INDIANAPOLIS (USBWA) — Once upon a time, the end of the WNBA season and the beginning of the chase for NCAA glory in women’s college basketball were separated by nearly two and a half months.
Not anymore.
On Saturday night, Oct. 31, the Golden State Valkyries were celebrating their first WNBA championship, defeating the Atlanta Dream in Game 7 of the Finals in just their second season of existence. By noon Sunday, after the clocks had turned back an hour, the college game had already taken center stage halfway around the world, with Notre Dame and Villanova tipping off in Rome, Italy.
From a championship celebration in San Francisco to a season opener in the Eternal City, the transition from one basketball season to another had become virtually seamless.
And so here we are at the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, back for another exciting collegiate season, punctuating every Tuesday until the arrival of March Madness by handing out the weekly five-member Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week, Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week and National Team of the Week honors.
Companion men's awards, of course, are determined by board members elsewhere.
After a season of calm, another chapter of conference realignment is back with the return of the new-look Pac-12, while two other leagues, the MAAC and WAC, have rebranded their identities as the Metro and UAC, respectively, in addition to a few other schools having moved from one league to another.
In the women’s game, tiny gyms of yesteryear have yielded to large arenas with five-digit attendance figures, while all the major linear networks are loaded with competition drawing millions of viewers tuning in on TVs, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
Glamour preseason matchups have already occurred in October, a month that used to be only about practice. The NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments have each grown by eight teams to 76, and multi-team events (MTEs) can be found coast to coast before conference play dominates schedules.
The USBWA women’s awards, organized under Mel Greenberg, the USBWA vice president for women’s basketball, are drawn from weekly conference honors as well as at-large additions. Nominations are welcome as each seven-day period progresses to make sure no one is inadvertently overlooked.
There are no restrictions within a week on the number of national honors from within a team or conference, but vigilance is maintained to ensure everyone is given equal consideration.
Obviously, when distinctions must be made, performance against the quality of opposition is a consideration. But when significant records are achieved in a given week, be they at the school, conference or national level, that also counts heavily, regardless of the quality of the opponent.
For their performances in the opening period through Sunday, Nov. 8, the first five Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week are BYU guard Delaney Gibb; Michigan guard Te’Yala Delfosse; Rutgers guard Mia Pauldo; Kentucky guard Ajša Sivka; and USC guard JuJu Watkins. The season’s first Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Week honor goes to Oklahoma’s LeeLee Bell, and Idaho is the National Team of the Week.
Gibb, a 5-foot-11 junior guard for BYU from Raymond, Alberta, Canada, who also earned Big 12 Player of the Week honors, recorded the program’s first triple-double since 1986 in the third game of the team’s 3-0 start, a 97-53 win over Montana. She scored 15 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 10 assists. It was also the program’s first triple-double involving points, rebounds and assists since 1982.
“I can’t believe it’s been 40 years since we had a triple-double, so that’s pretty cool,” said BYU coach Lee Cummard.
Delfosse, a 6-foot-3 junior guard from Ewing, N.J., led Michigan to a 77-66 upset of then-No. 2 UConn, scoring a career-high 22 points, fueled by four 3-pointers, and grabbing nine rebounds as the Wolverines pulled away with a 22-13 fourth quarter.
It was the first top-five matchup at Crisler Arena, and Michigan entered the game with its highest ranking in program history at No. 5. The Wolverines achieved their highest-ranked victory and soared to No. 2 in Monday’s first in-season AP poll.
Coach Kim Barnes Arico had a previous notable victory over the Huskies while at St. John’s, when her team hit a buzzer-beater to end a then-NCAA-record home winning streak at UConn.
Pauldo, a 5-foot-6 sophomore guard from Paterson, N.J., was part of last spring’s exodus from Tennessee. She transferred with her twin sister, Mya, closer to home to play for new Rutgers coach Gary Redus II.
Pauldo helped the Scarlet Knights to a 3-0 start at home in Jersey Mike’s Arena, scoring 21 points with seven rebounds, five assists and six steals in the season opener against LIU. She followed with 22 points and six assists in the victory over La Salle.
Then, on Sunday, she scored a career-high 33 points in a 107-76 victory over Indiana State, the program’s first 30-point game since 2024, and tied a venue record by shooting 16-for-17 from the free-throw line.
Sivka, a 6-foot-5 first-year guard from Slovenia, scored 32 points Sunday in then-No. 14 Kentucky’s 93-78 win over then-No. 25 NC State in the Ally Tipoff doubleheader in Charlotte, N.C.
The victory completed the Wildcats’ 3-0 start, knocked the Wolfpack out of this week’s poll and helped Kentucky climb two spots to No. 12. The Wildcats tied a school record with 18 3-pointers, and Sivka tied a program record by connecting on eight shots from beyond the arc.
Watkins, a 6-foot-2 senior guard from Los Angeles and the 2025 USBWA National Player of the Year, returned after missing last season due to injury and dazzled for No. 3 Southern Cal in two games.
She first scored 21 points in a road victory over UNLV. Then, in Sunday’s 118-40 home-opening win over Utah State, she scored 32 points, grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds and added six assists and five steals.
On Monday, she picked up another Big Ten Player of the Week honor.
Bell, a 6-foot-3 freshman forward from Minot, N.D., debuted for Oklahoma in Paris, scoring a game-high 25 points on 9-for-21 shooting from the field and grabbing six rebounds in a 91-79 win over then-No. 12 North Carolina.
She followed with 20 points and 12 rebounds in a 95-38 home victory over Morgan State.
“It’s a new experience for me,” she said of the transition to college, “but it helps me and helps my teammates.”
On Monday, the Sooners climbed to No. 14 in the AP poll.
Idaho, the No. 2 pick behind Montana State in the preseason Big Sky coaches’ poll, had lost 17 straight games to perennial West Coast Conference power Gonzaga. But the Vandals snapped that streak last week with an 86-75 victory over the Zags, who had realigned and were picked to win the Pac-12.
Hope Hassmann led Idaho with 28 points and four assists, while Keanna Salave’a grabbed 14 rebounds, including nine on the offensive glass.
Since the 1987-88 season, the USBWA has named a women’s National Player of the Year. Beginning with the 2012-13 season, the national and weekly player awards were named for Hall of Famer and former UCLA All-American Ann Meyers Drysdale. The national and weekly freshman awards were named for former Tennessee All-American Tamika Catchings beginning with the 2019-20 season.
At the conclusion of the regular season, the USBWA will name finalists for both individual awards, with the winners determined by a vote of the entire USBWA membership.
The winners of the 2027 Ann Meyers Drysdale National Player of the Year and Tamika Catchings National Freshman of the Year awards will be announced and presented at the USBWA’s annual awards event during the 2027 NCAA Women’s Final Four in Columbus, Ohio.
The U.S. Basketball Writers Association was formed in 1956 at the urging of then-NCAA Executive Director Walter Byers. With some 800 members worldwide, it is one of the most influential organizations in college basketball. It has selected a women’s All-America team since the 1996-97 season.
For more information on the USBWA and its award programs, contact Executive Director Malcolm Moran at 814-574-1485.
2026-27 USBWA Women's Weekly Honors
Week ending Nov. 8: Delaney Gibb, BYU; Te’Yala Delfosse, Michigan; Mia Pauldo, Rutgers; Ajša Sivka, Kentucky; JuJu Watkins, USC (National Players of the Week); LeeLee Bell, Oklahoma (National Freshman of the Week); Idaho (National Team of the Week).