The Top Women’s College Basketball Players in the Sweet 16

We are down to just 16 teams in the 2026 Women’s Basketball Tournament, and that means it’s time for the stars to show what they are capable of. Depth and role-players are important, but with the field narrowed to this point, it’s stars that will carry the day. Here is the top player from each of the Sweet 16 teams, organized by seeding. 10-seed Virginia Kymora Johnson: The junior forward led the ACC in minutes (37.1) and assists (5.8), while also averaging over 10 points more per game than any of her teammates, at 19.5. She ranks sixth in the nation in 3-pointers, with 99, and even at just 5-foot-7 pulls down 4.5 rebounds per game. Johnson also played all 50 minutes of the double-overtime win over 2-seed Iowa that brought Virginia to the Sweet 16 – the Lady Hoos are here because of Johnson in more ways than one, and the first-ever First Four team to reach the Sweet 16 will need her to lead them beyond that point, too. 6-seed Notre Dame Hannah Hidalgo: Hannah Hidalgo might have lost Olivia Miles to the transfer portal and TCU and third-overall pick Sonia Citron to the WNBA before her junior season, but it just made the Fighting Irish even more her team. She scored a career-best 25.2 points per game to lead the ACC and finish third in the nation overall, while leading Division I by averaging 5.6 steals. Hidalgo isn’t effective from deep, but she slashes and drives, picking up plenty of fouls in the process, and knows when to dish, too, with 5.2 assists per game — that high-energy style also helped the 5-foot-6 guard to 6.7 rebounds per game, tied for the team-high. Among the players still in March Madness, Hidalgo is second in Player Efficiency Rating (PER) at an even 40.0. 5-seed Kentucky Clara Strack: The 6-foot-5 center from Kentucky didn’t lead the SEC in any statistical category besides total blocks, but don’t let that fool you: the Wildcats are built around her excellence, and she delivers. Strack has averaged a double-double this season, with 16.9 points and 10.3 rebounds, and her 91 blocks put her just one shy of the NCAA lead. She spends a ton of time in the paint both shooting and rebounding, but Strack has shown an ability to hit from 3 before, as well — in the SEC tournament this year against Georgia, Strack went 5-for-7 from beyond the arc, the most 3s any SEC women’s player of her height or greater has ever sank in a single game. 4-seed North Carolina Nyla Harris: UNC’s strength is more in its depth than in stars, but senior forward and Louisville transfer Nyla Harris is the best of the bunch. She led the Tar Heels in minutes, points per game (11.5) and rebounds (6.9), and despite that points stat not jumping off the page, the 6-foot-2 Harris also led the entire ACC in Offensive Rating, at 123.6 — remember, superstar Hannah Hidalgo is also in the conference. Harris has shot 58.2% for the season and averages 3.1 offensive rebounds per game: about the only thing keeping her numbers down is that she plays 23.4 minutes per game, but what that tells you is that she’s highly efficient in her time on the court. She’s also been averaging more minutes since conference play kicked off, with at least 30 minutes (and as many as 42) in 10 of her last 20 games: North Carolina ramps her playing time up when it has to, and for the rest of March Madness, it will have to. 4-seed Minnesota Amaya Battle: It’s difficult to pick just one Minnesota Golden Gopher to feature, since they have five players averaging at least 11.1 points per game, all of which have between 3.0 and 7.5 rebounds and 1.1 and 3.6 assists per game, too. Senior guard Amaya Battle, though, is the team leader in both boards and dimes, and second among Minnesota starters in Defensive Rating, as well. And while she’s not the top scorer on the team, it was still Battle who got the chance to fire off the game-winning, last-second shot against Ole Miss in the round of 32. 4-seed Oklahoma Raegan Beers: The 6-foot-2 senior forward led the SEC in FG% (61.7%), 2P% (66.5%) and effective FG% (62.5%). She averaged 15.8 points per game with 10.5 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a block, and while she averaged just 24.7 minutes per game, much of that was also managing rest — Raegan Beers exceeded her average with between 25 and 36 minutes in 15 of her 33 games. With an exception for a few games with foul trouble — Beers’ use of her size in the paint can occasionally cause problems there, as you would expect — most of the low-minute contests were because Oklahoma was up by enough to give her a break. Beers was named a USBWA All-American Third Team player this season, has won gold with USA Basketball in FIBA competition and has a shot at being selected in the WNBA Draft, too. 3-seed TCU Olivia Miles: While Beers could be a WNBA Draft pick, Miles is not only going to be a lottery selection but likely one of the top three selections in the whole thing. She’s one of the best facilitators in the game, to the point that her 6.6 assists per game this year were a step back from where she’s been at other times in his career, but much of that was because she was also TCU’s best-overall offensive threat. The fifth-year guard transferred to the Horned Frogs for the 2025-2026 season from Notre Dame, and paired up with another transfer in Marta Suarez to bring TCU to the Sweet 16 yet again. In addition to the dimes, Miles also averaged 7.2 rebounds and 19.4 points, led the Big 12 in minutes per game (35.3) and the nation in total minutes, was named a Second Team All-American by both the AP and USBWA, finished with a PER of 30.4 and led the conference in adjusted Plus/Minus at 14.1. Oh, and she had six triple-doubles this season, while just missing a seventh (and second-consecutive) against Washington in the round of 32. 3-seed Louisville Imari Berry: Sophomore guard Imari Berry had a significant breakout in her second season with Louisville, as the Cardinals nearly doubled her minutes, with the result being 11.0 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game. It might seem odd to highlight a bench player as the top performer on a Sweet 16 team, but Berry is no “mere” bench player: she was named the ACC’s Sixth Player of the Year and earned Second-Team All-ACC honors, too. She ranks third on the Cardinals in both Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating, and is second in PER despite playing 23.4 minutes per game from the bench with just a pair of starts in 36 games. She averages 3.5 3s on 38.1% shooting, and her Per 40 minutes stats make her look like she’s a starting gig away from becoming a star without an asterisk. 3-seed Duke Toby Fournier: As a freshman, Toby Fournier averaged 20.2 minutes per game, but those were all off the bench. As a sophomore, the forward stepped into a starting role for Duke, and she took full advantage of the opportunity. She leads the Blue Devils in points (17.4) rebounds (8.0), and PER (30.4), was named Third-Team by both the Associated Press and USBWA, has the best Defensive Rating among Duke starters and the second-best Offensive Rating on the team. She also tied for ninth in the nation in total blocks, with 77, posted nine double-doubles in 34 games, and like Duke as a whole became an even better player as the year went on and conference play took over. 2-seed LSU Flau’jae Johnson: By pure numbers, Flau’jae Johnson appears to be having a down year. But it’s not her so much as LSU having more options, which is part of why it has had such a dangerous offense this season. Johnson is scoring 14.3 points per game, down from last year’s career-best 18.6, but Kim Mulkey has also been spreading minutes around more — Johnson is down 6.5 minutes per game, but also shot 40% from beyond the arc and managed a career-best 2.6 assists per game despite the drop in playing time. She was also named a Third Team All-American by the AP and USBWA for the second year in a row, and the senior guard is a likely top-5 pick in the WNBA Draft — LSU needs her to spread the minutes and ball around right now to teammates like MiLaysia Fulwiley, Mikaylah Williams, ZaKiyah Johnson and Jada Richard — all guards like Johnson, by the way — but she has also been an excellent defensive presence who can be more of a feature scorer in big games if the Tigers need her to ramp up. 2-seed Michigan Olivia Olson: Olson, an Associated Press and USBWA Third-Team All-American, improved nearly across the board in 2025-2026. Her overall shooting percentage went up even if her 3-point rate dropped, and she jumped from 16.3 points to 19.2 points per game while seeing a dip in fouls and increases in rebounds, assists and steals. The sophomore guard led Michigan in points and boards — all but three players on the Wolverines are at least six feet tall, but it is not a rebound-heavy squad — and she finished second in Offensive Rating behind another sophomore guard, Te’Yala Delfosse, but did so in nearly 400 more minutes played. When Olson is on and the 3s are falling, she’s a menace, and the most dangerous player in Michigan’s backcourt. 2-seed Vanderbilt Mikayla Blakes: Mikayla Blakes is the nation’s scoring leader, at 27 points per game — a jump up from last season’s already impressive 23.3 mark. The sophomore guard is much more than “just” a scorer, though, as she fights for rebounds (4.0 per game) and is happy to pass to a teammate if they have the better shot — and they often do, since Blakes is averaging 4.6 assists per game. Blakes was voted a First Team All-American by both the AP and USBWA, and she is the most explosive offensive player in the tournament — and Division I as a whole. She ranks fourth among players remaining in the tournament in PER, second in adjusted Offensive Plus/Minus, and when she’s hot can just take over an entire game: Blakes scored at least 30 points in 13 of her 33 games this year, including a stretch of four in a row and seven of eight, all in SEC play. You know, the conference with six of the 16 Sweet 16 teams in it. She has only gotten better as the year has gone on, and that’s bad news for opposing defenses. 1-seed South Carolina Joyce Edwards: South Carolina is likely graduating two first-round WNBA picks in center Madina Okot and guard Ta’Niya Latson. And yet, sophomore forward Joyce Edwards is still the star, as a blend of high-quality offense (122.4 Offensive Rating) and defense (78.5 Defensive Rating). Edwards was named to the AP and USBWA Second Team All-American squad, after jumping from 12.2 to 19.9 points per game, while also seeing significant increases in rebounds (6.4), assists (2.3), steals (1.8) and blocks (1.1). Edwards shot 59.5% this year, and fights for offensive boards, not just defensive ones. South Carolina is loaded with stars — the Gamecocks have Okot, Latson and AP Third Team selection Raven Johnson besides — but Edwards manages to stick out in that group. 1-seed Texas Madison Booker: For the second year in a row, Texas Longhorns’ forward Madison Booker was named a First Team All-American. For her junior year, she was the best she’s ever been, though: Booker has played a career-high in minutes (32.4), jumped her scoring to 19.3 per game, saw a slight increase in rebounds (6.7) and a significant one in assists (3.8) and steals (2.2). She was far and away the best offensive player among starters, posting a 124.7 Offensive Rating, but she’s as good as any defender on this defense-heavy squad, too — Booker is a double-threat, and it’s that balance that makes the Longhorns as a whole so dangerous. Booker just had her best game of the year in the round of 32: 40 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and a 14-for-21 showing in 35 minutes against Oregon, in a game Texas won 100-58. She is averaging 22.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game since the SEC conference tournament began five games ago, and shot 61.6% in that time. 1-seed UCLA Lauren Betts: Where do you begin with Lauren Betts? The height, probably: she is 6-foot-7, and unlike a number of true centers in the game, not tied down to working solely within the paint. Consider: when earlier this year Michigan threatened in its final possession, down 3 against UCLA, it was Betts harassing sophomore Syla Swords on the perimeter, using her length and height advantage to ensure the much smaller guard could not get comfortable or create space for a clean 3. Betts doesn’t score at the rate of Audi Crooks or average a dozen rebounds per game, but it’s that she’s a big who can score (17.1), rebound (8.7) and has court vision (3.2 assists) while being a dominant defensive force who can impact the game wherever she stands that makes her difficult to solve: the senior has the best Defensive Rating in the Big Ten, at 78.8 points allowed per 100 possessions, and last year won the Naismith Women’s College Defensive Player of the Year award; to go back to Crooks for a moment, Iowa State’s junior center finished at 93.4. Betts is a likely lottery pick in the WNBA Draft for a reason. 1-seed UConn Sarah Strong: As a freshman, UConn forward Sarah Strong led all of Division I in Defensive Rating, at 65.3 points per 100 possessions. She was named a Second Team All-American by the Associated Press for that and for leading the Big East in FG% (58.6%), 2P% (68.3%) and effective FG% (65%). Strong has been even better as a sophomore: she once again led the conference in all three of those categories, except at 60%, 68.4% and  66.6%, respectively. Her 133.4 Offensive Rating led the Big East, as well, and Strong, in just 26.4 minutes per game thanks to Geno Auriemma’s aggressive rest policy for starters, averaged 18.4 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.1 assists, a Big East-best 3.3 steals and 1.6 blocks per game in 2025-2026. Her Defensive Rating once again led Division I, this time at just 55.8 — no one in the history of D-I women’s basketball has ever before had a career Defensive Rating as low as Strong’s 60.9 mark through her first 75 games. She received Associated Press and USBWA First Team All-American honors for a reason, and very well might end up as the overall Player of the Year, too.