USC’s JuJu Watkins, UConn’s Paige Bueckers, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and UCLA’s Lauren Betts headline the Wooden Award midseason top 25 list announced Tuesday.
UConn (Bueckers, Sarah Strong), USC (Watkins, Kiki Iriafen), Notre Dame (Hidalgo, Olivia Miles), LSU (Flau’Jae Johnson, Aneesah Morrow) and TCU (Sedona Prince, Hailey Van Lith) are well represented with two players on the list. Defending national champion South Carolina has one player, Te-Hina Paopao.
Other notable inclusions are former Wooden Award All-American Georgia Amoore (Kentucky), Texas’ Madison Booker, Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers and Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, the nation’s leading scorer.
Strong is the only freshman featured.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark won the Wooden Award — given to the most outstanding player in college basketball — the previous two seasons, and Bueckers won it in 2021 as a freshman.
Players not selected for the midseason list are eligible to be included on the late-season edition as well as the national ballot, which features 15 players. An All-American team will eventually be announced the week of the Elite Eight, with the Wooden Award Most Outstanding Player named soon after.
The complete Wooden Award midseason top 25:
Georgia Amoore, Kentucky
Aziaha James, NC State
Flau’Jae Johnson, LSU
Cotie McMahon, Ohio State
Raegan Beers, Oklahoma
Lauren Betts, UCLA
Madison Booker, Texas
Paige Bueckers, UConn
Audi Crooks, Iowa State
Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga
Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame
Kiki Iriafen, USC
Ta’Niya Latson, Florida State
Ayoka Lee, Kansas State
Olivia Miles, Notre Dame
Aneesah Morrow, LSU
Lucy Olsen, Iowa
Te-Hina Paopao, South Carolina
Khamil Pierre, Vanderbilt
Sedona Prince, TCU
JJ Quinerly, West Virginia
Sarah Strong, UConn
Harmoni Turner, Harvard
Hailey Van Lith, TCU
JuJu Watkins, USC
