Ladies’s March Insanity 2025: 9 NCAA Gamers to Know About, From Paige Bueckers to JuJu Watkins

Ladies’s March Insanity 2025 is lastly right here. It feels prefer it’s been a 12 months since Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese lit up their ultimate NCAA basketball event earlier than their rookie season with the WNBA…as a result of it has. Now, it is time for this 12 months’s faculty basketball stars to shut out their season with a bang, and there is not any much less pleasure and drama this time round.

If all final 12 months’s eyes have been focussed on Clark and Reese, this 12 months’s hype is all about top-ranked gamers Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins, who went toe-to-toe in a nail-biting game again in December. Sadly, followers positively will not get to see the UConn star and USC sophomore duke it out for the championship title as their groups have been positioned within the first two seeds of the same region. This implies solely a type of groups can probably advance to the Ultimate 4, a lot to the frustration of followers (and USC Trojans coach Lindsay Gottlieb).

It is price noting that Clark and Reese managed to interrupt viewership data with final 12 months’s third spherical matchup between the Iowa Hawkeyes and LSU Tigers, which grew to become the most-watched ladies’s faculty basketball sport ever…Not less than till Iowa’s subsequent two video games in opposition to the UConn Huskies and the 2024 championship winners, the South Carolina Gamecocks. All this to say, a possible USC vs. UConn rematch on this 12 months’s Elite Eight would nonetheless be must-watch TV.

In fact, Bueckers and Watkins will not be the one gamers making waves this 12 months. Listed below are 9 gamers everybody will probably be speaking about all through the ladies’s March Insanity 2025 event.

Paige Bueckers, Fifth Yr Senior at College of Connecticut

Bueckers is among the most influential ladies’s basketball gamers, even exterior of the school stage, although she selected to come back again for a fifth 12 months at UConn after sitting out the 2022—2023 season because of a torn ACL.

Past her sponsorship offers with manufacturers like Nike and Gatorade, Bueckers is a partial proprietor of the 3×3 Unmatched league, a two-time ESPY Award-Winner, and is anticipated to earn this 12 months’s primary draft choose within the WNBA. Meaning followers will doubtless be watching her play with the Dallas Wings this Might.

JuJu Watkins, Sophomore at College of Southern California

Watkins averaged the second-most factors of the season and led her crew to a nail-biting victory in opposition to UConn this December. The 19-year-old guard’s unimaginable sophomore 12 months is simply par for the course, as she set the freshman scoring document with 920 factors and took residence the 2024 ESPY Award for best breakthrough athlete.

This 12 months, Watkins grew to become the quickest Energy 5 ladies’s basketball participant to succeed in 1,000 profession factors and was named a first-team Associated Press All-American alongside Bueckers, Lauren Betts, Hannah Hidalgo, and Madison Booker.

Flau’jae Johnson, Junior at Louisiana State College

The daughter of late rapper Camoflauge, Johnson is an authorized baller on and off the courtroom. When she’s not rapping or taking part in ball, the LSU level guard additionally hosts the Better of Each Worlds podcast, the place she talks to celebs, athletes, and even some fellow NCAA gamers. Although she needed to sit out a number of video games this season because of an harm, she is expected to play for LSU throughout March Insanity.

And no, she would not plan to surrender basketball in favor of her profitable rap profession, just lately telling Complex she seems to be ahead to a rematch in opposition to Clark as soon as she will get into the WNBA. “I am a junior, and so first 12 months–freshman 12 months–we acquired it. Second 12 months, she acquired me,” she says of LSU’s latest document in opposition to the College of Iowa. “So me and Caitlin, we one and one proper now. I acquired to attend till I get into the league to interrupt that tie.”

Aneesah Morrow, Senior at Louisiana State College

One other star participant at LSU, Morrow leads the Division 1 league in rebounds and double-doubles , which sounds pretty familiar… For individuals who do not know, a participant earns a double-double in a sport after they have double-digit statistics in two of 5 classes: assists, blocks, factors, rebounds, and steals. (Gamers may rating a triple-double in the event that they earn double-digit stats in three of these classes.)

This 12 months, Morrow logged her a hundredth profession double-double, incomes her USA At the moment’s All-SEC (Southeastern Convention) participant of the 12 months and a spot on the AP All-American second team.

Although she injured her foot in the course of the SEC Match semifinals, LSU coach Kim Mulkey says she’ll be “good to go” for March Insanity.

Hailey Van Lith, Graduate Pupil at Texas Christian College

The 23-year-old TCU guard (who beforehand performed three seasons with the LSU Tigers) will not be solely a decorated college basketball player however an Olympic bronze medalist. In 2024, she performed on the U.S. 3×3 Ladies’s Nationwide Crew in Paris, making her a promising candidate for the WNBA and Unmatched leagues after faculty.

This 12 months, she helped lead the Horned Frogs to their first convention event victory since 2005, incomes her title as Big 12 player of the year.

Hannah Hidalgo, Sophomore on the College of Notre Dame

At simply 5’6″, Hidalgo makes up for her lack of peak with expertise, self-discipline, and drive. “On the ground, I am very energetic,” Hidalgo advised CBS Mornings forward of March Insanity 2025. “I am yelling. I am diving on the ground. Generally I am flashy; generally I am basic.”

Like Watkins, Hidalgo grew to become a first-team AP All-American for the second year in a row, making them the third and fourth gamers to ever earn the honour as a freshman and sophomore. After being coached by her dad in highschool, she says she continues to stay by his finest recommendation: “Exhausting work beats expertise when expertise fails to work exhausting.”

Notably, Hidalgo missed crucial minutes of final 12 months’s Candy 16 spherical after she was advised to take away her nostril ring in the course of the sport, regardless of carrying it all through the common season and first two rounds of the NCAA event. Her crew ended up shedding to Oregon State (70—65).

“I believed it was B.S., as a result of I am on a run, I am on a roll,” Hidalgo told ESPN on the time. “I scored two baskets after which having to take a seat out for all that point, I used to be beginning to get chilly. I feel [the officials] have been nervous in regards to the mistaken issues. They need to have reffed the sport.”

Olivia Miles, Senior on the College of Notre Dame

After lacking final season because of a knee harm, Miles has not solely been integral to the Combating Irish’s success this 12 months, however tied Alyssa Thomas’ faculty document for six triple-doubles in a NCAAW profession. In accordance with AP, she’s the season’s solely participant with three triple-doubles to her title and averages 16.2 factors, 5.8 assists, and 5.9 rebounds per sport.

Although Notre Dame gained their 2025 NCAA event opener in opposition to Stephen F. Austin on March 21, followers will probably be watching out for Miles, who left the sport early with an an alleged ankle injury. “If it’s not critical, you realize she’s going to play,” teammate Maddy Westbeld mentioned in a postgame press convention, per AP. “She’s an extremely robust participant.”

The New York Times’ Athletic put Miles of their #2 spot of their WNBA mock draft.

Sedona Prince, Graduate Pupil at Texas Christian College

This 24-year-old heart has a way more controversial fame than the opposite gamers on this record. Although Prince has fought against gender inequity in faculty sports activities all through her faculty profession, Prince has additionally been the topic of a number of allegations of domestic violence and sexual assault, as reported by the Washington Post in February. You’ll be able to learn extra about her historical past here.

In a press release to the Washington Put up, Prince’s lawyer A. Boone Almanza mentioned the basketball participant “categorically denies that she has abused anybody in her life, whether or not mentally, emotionally or bodily.” The assertion continued, “Sadly, others have determined to make use of Sedona as a launch level for his or her careers. In an effort to create some relationship privateness, Sedona has requested girlfriends to signal nondisclosure agreements as a result of their private, intimate moments shouldn’t be the topic of public dialogue.”

The accusations have sparked online discourse over Prince’s standing at TCU and her March Insanity efficiency may definitely affect her future profession within the WNBA.

Chloe Kitts, Junior on the College of South Carolina

Kitts is seeking to safe her second consecutive NCAA Championship title after final 12 months’s undefeated season. The 20-year-old ahead is a key member of the reigning championship crew and was named the SEC Match MVP in 2025. These accolades come after she earned gold medals on the 2023 FIBA U19 Ladies’s World Cup and the 2022 FIBA Ladies’s U18 Americas Championship. This 12 months, she was given an honorable mentions by the Related Press for the 2024-2025 All-America groups.

Off the courtroom, Kitts is energetic on social media, the place she generally posts videos and photos together with her boyfriend, fellow South Carolina basketball participant Collin Murray-Boyles. Who would not love an influence couple?

In fact, these are simply a few of the proficient ladies followers will probably be maintaining a tally of this 12 months. Listed below are another essential particulars you would possibly need to know.

The Fundamental NCAA Ladies’s March Insanity Schedule:

First spherical: March 21-22
Second spherical: March 23-24
Candy 16: March 27-28
Elite Eight: March 29-30
Ultimate 4: April 4
Nationwide championship: April 6

How you can Watch Ladies’s March Insanity 2025:

The ESPN Community will probably be airing March Insanity video games on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPNews, whereas viewers can stream video games on the ESPN app and Fubo.

For extra nitty-gritty particulars—together with sport occasions, scores, and crew schedules—head to the NCAA website.