The ladies’s NCAA Event Candy 16 ideas off this weekend with no scarcity of star energy.
Final week, we checked out six must-watch gamers, all of whom are nonetheless within the match discipline and deserving of your consideration.
Listed below are 5 gamers having an impressive March whose subsequent act we won’t wait to see.
Paige Bueckers, No. 3 UConn (Portland 3)
UConn head coach Geno Auriemma believes Paige Bueckers is one of the best remaining participant within the match. The fourth-year guard (Bueckers missed the whole 2022-23 season with a torn ACL) has been sensational by means of the primary two rounds. She’s performed a mean of 37.5 minutes and scored 30 factors per sport whereas taking pictures 56.8 % from the sphere. Bueckers is averaging 10.5 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 3.5 steals and a block per sport because the third-seeded Huskies search their first nationwide title since 2016.Â
Subsequent sport: vs. No. 7 Duke, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET
Caitlin Clark, No. 1 Iowa (Albany 2)
Clark’s historic faculty profession almost got here to an unceremonious finish on Monday within the spherical of 32 in opposition to West Virginia. The Mountaineers erased a 10-point Hawkeyes lead coming into the fourth earlier than Iowa iced the sport late on the free throw line.
Clark scored 32 factors, giving her probably the most in a single season in girls’s main faculty basketball historical past (1,113), and is averaging 29.5 factors per sport within the match. She’s been significantly sturdy at attending to the road with 21 free throw makes an attempt by means of the primary two rounds, which ranks fourth-most amongst all gamers.
What’s scary for opponents is Clark hasn’t performed her finest by means of two rounds — solely hitting 39 % of her photographs. Suppose Clark will get nearer to final 12 months’s 48.8 taking pictures share. In that case, she would possibly have the ability to break one other document: former Drake ahead Lorri Bauman’s Division I girls’s NCAA Event document for many factors in a single sport (50), one which has stood for 42 years.
Subsequent sport: vs. No. 5 Colorado, Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET
MiLaysia Fulwiley, No. 1 South Carolina (Albany 1)
USC’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and Texas’ Madison Booker have led an absurdly good 2023-24 freshman class. However South Carolina’s Fulwiley has inserted herself into the dialog of most excellent freshman with a elegant March. She had 20 factors on 8-of-15 taking pictures, together with 4-of-7 from deep, in opposition to North Carolina within the spherical of 32.Â
Fulwiley scored a season-high 24 factors within the SEC title sport in opposition to LSU earlier this month. Coming off the bench, Fulwiley gives the Gamecocks’ second unit with a devastating scoring punch. She has 13 threes over his previous three video games and would possibly finish this 12 months’s match as probably the most impactful freshman.
Subsequent sport: vs. No. 4 Indiana, Friday, 5 p.m. ET
Kiki Iriafen, No. 2 Stanford (Portland 4)
After Cameron Brink fouled out in opposition to Iowa State within the second spherical, Iriafen needed to put the Cardinal on her again in an 87-81 additional time win. The junior ahead was excellent, scoring a team-high 41 factors. Iriafen was a power within the put up and confirmed off a robust midrange shot that made her troublesome to defend.