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Bleacher Report Names Top 10 Women's College Basketball Players
Confirmed
In Short: Bleacher Report has released its list of the top 10 NCAA women's basketball players early in the 2026-2027 season.
Bleacher Report highlighted several standout players, including a 21-year-old who scored 21 points in her first game against UNLV.
Another player, Strack, averaged a double-double last season with 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, setting high expectations for the SEC.
Olson, a key player for her team, needs to improve her three-point shooting percentage, which dropped from 38.3% in her freshman year to 30.5% last season.
Texas Tech center Stephanie Okechukwu made history by becoming the tallest player to ever play NCAA Division I women's basketball at 7 feet 1 inch.
Okechukwu's journey from Nigeria to Japan and her participation in the Nigerian national team's training camp highlight her international basketball experience.
Okechukwu's debut was a historic moment, officially marking the start of a new era for women's college basketball.
Background
CBS Sports has unveiled its rankings for the best college basketball team in each state for the 2026-27 season, showcasing a map filled with 50 college logos.
CBS Sports has unveiled its rankings for the best college basketball team in each state for the 2026-27 season, showcasing a map filled with 50 college logos, signaling the start of the new season.
What's confirmed
- Bleacher Report highlighted several standout players, including a 21-year-old who scored 21 points in her first game against UNLV.
- Another player, Strack, averaged a double-double last season with 16.9 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, setting high expectations for the SEC.
- Olson, a key player for her team, needs to improve her three-point shooting percentage, which dropped from 38.3% in her freshman year to 30.5% last season.
- Texas Tech center Stephanie Okechukwu made history by becoming the tallest player to ever play NCAA Division I women's basketball at 7 feet 1 inch.
- Okechukwu's journey from Nigeria to Japan and her participation in the Nigerian national team's training camp highlight her international basketball experience.
- Okechukwu's debut was a historic moment, officially marking the start of a new era for women's college basketball.
What's still developing
- Many players can help their programs make deep runs and reach the heights they have spent all summer working for, but some stars stand above the crowd.
- "She's really understanding the terminology and she's understanding where we want to get her the basketball, how we can use her offensively and defensively." Still, Okechukwu has extremely limited high-level experience, and it was no surprise that her debut was full of ups and downs.
- In April, she participated in the Nigerian national team's training camp, though she was not a part of the country's final roster for the 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup.
- As a teenager, she left Nigeria for Japan, where she attended Fukuchiyama Seibi High School and gained significant basketball experience.
- One of seven siblings, her hobbies outside of basketball include "swimming, reading and social media," and she speaks English, Igbo and Japanese.
- UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma said Sarah Strong's past two seasons will be hard to top.
- How do you rank the best teams in college basketball when you don't even know the full set of fifth-year players who will be eligible?
- The Charlotte Hornets are preparing to honor one of the most recognizable players in franchise history.
- Oftentimes, it starts with coaches, motivating their players to operate as a cohesive unit in order to find success.
- A video circulating on social media from the latest protest showed an interviewer asking anti-trans protestors to name five female basketball players.
- That said, she is one of the most electric players in recent college basketball history, an explosive agent of chaos with a relentless motor on both ends.
- Bogues, who spent 10 seasons with the Hornets, helped establish the franchise as one of the NBA's most exciting young teams and inspired generations of players who were told they were too small to compete.