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.

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

Four days after head coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement, Stanford is losing its best player for the 2024-25 season. Junior Kiki Iriafen entered the transfer portal with a “do not contact” tag, a source with access to the portal confirmed to The Athletic.

Iriaden was noncommittal about her future at VanDerveer’s retirement news conference Wednesday, shrugging her shoulders when SF Gate asked her about returning to the Cardinal.

Her departure continues an exodus of talent from Stanford over the last two years through the portal, including 2023 No. 1 overall recruit Lauren Betts.

Iriafen averaged 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds per game during 2023-24 as the Cardinal won the Pac-12 regular-season title. She also earned the Katrina McClain Award, which honors the best power forward in the country. Iriafen had one of the defining performances of the NCAA Tournament when she scored 41 points in Stanford’s second-round win over Iowa State, though the Cardinal would ultimately lose in the next round.

Due to the “do not contact” tag, Iriafen likely has her next destination picked out. Given that she is from Los Angeles, it’s possible she follows former teammate Betts down to Southern California, where both UCLA and USC could use her skill set at power forward….

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…

That the announcement would come at 10:35 p.m. Eastern on a Tuesday after the season had already finished says everything you need to know about Tara VanDerveer, the winningest coach college basketball has ever seen.

Because it was never about her or her ego. It was never about garnering the headlines or making sure she got into print the next day. It was about the game and the future of the game. It was about everyone else.

After 45 years on a sideline, VanDerveer — who announced she would retire on May 8, exactly 39 years to the day she was hired at Stanford — can walk away from women’s basketball knowing she left it better than she found it.

Her official statistics will state that she won 1,216 games, three national titles and 14 Final Fours. Just one losing season in more than four decades, including 38 years at Stanford. Alone, she has more wins than 344 Division I basketball programs and her coaching tree stretches across the country. Not to mention that 1996 Olympic gold medal, the one that started Team USA’s dynasty, was won under the leadership of VanDerveer.

The sport’s all-time wins leader.
A legend of the game.
And the steward of a sisterhood that spans generations.

» https://t.co/ByAigYapHt pic.twitter.com/ElLosK4T2R

— Stanford WBB …