Women’s college basketball top 25: LSU, UConn, UCLA lead 2023-24 rankings

The return of Elizabeth Kitley and Cayla King for another season, alongside Georgia Amoore, guaranteed this group would be a preseason top-10 team and the ACC favorites. That trio is well established in Kenny Brooks’ system, and they’ll be able to help this group weather early season bumps that come along with a slew of transfers and young players entering the rotation.

Last season, Virginia Tech relied on its starters more than almost any other team in the country. The five starters played 81 percent of the Hokies’ minutes and accounted for 88 percent of their scoring. And though Amoore, King and Kitley are talented and have an established chemistry, they won’t be able to carry the full load through the full season. But by bringing in so many transfers, it seems to indicate that Brooks might go a bit deeper into his bench if the Hokies can get production and efficiency out of that group. And that’s a fair wager considering Virginia Tech’s recent success with transfers — look no further than Taylor Soule, who came in as a grad transfer and was a bedrock for a team that went to the program’s first Final Four.

Notre Dame had an outside chance at national title contention before two knee injuries derailed last season, and the injury to Olivia Miles is the biggest cloud hovering over this year.

Even without Miles available at the start, this is one of the best guard groups in the country. Sonia Citron is an elite shooting guard who made 51 percent of her 2-pointers and 40 percent of her 3-pointers as a sophomore while routinely guarding opponents’ best players. The Irish should be able to leverage her off the ball even more as KK Bransford and Cassandre
Prosper grow as ballhandlers and with the addition of super freshman Hannah Hidalgo. Hidalgo’s rampage through the U19 World Cup over the summer showcased her advanced playmaking on both ends of the court — a team that struggled to create turnovers last season now has a ball hawk at the point of attack.

The path to victory will be pushing the pace and letting the guards get downhill early and often because the Irish are a little small, and beyond Citron, a little light on shooting. Transfer Anna DeWolfe made 35 percent of her 3-pointers at Fordham, and Maddy Westbeld was at 34.4 percent, but neither is the long-range shooter that defenses have to stay glued to. The Irish will be at their best leaning into their speed by being disruptive on defense and playing in transition offense as much as possible. When Miles returns, she’ll fit in seamlessly to that style.

Coach Courtney Banghart’s first recruiting class has reached its senior season, and this should be the best North Carolina team yet of her tenure.
The Tar Heels needed to add some offensive firepower this offseason, and they did so in two distinct and important ways. Lexi Donarski helps fill the role of Eva Hodgson as a designated spacer, but the former Big 12 defensive player of the year also has some teeth at the other end as a perimeter stopper. Maria Gakdeng is an offensive hub in the post as a rim protector and by providing efficient scoring, which North Carolina sorely missed last year.

UNC resorted to one-on-one basketball too often last season — its assist percentage was in the 19th percentile of Division I, per CBB analytics. Deja Kelly turning into more of a distributor will help, but having more capable ballhandlers on the floor should improve the overall flow on offense. Paulina Paris at least took care of the ball as a freshman; now she has to figure out how to move it. Transfer Indya Nivar didn’t get much time on the ball at Stanford but should get a chance to show off what made the Apex, N.C., product one of the nation’s top guard recruits.

North Carolina has depth in the frontcourt, too, with returning starters Alyssa Ustby and Anya Poole complemented by Gakdeng and incoming freshman Cierra Toomey, who was No. 4 in ESPN’s rankings of the class of 2023. Rotating in more bodies is a necessity considering how physically the Tar Heels play.

The Seminoles return their three top scorers while adding multiple players who should bolster their offensive potential. Alexis Tucker, the UCSB transfer, averaged 14 points a game last season while Sakyia White averaged 18. Throw into the mix Carla Viegas, the Spanish sharpshooter who shot 45 percent from beyond the arc at the FIBA U18 European Championship. She and Amaya Bonner will bring a one-two scoring punch off the bench.

Those additional scorers should make life slightly less difficult for Ta’Niya Latson, the reigning ACC freshman of the year who was an absolute matchup nightmare last season. Though FSU should have scoring threats across the board, make no bones about it, Latson will be the No. 1 option. Despite missing the postseason with an injury, she has been 100 percent since the spring and will come into this season with a similar offensive propensity, but with a focus on becoming a more disciplined defender.

Post depth and paint presence will be the real question marks for the Seminoles, who have only three players 6-2 or taller. Makayla Timpson was one of 11 power conference players to average more than two blocks per game last season (she averaged 2.6), and the Seminoles’ overall rim protection was quite good (per Pivot Analysis, FSU’s opponents shot just 44 percent at the rim). But developing depth in the paint will be key to fight Virginia Tech and Notre Dame for control of the ACC.

Jeff Walz is well aware of the new reality of college basketball. As he said during the NCAA Tournament: There’s Selection Sunday, then Portal Monday. And even though the Cardinals lost one of the country’s best players (Hailey Van Lith) as a transfer, Walz reloaded in impressive fashion.

Jayda Curry is the new jitterbug scoring guard running the show, and her hot shooting stretch (48 percent on 2-pointers and 3-pointers in the last five games) to end the season for Cal provides excitement for playing off the ball with more help. She’ll get that in the form of Sydney Taylor, who averaged at least 15.6 points each of the last three seasons while improving her 3-point percentage every year, and Kiki Jefferson, who put up at least 16.2 points per game the last three seasons. Combined with Olivia Cochran inside, scoring shouldn’t be an issue. Curry and Jefferson will need a crash course in defending the Louisville way, however, because neither came from programs that emphasized that end of the floor.

The Cardinals have grown accustomed to integrating hordes of transfers over the past few years. But Walz doesn’t have a veteran floor general or even a natural point guard this year with the departures of Van Lith and Mykasa Robinson. Still, expect Louisville to once again coalesce by March, even if there are growing pains.

It’s not out of the question to think Wes Moore might have four freshmen in his main rotation, as the Wolfpack welcome four top-100 recruits, including ninth-ranked Zoe Brooks, who famously won the 2022 WNBA All-Star skills challenge alongside Sabrina Ionescu. But at the start of the season, expect Moore to lean on whatever continuity and veteran presence NC State does have, as well as the Wolfpack’s pace.

Aziaha James and Saniya Rivers are two of the nation’s fastest players with the ball, each dynamite at getting into the paint, and together create a devastating open floor attack. The two guards had the best plus-minuses on the team last season, suggesting the Wolfpack are better off when they lean on that athleticism. Neither is a pure point guard, but their ability to turn the corner on defenders allows them to make plays. Brooks has this same burst to keep the tempo going when she comes off the bench.

Katie Peneueta arrives from Sacramento State having canned 46 percent of her 3-pointers over two seasons, and River Baldwin likes to spot up from distance and hit trail jumpers in transition. But if the frontcourt needs shaking up, reigning WAC defensive player of the year Lizzy Williamson is ready to step in for Baldwin, and Madison Hayes provides a small-ball spacing element that Mimi Collins doesn’t.