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Ranking top 10 women's college basketball players for 2023-24, from Caitlin Clark to Angel Reese & Paige Bueckers – Sporting News
The women’s college basketball season is here, and it’s set to be an exciting one.
Teams are packed with star-power, and last year’s title-winning LSU Tigers are no exception. Last season’s Final Four had its best-ever viewership on ESPN, and we can thank Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese for that.
Those two and several other top performers are back for more. But who exactly are the best players for the 2023-24 season?
MORE: Player of the Year, National Championship odds for 2023-24 NCAA women’s basketball
The Sporting News has you covered with the top 10 players in women’s college basketball this year.
Clark took the world by storm during Iowa’s national championship game run last season. While the Hawkeyes didn’t take the title, it’s hard to forget just how they got there.
Clark isn’t lacking in the accolades to show why she is one of the best college basketball players around. She won the 2023 Naismith Player of the Year award after averaging 27.8 points, 8.6 assists and 7.1 rebounds per game on 47.3 percent shooting. She led the country with 19 games in which she recorded at least 25 points, five rebounds and five assists.
In her 100th career game, which came against LSU in the finals, she reached 2,717 career points, becoming the highest-scoring player in Division I basketball in that time span. She also became the first player in Division I women’s basketball history to record over 1,000 points and 300 assists in the same season as she notched 1,055 and 327, respectively. That point total broke the Big Ten record for most points scored in a single season.
During Iowa’s NCAA Tournament run, Clark became the first player to record a 40-point triple-double and the first player with back-to-back 40-point games, one of which came in the semifinals.
There’s no doubt she’s expected to do big things this year, whether it’s her final season as a Hawkeye or not. To put it simply, Clark is the best.
MORE: Why Caitlin Clark is a lock to be top pick in 2024 WNBA Draft
The Bayou Barbie is back for her junior season and second with LSU. A national champion, Reese helped lead her Tigers in many ways en route to the program’s first title.
Last season, she set a single-season NCAA record with 34 double-doubles, closing out the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds against Iowa in the championship game. Reese led the SEC in points (23.0) and rebounds (15.4) per game, becoming the fourth player in conference history to lead in both categories. Her name in the SEC history book doesn’t stop there, as she set the record for most total rebounds with 555. For LSU, she scored the third-most points in history with 830.
On Dec. 14, 2022, against Lamar, she did something no basketball player has done recently. She is the only NBA, WNBA or Division I basketball player in the last 20 years to score at least 30 points, 15 rebounds, four assists, four steals and shoot over 80 percent in a game.
Reese was named the 2023 Final Four Most Outstanding Player along with the ESPY’s Best Breakthrough Athlete.
MORE: Angel Reese nickname: How ‘Bayou Barbie’ started, stuck
Bueckers. Is. Back.
The redshirt junior returns for the Huskies after two injury-plagued seasons. She missed all of last year with an ACL tear and the season prior, she played only 17 games before a lateral meniscus tear and tibial plateau fracture.
If she can stay healthy, she could bring UConn back to the Final Four. She helped do so as a freshman in 2021 when she averaged 20.0 points while shooting 52.4 percent. She became the first freshman to win the Naismith Trophy. That season, she also won the Wooden Award, was named the AP Player of the Year and was a first team All-American. She set the freshman season record for assists with 168.
While that’ll be tough to top, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma thinks she can do it. He says Bueckers looks even better now than she did then.
MORE: How to watch UConn, Paige Bueckers without cable
Like Bueckers, Brink had a memorable freshman year, winning a national championship with Stanford.
She didn’t suffer any season-ending injuries like Bueckers, but the Cardinal haven’t been as good since that 2021 season. They lost to UConn in the 2022 Final Four and were stunned in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. They didn’t win the Pac-12 title, either. Even still, Brink hasn’t shied away from stardom.
She was named an AP All-American her sophomore and junior year, and in 2023 was dubbed the WBCA Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 3.5 blocks per game, the nation’s third-most. She averaged 15.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists during the season. She also broke the program record for career blocks last year with 298. In January, she recorded Stanford’s first triple-double in points (16), rebounds (11) and blocks (10).
Virginia Tech is still loaded with talent a season after making its first Final Four. Leading the way is fifth-year graduate Kitley.
During the team’s dream season, she averaged 18.2 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.4 blocks to win the ACC Player of the Year for the second-straight time. She no doubt is one of the best to be called a Hokie, as Kitley is already the program’s all-time leader in points (2,048), made field goals (831) and blocks (271). She is the only VT player to be named first team All-ACC three times, All-Defensive twice and an AP All-American twice.
During the 2022-23 season, she recorded 23 double-doubles and was one of three women’s basketball players to average 18 points and 10.5 rebounds.
Just like Kitley, Holmes is written into her program’s history books. She is the only Hoosier women’s basketball player to earn first-team All-American honors, which she earned last season with a unanimous selection.
She finished her senior season third nationally in field goal percentage (68.0) and seventh in points per game (22.3). She earned Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and was a Naismith Trophy semifinalist.
Holmes ranks fourth all-time in scoring at Indiana with 1,897 points, second in blocks with 208 and eighth in rebounds with 774.
In her first season after transferring from USC to Utah, Pili made her name known. She won Pac-12 Player of the Year after leading the conference in scoring (643 points) and field goal percentage (59.9). She averaged 20.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and one steal per game.
Unfortunately, her 2023-24 season with the Utes got off to a rocky start. In the season opener against Mississippi Valley State, her eye was scratched during the first half of the game. She was taken to the hospital, and it’s unknown when she’ll return to the court. Hopefully soon, as she scored a team-high 26 points in just 15 minutes of play.
The biggest news during the women’s basketball offseason was arguably Hailey Van Lith transferring out of Louisville. She played three seasons with the Cardinals, leading the team in scoring for two years and taking them to a Final Four in 2022. She was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Wichita Regional.
Last season, she averaged 19.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Van Lith was one of two Power 5 players to average those numbers.
Now, she’s gone down south to LSU to don the purple and gold and try to help the Tigers win another crown.
MORE: Odds & predictions to win women’s basketball NCAA Tournament: LSU favored over UConn, Iowa
South Carolina is basically starting all over this season after losing all of last year’s starters. Still, the Gamecocks are perfectly capable of returning to a fourth straight Final Four, and look no further than Cardoso to get them there.
The senior was named the 2023 SEC 6th Woman of the Year, impressive enough given Dawn Staley’s stacked roster. Her 134 offensive rebounds last season were the second-best in program history. In the conference, Cardoso was second in offensive rebounds per game (3.7), third in rebounds per game (8.5) and fourth in blocks per game (1.9).
In the Gamecocks’ season opener against Notre Dame in Paris, she recorded 20 points, with 15 rebounds and four blocks.
In her first season with Tennessee last year, Jackson was named to the AP All-America honorable mention team, her first national recognition after playing for Mississippi State. She averaged 19.2 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists while shooting 54.8 percent from the field, a career-best. Her points-per-game was third-best in the SEC.
She set a Lady Vols record by scoring at least 20 points in eight straight games from Feb. 6 to March 4.
Emily Dozier is an editorial intern at The Sporting News