As the NCAA tournament ended with top prospect Paige Bueckers and her UConn Huskies cutting down the nets, all eyes turn toward the WNBA draft. The draft takes place on April 14, just eight days after the title game where UConn took down South Carolina, 82–59.
Bueckers is likely to hear her name first on draft night, where the Dallas Wings hold the No. 1 pick. She cemented herself as the top prospect long ago, but a career-high 40-point game in the Sweet 16 and her first national title didn’t hurt.
The 2025 draft class goes far beyond only Bueckers, though, and a handful of WNBA prospects worked their way up draft boards throughout the tournament. Some proved themselves as a worthy first-round pick as they lifted their college teams to new heights, while others jumped onto the radar to earn an opportunity before the three-round draft reaches its conclusion.
Here are five draft-eligible players who improved their WNBA stock over this year’s NCAA tournament:
Hailey Van Lith, G, TCU
Debatably, no player raised their WNBA draft stock more than Van Lith through the NCAA tournament. She led the TCU Horned Frogs to their first Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in program history. The tournament run marked Van Lith’s fifth Elite Eight appearance, becoming the first player in men’s or women’s NCAA tournament history to take three different programs that far. In four tournament games this March, she averaged 18 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.8 assists per game, including a 26-point performance in the Sweet 16 to help take down Notre Dame. Van Lith has won at all three stops (TCU, LSU and Louisville) through her college career. With the most recent tournament run, any questions about Van Lith as a first-round talent may have been answered.
Aneesah Morrow, F, LSU
Morrow is a double-double machine. She averaged a double-double in each of her four collegiate seasons and that didn’t change in the tournament, logging a dominant 20.8 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. She led LSU to the Elite Eight, where the Tigers fell to UCLA, the tournament’s top overall seed. LSU, a No. 3 seed, was the lowest seed to make it to the Elite Eight. Morrow willed her team there with an incredible 30-point, 19-rebound performance in the Sweet 16 to take down No. 2 seed NC State. She dropped 30 double-doubles in 36 games over the season—no other player had more than 22. As the top rebounder in the country last season with 13.5 boards per game, Morrow was already poised to hear her name called early in the draft. Her tournament showing only helped.
Sarah Ashlee Barker, G, Alabama
Alabama’s tournament run was short-lived, losing to Maryland in the second round, but Barker made a lasting impression on the heels of the WNBA draft. She dropped a career-high 45 points in the double-overtime loss to the Terrapins, the most points ever scored by an SEC player in an NCAA tournament game. On the season, she averaged 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 37.5% from three-point range. The 6' 0" guard has the scoring pop and defensive skill set to intrigue WNBA teams as a depth piece.
Kiki Iriafen, F, USC
Iriafen’s name has floated in lottery pick conversations for a while. Although she had a couple of inefficient games in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, she took over for USC in the wake of JuJu Watkins’s season-ending injury during the second round. In that clash against Mississippi State, Iriafen had 36 points and nine rebounds to help USC advance to the Sweet 16 amidst the emotional game. Over USC’s four tournament games, which ended in the Elite Eight at the hands of eventual champ UConn, Iriafen averaged 16.5 points and nine rebounds. She transferred to USC last season after spending her first three years at Stanford, and went on to lead the Trojans to a No. 1 seed in the tournament while starring alongside Watkins. Iriafen is bound to hear her named called early on draft night as a building block for a team’s future.
Paige Bueckers, G, UConn
Although this list isn’t in any particular order, Bueckers makes it toward the bottom because as the likely No. 1 pick, her stock can’t get much higher. But stocks can always rise or fall, right? The top prospect’s draft stock only rose through the tournament as she led UConn to a national title, the 12th in program history and its first since 2016. Bueckers had a career-high game with 40 points in the Huskies’ Sweet 16 win over Oklahoma, which was also an all-time high for the program. She averaged 24.8 points per game and shot an outstanding 48.3% from three with less than five attempts per game throughout the tournament. Bueckers was already the top prospect in the 2025 WNBA draft class, but the Dallas Wings may rush to turn in their pick a bit sooner once the draft begins.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five Players Who Improved Their WNBA Draft Stock in the NCAA Tournament.