Now that Caitlin Clark is a member of the Indiana Fever, it’s time to turn the page on the 2024 WNBA Draft and look ahead to what could be an even more talented class in 2025. This is the last group of players to be eligible for a pandemic bonus year, so the WNBA will have a true double draft of fourth- and fifth-year seniors, which will simplify the process for general managers who no longer have to wonder who will declare.

The relevant exception to that is the medical redshirt. Players still have an additional year of eligibility if they sit out for a season due to injury, as is the case with the top prospect on the board. However, the number of players who fall into that category is relatively small.

Given that the draft order isn’t set until after the 2024 WNBA season, which has yet to commence, this isn’t a mock draft. Instead, it’s a list of the top players without regard to team fit. This exercise also only considers domestic prospects, though we should expect internationals to factor heavily on draft day in 2025. After all, three non-NCAA players were taken in the first round of Monday’s draft.

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WNBA Draft grades: Fever earn A for picking Clark, Sky receive C+ even with Angel Reese

Much is expected to change between now and then, but probably not the…

First-round (and even first-weekend) upsets in the women’s NCAA Tournament are rare, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see thrillers from Day 1.

Since the women’s tournament expanded to 64 games in 1994, only one No. 16 seed has brought down a No. 1 seed: Harvard over Stanford in 1998. A No. 15 seed or No. 14 seed has never won a tournament game. But the 12-5 matchup remains spicy with 26 upsets through the years. Some teams (Florida Gulf Coast and Belmont) have become particularly adept at these.

The first weekend will also bring us interesting style and personnel matchups. Who will move on? Who’s March Madness dreams will end quickly?

Our experts pick the most fascinating first-round games to watch:

(All times listed are Eastern)

11:30 a.m. Friday, ESPN2

Grace Raynor:  The Spartans’ 22 wins are their most since the 2015-16 season, and they’ve hung right in with some of the best teams in the Big Ten this year, losing on the road to Iowa by just 3 points and Ohio State by 5. North Carolina, meanwhile, gave South Carolina one of its tougher games earlier in the season when the Gamecocks won by just 7 points in Chapel…

March is here, and the biggest stars in the game will headline the madness. You’ll see plenty about Caitlin Clark, JuJu Watkins, Kamilla Cardoso and Hannah Hidalgo. Those players are the foundations of their teams.

But it takes more than a star to take a team to the Final Four. The players around that star — whether they’re other starters, role players or super subs — have a part to play. Some might find they can put even more on their shoulders at this time of year. Those difference-makers on the roster? We’re calling these players the “ceiling changers” because when they’re at their best, their teams’ potential goes way up.

For these nine teams to make deep runs (or pick up an upset or two), these ceiling changers need to be at their best.

(Players arranged alphabetically by last name.)

NC State senior forward

Region: Portland 4 | Seed: 3 | First-round details: vs. No. 14 Chattanooga, 2:30 p.m. ET Saturday, ESPNU; Raleigh, N.C.

Collins is typically the fourth-best option for the Wolfpack, but when she scores in double figures, NC State is 18-2. When she makes more than 50 percent of her shots, the Wolfpack are undefeated (12-0). It’s too much to ask opposing defenses to contain Saniya Rivers and Aziaha James on the perimeter, River Baldwin in the middle and NC…

Selection Sunday has come and gone, and if your favorite team landed in the Albany 2 Region, my sincerest apologies.

At The Athletic, we have you covered with all the big-picture details of the bracket, including the paths to the Final Four for last year’s national finalists as well as South Carolina, who enters as this year’s favorite. But the fun of filling out a bracket (you can print ours here) isn’t just figuring out the Final Four teams; it’s knowing which 11th-seeded team will upset a power conference program and which underdog can silence a hosting team’s home crowd.

You can’t have the Big Dance without Cinderella, and thankfully, there are several candidates in this year’s field waiting to try on that glass slipper to see if it fits. Here’s a look at some double-digit seeds who are threats to spring early-round upsets.

No. 11 Texas A&M

I just can’t quit Texas A&M. The Aggies featured in my preseason top 25 — a prediction that did not age well as they lost five of their final six SEC games and failed to enter the rankings for the entirety of the regular season. However, when Texas A&M is at its peak, it can contend with talented opposition. The Aggies boast double-digit wins over Kansas, Ole Miss and Tennessee, and they stayed within 11 points of South…

MINNEAPOLIS — The message was clear, and she wasn’t wrong.

With the clock ticking down, junior Shyanne Sellers turned to the sideline and found the camera, yelling directly into it, “Peaking at the right time! Peaking at the right time!”

The unranked Terrapins took down No. 4 Ohio State, the Big Ten Tournament’s top seed, 82-61.

Even after a season in which Maryland saw plenty of struggles — an 0-8 record against ranked opponents, a four-game losing streak in January, a season-ending injury to one of its key players just weeks ago — perhaps we all should’ve expected to see this team, as Sellers said, peaking at the right time.

After all, this is Brenda Frese’s Maryland. The Terps have been to the Sweet 16 eight times since 2012, including each of the last three seasons, and they made an Elite Eight trip last year. So finishing eighth in the Big Ten this season — its lowest finish since Maryland joined the conference in 2014 — shouldn’t have been as much of a worry consider this is March, and this is Maryland.

The Terrapins used their half-court defensive pressure to stymie the Buckeyes early and found consistency with a balanced offensive attack, putting together their most complete performance of the season. Led by Seller’s 25 points, eight rebounds and…

The Big Ten’s record-breaking women’s basketball television ratings have translated to a new attendance record for next month’s Big Ten tournament.

Two weeks before the league’s top teams compete at Minneapolis’ Target Center, every session has sold out for the first time, the conference announced Friday. Big Ten officials estimate more than 109,000 fans will attend the seven sessions and shatter the league’s total attendance record of 47,923, which was set last year in Minneapolis.

The #B1G Conference is excited to announce the 2024 TIAA @B1Gwbball Tournament is sold out for the first time in its history! pic.twitter.com/i4mA78d9Tx

— Big Ten Conference (@bigten) February 23, 2024

Call it the Caitlin Clark Effect. The Iowa senior guard, who broke the women’s NCAA career scoring mark last week, has helped the Hawkeyes sell out and/or set attendance records at 30 of 32 arenas this year. Iowa became the first Big Ten women’s program to sell out its entire season and played before only two crowds at an exempt tournament in Florida that were not at full capacity.

With the Hawkeyes’ proximity to Minneapolis, fans flocked north last year to see Iowa win the league championship. That seems to be the case this year, too, only with tickets sold well in advance. Plus,

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

Power conferences understandably dominate discussion, particularly Bubble Watch talk, this time of year. All the teams fighting in the middle, yearning for resume-supplementing wins, provide some of the most notable matchups and storylines.

However, it’s worth pausing and noting some of the more under-the-radar seasons in the country, especially the programs that we are trending toward hearing about in March. I can think of few teams more deserving of that mention than Marshall.

The Thundering Herd are 20-6, a standout record on its own but even more notable when recognizing this is the first time since the 2016 season they have eclipsed the 20-win mark and just the second time since they left the Southern Conference in 1997. This is West Virginia native Kim Caldwell’s first season at the helm in Huntington. She led her alma mater, DII Glenville State, for seven seasons, including a national championship in 2022. In her first foray as a head coach at the highest level of collegiate basketball, something special is brewing.

Find it your local newspaper #WeAreMarshall

(Editor’s note: This is part of the Bracket Central Series, an inside look at the run-up to the men’s & women’s NCAA Tournaments, along with analysis and picks during the tournaments.)

The college season has been defined by stellar play in the youth of the game, with true freshmen piecing together some of the best collegiate seasons we’ve seen in basketball history. That’s unlikely to change as we head into March, as many of the top freshmen headline teams ripe to make runs in the NCAA Tournament.

Who are the freshmen going under the radar you need to know about who could make a splash in March?

Syracuse has been a superb watch this season, led by silky scorer Dyaisha Fair. Syracuse has a 41.1 percent offensive rebound rate, the fifth highest rate in the NCAA, according to CBB Analytics. More than 20 percent of the Orange’s total points scored come from second-chance opportunities.

Enter Alyssa Latham. The 6-foot-2 freshman has started the majority of the season for Syracuse and embodies the principles that have spurred on coach Felisha Legette-Jack’s team. Latham hustles like a sixth-year grad student, attacking the glass with a ferocity, blocking shots with tenacity and racking up mileage like few bigs can. Her offensive game is still unearthing, but she’s shown…

IOWA CITY, Iowa — With Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten in August, the league has already finalized new scheduling models for football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball that prioritize competitive balance, geography and rivalries. The next scheduling phase involves Olympic sports with the same key tenets steering the process as their higher-profile colleagues, but cost and travel have an even greater impact.

On Feb. 19-20, Big Ten officials and school athletics administrators will meet at league headquarters in Rosemont, Ill. to discuss and perhaps finalize scheduling principles for fall Olympic sports. The spring sports likely will settle plans in May. With different priorities guiding each sport, scheduling ideas have ranged from true rotations to regional preference to even some sports on the same campus traveling together to save costs.

“In terms of some of the efficiencies, I don’t think that has been discussed as much because you’re talking about principles right now and not dates,” Iowa athletic director Beth Goetz said. “So if you’re going to figure out if there can be shared travel, you’re going to have to have the actual schedule in front of you to do that.”

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Big Ten to invite 15 teams to conference hoops…

CHICAGO — Midway through his weekly media availability, Nebraska women’s volleyball coach John Cook was asked about Fox’s viewership for a Minnesota-Wisconsin matchup.

It was 1.66 million, more than any Sunday sporting event shy of the NFL and barely less than the NASCAR race. The volleyball match’s TV numbers dwarfed the NBA, NHL, Formula 1 and multiple soccer matches that day.

Cook was stunned.

“Wow, that’s awesome for the Big Ten and awesome for volleyball,” Cook said. “I did not know that. We’ve got another record to go after.”

Women’s volleyball and basketball have grown steadily in viewership and took a major ratings jump last winter. From the regular season and NCAA women’s basketball tournament shattering records to now the most-viewed women’s volleyball match in history, the Big Ten sees the environment as ripe for major investment. It’s a moment when strategy meets the phenomenon.

“It’s a viewer-friendly sport to watch in the sense that whether you’re there in person or you’re watching on TV, it’s a fast-paced game,” Big Ten chief operating officer Kerry Kenny said. “It’s also a sport that over time we’ve identified where it seems to trend younger and more female in terms of the demographic audience of who’s actually…