool for the league’s “special competitions or tournaments” should be $750,000. So, where’s the rest of the agreed-upon prize money?

Vorkunov writes:

The original goal when that CBA was written was for the WNBA to have multiple competitions, according to league sources. The CBA says they could have been held during training camp, the regular season or in the playoffs. But that plan changed, and the league has launched just one. The remaining money that was supposed to be for these new competitions was reallocated elsewhere around the league, those sources said.

It appears the promised $250,000 has just evaporated, rather getting allocated to the Commissioner’s Cup prize pool, as seems like the sensible solution.

Commissioner’s Cup participants, however, will get an extra pay out for a second-straight season, albeit in the form of cryptocurrency. Coinbase, the sponsor of the Cup, gave out $120,000 in cryptocurrency to the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup contestants, the champion Minnesota Lynx and runner-up New York Liberty. The same will happen in 2025, with each player getting $5,000 in cryptocurrency. That’s a nice bonus, although, with the fluctuating value of Bitcoin, players might prefer a portion of the presumably available $250,000 prize pool.

Unrivaled announces captains, merch and more

This past week, Unrivaled announced the league’s six Club Captains. They are:

• Breanna Stewart, Mist Basketball Club
• Napheesa Collier, Lunar Owls Basketball Club
• Satou Sabally, Phantom Basketball Club
• Chelsea Gray, Rose Basketball Club
• Arike Ogunbowale, Vinyl Basketball Club
• Alyssa Thomas, Laces Basketball Club

Unrivaled also signed LSU junior Flau’jae Johnson to an NIL deal. She joins UConn redshirt senior Paige Bueckers as the league’s second collegiate partner. Johnson and Bueckers helped introduce Unrivaled’s new merchandise line, the first of forthcoming content collaborations between the pair of college stars and the league.

Flau’jae, CC get sports biz recognition

Flau’jae Johnson made additional off-court news in the past week, as the hooper-rapper was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Sports 2025 class. WNBA Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark also made the cut, along with University of Miami twin hoopers Haley and Hanna Cavinder.

In other sports business news, Sportico reported that Clark was the 10th-highest paid female athlete in 2024, raking in an estimated $11.1 million through NIL deals that, once she turned pro, became traditional endorsement deals. Clark’s most lucrative sponsorship is with Nike, which is an eight-year agreement that reportedly is worth more than $3 million a year.

The Clark trading card market also continues to boom, as her 2024 Panini Select WNBA Gold Vinyl signed rookie card sold for $234,850 on Saturday night—smashing the record for a Clark or WNBA card, which was set in October at $97,212.54.

The record-breaking sale trails only the price of a 2003 NetPro Serena Williams autographed patch card (meaning it included a piece of a match-worn outfit), which netted $266,400 in a 2022 sale.

After holding off the No. 8 Duke Blue Devils at home on Thursday as part of the SEC/ACC Challenge, the No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks are off to Texas to meet another top-10 opponent. The No. 9 TCU Horned Frogs await in Forth Worth for the US LBM Coast to Coast Challenge Hoopfest Women’s Basketball Classic (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2).

It’s a mouthful, but the hoops should be delightful.

Last time they played a top-10 ranked team with a 6-foot-7 center, it seemed like South Carolina missed being the team with the 6-foot-7 center. Now-No. 1 UCLA and junior center Lauren Betts made the Gamecocks, their fans and observers even more appreciative of the value of Kamilla Cardoso. She not only was the “separator” for last season’s national champs because of what she could do, or could prevent, in actions on both ends of the floor, but also because the threat posed by her mere presence occupied the intense attention of opponents, which then made things easier on her teammates, whether that be by covering up for their miscues on defense or cleaning up an ill-advised shot with a putback basket on offense. South Carolina has struggled to carve out a consistent, Cardoso-less identity this season, with the loss to UCLA serving as the most glaring example.

Sunday night, when they face another 6-foot-7 center in TCU grad student Sedona Prince, South Carolina has an opportunity to demonstrate what they’ve learned about themselves since getting run out of Pauley Pavilion in mid-November.

Yet, for all the ways the Horned Frogs have impressed this season, rising from unranked to the top 10, their personnel around Prince is not as daunting as the Bruins’ pieces around Betts. While UCLA was just as big and athletic as South Carolina, TCU is not. Outside of Prince, only one Horned Frog who has averaged at least 15 minutes per game stands above 6-foot-0; that’s 6-foot-1 junior guard Taylor Bigby, whose primary skill is her shooting, rather than athletic, disruptive playmaking. This roster reality suggests that the Gamecocks, with a suite of forwards that includes juniors Chloe Kitts and Ashlyn Watkins and freshman Joyce Edwards, along with head coach’s Dawn Staley’s schemes, should be better positioned to nullify Prince’s impact.

South Carolina also is equipped to stall the other engine of TCU’s success in grad guard Hailey Van Lith. As our Josh Felton recently broke down, Van Lith has demonstrated significant improvement in her still-short stint with the Horned Frogs. Overburdened as a primary ball handler last season at LSU, those roughs reps have begun to pay off, as Van Lith has blossomed into a more effective offensive operator. In TCU’s comeback upset of then-No. 3 Notre Dame, Van Lith was in such control that she even found success against Hannah Hidalgo, the Irish sophomore guard who is one of the nation’s better point-of-attack defenders.

But, Hidalgo is just 5-foot-6, reliant on her ferocity, rather than her frame, to try and trouble the 5-foot-9 Van Lith. Staley, in contrast, can throw several big guards on Van Lith to prevent her from establishing a rhythm. Her first option has to be junior guard Raven Johnson, who may match Van Lith at 5-foot-9, but, due to her combination of length and strength, plays bigger than her height. Johnson, memorably, exacted revenge on Caitlin Clark in last season’s national championship game, sticking to the Iowa superstar like no player at the collegiate had been able to do. She should be ready to make things hard on Van Lith, with the likes of 5-foot-10 sophomore guard MiLaysia Fulwiley and 6-foot-0 senior guard Bree Hall also capable of taking on the Van Lith assignment for stretches.

TCU’s one of the nation’s lower turnover teams, with Van Lith sporting the nation’s fifth-best assist-to-turnover ratio, while South Carolina is one of the better teams at turning opponent’s over. When these two opposing forces meet, the Gamecocks need to establish the advantage, with those turnovers then becoming transition buckets where they don’t have to worry about Prince, the nation’s leading shot blocker, patrolling the paint. If that’s not the case and South Carolina, like Notre Dame, allows Van Lith to gain comfort running the TCU offense, the Gamecocks could be in trouble, struggling to match the points put up by the high-scoring Horned Frogs.

Game information

No. 3 South Carolina Gamecocks (8-1) vs. No. 9 TCU Horned Frogs (9-0)

When: Sunday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. ET

Where: Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX

How to watch: ESPN2