Watkins, Bueckers headline preseason AP All-America team in women’s hoops

USC star JuJu Watkins and UConn’s Paige Bueckers headline The Associated Press preseason All-America women’s college basketball team released Tuesday that for the first time includes three sophomores in a clear sign of the young talent in a sport coming off a record year of fan interest.

Watkins and Bueckers were unanimous choices by the 30-member national media panel that selects the AP Top 25 each week. It’s the third appearance on the team for Bueckers, who also was a preseason choice in her sophomore season and last year.

The duo was joined by Hannah Hidalgo of Notre Dame, Madison Booker of Texas and Kiki Iriafen of USC. Watkins, Hidalgo and Booker are all second-year players.

“It’s unbelievable. Those players excelled as freshmen and their teams won. They did it in multiple ways,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. “It’s really exciting for the game and the future of it.”

Gottlieb’s stars, Watkins and Iriafen, are the first pair of teammates selected to the All-America team since 2017-18, when UConn had three of the five players chosen. Iriafen entered the transfer portal soon after Stanford Hall of Fame coach Tara VanDerveer announced her retirement in April.

“Kiki came because she wanted to play with JuJu, who recruited her because she wanted to play with Kiki,” Gottlieb said. “It’s exciting to see their personalities mesh.”

Watkins and her fellow sophomores were part of the ratings and attendance boom last season for women’s college basketball that was led by Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese. NCAA Tournament attendance was the highest it’s ever been and the championship game that featured Clark and Iowa against undefeated South Carolina had a record TV audience of 18.7 million, the highest for a basketball broadcast of any kind in five years.

Bueckers averaged 21.9 points and 5.2 rebounds to help UConn reach the Final Four, where the Huskies lost to Iowa in another game that drew high vioewership. UConn’s star has eligibility left after sporadic injuries, but has said this will be her last year in school. She finally had a healthy season last year for the Huskies after missing most of her sophomore year.

Watkins burst onto the national scene as a freshman last year and put up eye-popping numbers. The Los Angeles native averaged 27.1 points, second only to Clark, and set the national record for a freshman with 920 points. She helped the Trojans reach the Elite Eight in their deepest NCAA Tournament run in three decades.

There are high expectations for the team, which is ranked third in the preseason poll behind No. 1 South Carolina and No. 2 UConn. Iriafen averaged 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds for Stanford last year, including scoring a career-high 41 in the second round win over Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament.

Hidalgo, like Watkins, had a stellar freshman season. She averaged 22.6 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists for the Fighting Irish, helping the team win the ACC Tournament and advance to the Sweet 16.

Booker stepped up her play for the Longhorns after Rori Harmon went down with an ACL injury in late December. She was thrust into the starting point guard slot and shined, averaging 16.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Those numbers were even higher after Harmon’s injury.

Bueckers, Watkins and Hidalgo were all first-team AP All-Americans in the spring. Booker was on the second team with Iriafen earning honorable mention.

The AP began releasing a preseason All-America team before the 1994-95 season.