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.

GO DEEPER

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…

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever GM Lin Dunn knows the Caitlin Clark effect is coming. In fact, it’s already started. More than 6,000 fans turned out for the Fever’s WNBA Draft party at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Monday, more fans than 17 of the team’s 20 home games last season, mainly due to the anticipation of the Iowa star being selected first by the Fever.

This wasn’t a normal turnout, especially for someone who was hundreds of miles away in New York, but Clark isn’t a normal player. She became a rock star at Iowa, and that show will soon continue alongside 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston on an even bigger stage. A stage that now includes championship expectations, according to Dunn.

Dunn, in her third season as the Indiana Fever GM, was the Seattle Storm coach and GM when it drafted Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird with back-to-back No. 1 picks in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Although Dunn resigned from the Storm after the 2002 season, Jackson and Bird eventually led the franchise to two championships in 2004 and 2010. Dunn believes Boston and Clark could have similar title potential as a duo.

“It doesn’t happen very often, and so when it does happen and you can look back historically, it usually means that it leads to championships,” Dunn said. “I think this is the…

So what now?

That’s the big, media-centric question for women’s college basketball. Where does the sport go after the head-spinning viewership figures for the national championship game? South Carolina’s 87-75 win over Iowa on April 7 averaged 18.9 million viewers, the most-viewed women’s college basketball game ever and the most-viewed college basketball game (men’s or women’s) on record for an ESPN platform. The audience was up 90 percent over the 2023 national championship (9.9 million for LSU’s win over Iowa) and 289 percent from 2022 (4.9 million viewers for South Carolina’s win over UConn). The game peaked at 24 million viewers on ABC and ESPN during the final 15 minutes.

The 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four was the most-viewed on record, averaging 13.8 million viewers. Those numbers included 14.4 million viewers for Iowa-UConn (the second-most-watched women’s college game on record) and 7.2 million viewers for N.C. State and South Carolina. The tournament overall (57 games) across ESPN platforms averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 121 percent from 2023. It’s the most-watched women’s NCAA Tournament since ESPN acquired exclusive rights in 1996.

To put the South Carolina-Iowa viewership in perspective, the game topped:

• Every World Series game since Game…

How does women’s college basketball capitalize on this moment?

It was the question most frequently asked and answered at the Final Four last weekend in Cleveland, as the sport continued to break both attendance and viewership records. The growth in women’s basketball has been dramatic and quick; the 18.9 million people who tuned in for the South Carolina-Iowa national championship game was an 89 percent increase from the 2023 title game and an astounding 285 percent increase from 2022.

The women’s tournament was, by all measures, a triumph. But the teams whose success drove it did not receive money for their part of it. And so, as the sport turns its page to next season, focus has centered on the simplest and most straightforward piece of progress: units.

Each men’s team that participates in March Madness earns a sliver of NCAA Tournament revenue called a “unit” for making the field and then one unit for each subsequent win. First Four victories count, too. Each NCAA Tournament unit is worth just over $2 million and is paid out over the course of six years.

Women’s teams receive nothing for making or advancing in their NCAA Tournament. The disparity is tied to the men’s nearly billion-dollar media rights deal with CBS/Turner, as well as the history of the…

The 2023-24 college season featured more star power than any in recent memory, and the good news for WNBA fans is that many of those players will be back on the court quickly. The 2024 WNBA Draft is on Monday, and several stars who dominated the national conversation during the college season will be taking their talents to the professional stage.

Every year, it boggles the mind how quick this transition is for collegians. Caitlin Clark will go from game-planning for South Carolina to being on the same roster as former Gamecocks great Aliyah Boston within nine days. There isn’t even enough time for a WNBA Draft Combine, so some team executives are working with incomplete information about height and wingspan.

As a result, the WNBA Draft, compared to its NBA counterpart, has always favored players who were able to produce in college rather than those who have the theoretical tools to succeed at the next level. We can project how a different team context will affect a player’s impact, but at a certain point, if they don’t have a high-level resume after four years, it’s hard to take a risk on them.

WHO WILL BE NEXT?

Draft Day. April 15th 2024. pic.twitter.com/D9vHv0TwdD

— WNBA (@WNBA) April 9, 2024

That’s why the draft is a great entry point to the WNBA for…

With Iowa’s loss to South Carolina in the national title game, Caitlin Clark has officially played her last college basketball game. Lucky for all of us, there’s no shortage of star talent around the country. With the game’s parity, conference realignment and more games on national television, several players appear poised to burst either onto the national scene or even further into the national zeitgeist of American sports.

Here’s a look at the 10 biggest stars who could take over (or re-take) women’s college basketball next season.

(Editor’s note: Players’ class listed for 2024-25 season)

---

1. JuJu Watkins, USC

Sophomore guard

This dominant freshman class is led by Watkins, who managed to capture the nation’s attention while being mostly tucked away on the Pac-12 Network for most of the season. She’s tasked with leading the USC resurrection as the Trojans move to the Big Ten. Conference realignment only helps Watkins’ star power and name recognition as she’ll now (finally) have games that are accessible to the whole country thanks to the Big Ten Network being partly owned by FOX. The fact that she’ll be playing in and around the three largest media markets in the U.S. and that the Big Ten, sans Caitlin Clark, will be looking for a new conference star to…

Caitlin Clark did not get her storybook ending Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, but women’s college basketball did when the viewership figures for the national championship game were released Monday.

South Carolina’s win over Iowa was seen by an astonishing 18.9 million viewers and peaked at 24.1 million. (Initial ratings said 18.7 million viewers.) That’s a 90 percent increase from the 2023 title game and a 289 percent increase from 2022. ESPN said it is the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019.

18.7 MILLION

— Caitlin Clark (@CaitlinClark22) April 8, 2024

The interest in Clark’s journey (and the sport at large) is something women’s college basketball has never seen before. Iowa’s 71-69 win over UConn in the national semifinals drew 14.2 million viewers and peaked at 17 million viewers. That set a new women’s college basketball viewership record, which lasted less than 72 hours. Iowa’s win over LSU in the Elite Eight averaged 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16 million viewers. The Hawkeyes’ win over Colorado in the Sweet 16 averaged 6.9 million viewers. Iowa’s second-round win over West Virginia drew 4.9 million viewers on ESPN, which at the time was the third-largest audience for any women’s tournament…

Caitlin Clark did not get her storybook ending Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, but women’s college basketball did when the viewership figures for the national championship game were released Monday.

South Carolina’s win over Iowa was seen by an astonishing 18.7 million viewers and peaked at 24.7 million. That’s an 89 percent increase from the 2023 title game and a 285 percent increase from 2022. ESPN says it is the most-watched basketball game (men’s or women’s, college or pro) since 2019.

The interest in Clark’s journey (and the sport at large) is something women’s college basketball has never seen before. Iowa’s 71-69 win over UConn in the national semifinals drew 14.2 million viewers and peaked at 17 million viewers. That set a new women’s college basketball viewership record, which lasted less than 72 hours. Iowa’s win over LSU in the Elite Eight averaged 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16 million viewers. The Hawkeyes’ win over Colorado in the Sweet 16 averaged 6.9 million viewers. Iowa’s second-round win over West Virginia drew 4.9 million viewers on ESPN, which at the time was the third-largest audience for any women’s tournament game in the past 20 years. These were previously unheard-of numbers in the women’s game for those rounds.

18.7…

Congrats to South Carolina, which was the No. 1 team in all but one edition of this season’s rankings. The Gamecocks proved they were the best team in college basketball for all of 2023-24, just like last year, only this time they were able to cap their remarkable regular season with a national championship. South Carolina’s success was the primary validation of these power rankings, though the last poll did feature 15 of the Sweet 16 teams in the top 18 (apologies to Duke).

In case you’re interested in how well my first power rankings of 2023-24 held up, take a gander! Oregon State really came out of nowhere.

As we look ahead to 2024-25, a reminder that this is an indicator of how teams stand right now, though WNBA Draft decisions and transfers — keep an eye on Oregon State and Washington State following the dissolution of the Pac-12 — could substantially change the makeup of rosters. I’ve priced in some player improvement, particularly for younger players with high pedigree, but otherwise tried to assess these squads based on how the players finished this season. Let me know in the comments if you think I’m overlooking anyone.

Almost famous: Kentucky, Michigan State, Vanderbilt

---

Why South Carolina over UConn?

South Carolina is losing Kamilla Cardoso, but otherwise…

CLEVELAND — South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley was the first player to snip the Gamecocks’ championship net for no other reason than her age. As the youngest player on South Carolina’s roster, the 5-foot-10 guard opened the festivities. She compared starting off a net-cutting ceremony to being forced to sit in the backseat of a car.

The anticipated 2024 national championship between South Carolina and Iowa got off to a turbulent start for the Gamecocks. The Hawkeyes sprinted out to a 12-2 lead, and led 20-9 with 4:45 to play in the first quarter. It was then that coach Dawn Staley decided to shake up the seating arrangement. Right away, Fulwiley entered the contest and found reserve forward Sania Feagin for a lay-up. “You can tell early when she’s locked in and focused,” assistant coach Winston Gandy said. Gandy knew after only one offensive and defensive possession, “Lay’s gonna have a good one.”

Fulwiley scored 7 points in the first quarter to slash the Gamecocks’ deficit to seven and help them settle. Guard Tessa Johnson, a fellow freshman, provided a key lift, too. In South Carolina’s 87-75 win over Iowa, Johnson made 7 of 11 shots and finished with a team-high 19 points. It was only the third time she led the Gamecocks in scoring this season. “I…