Athletes Unlimited’s inaugural basketball season begins this week, with a plethora of new and old talent taking the court for the player-led five-week campaign. Of the 44-player roster, 11 hail from the WNBA, 11 from overseas and 12 from the sidelines after taking a year off for one reason or another.

Under AU’s unique scoring format, it’s hard to know who will come out on top. But it’s still fun to speculate, and Just Women’s Sports has five players to watch as the season gets underway Wednesday.

Briahanna Jackson

Most recent team: Club Aztks (Mexico)
Position: Guard

A guard out of Louisville, Jackson went undrafted in 2017 before heading overseas to play in Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico, Poland and Mexico. Most recently, Jackson spent the 2021 season with Club Aztks in Mexico, where she averaged 15 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.8 assists through 24 games.

Spending her first two NCAA seasons at the University of Central Florida, Jackson was named the Conference USA Freshman of the Year and averaged 17.8 points per game as a sophomore before transferring to Louisville. She finished her 2016-17 redshirt senior season with the Cardinals second on the team in steals (41) and assists (127). Nationally, she ranked 33rd with a 2.35 assist-to-turnover ratio. With steals and assists each worth 10 points in the Athletes Unlimited system, Jackson could quickly move up the scoreboard.

As one of four players picked up during AU’s open tryouts in Atlanta, Jackson is a well-rounded playmaker who should fit into the lineup of any team that drafts her, giving her an advantage with the turnover each week.

Kelsey Mitchell

Most recent team: Indiana Fever (WNBA)
Position: Guard

The Indiana Fever’s No. 2 pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, Mitchell is one of the most consistent scorers in the Athletes Unlimited pool. A member of the 2018 WNBA All-Rookie team, she’s only gotten better as her career has gone on. The 5-foot-8 guard has finished among the WNBA’s top-10 scorers the past two seasons, averaging 17.9 points per game in 2020 and 17.8 in 2021. She ended last season on a 23-game streak of scoring at least 10 points, the longest active such streak in the WNBA.

Mitchell is a prolific 3-point shooter, having left Ohio State as the NCAA’s all-time leader with 497 made 3-pointers. In 2018, Mitchell and Fever teammate Victoria Vivians recorded the most 3-pointers ever by a WNBA rookie tandem, with 135.

Made 3-pointers are worth 30 individual points in AU’s system, while a missed 3-pointer is a loss of just 10 points. A player loses the same amount of points for a field goal, but earns only 20 points for a made 2-point shot. While shot selection is still key, long-range shooters like Mitchell could end up being rewarded more for their efforts and find themselves higher up the leaderboard.

Mercedes Russell

Most recent team: Seattle Storm (WNBA)
Position: Center

A two-time WNBA champion with Seattle, Russell has spent four total seasons in the WNBA. The 6-foot-6 center finished last season just off her career best in points per game with 7.3 and with a career-high 6.1 rebounds. She also added 1.6 assists per game for the fourth-place Storm.

It’s not just the number of shots Russell takes that will serve her well in AU, but her offensive efficiency. Last season, she shot 61.7 percent from the field, good for second-highest in the WNBA. She is currently third in field-goal percentage in Storm franchise history, ahead of the likes of Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, and is 14th all-time in the WNBA.

That level of efficiency should be rewarded in AU. While made shots are guaranteed points, missed shots lead to a deduction, meaning Russell is less likely to give up easy points.

Mikiah Herbert Harrigan

Most recent team: Seattle Storm (WNBA)
Position: Forward

A two-year WNBA veteran, Herbert Harrigan took off last year to give birth to a son. The Storm acquired the forward last February in a trade with the Minnesota Lynx, who drafted her sixth overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft. She made 21 appearances off the bench during her rookie season, averaging 3.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. She was an efficient shooter as well, with a field-goal percentage of 60 percent.

Before turning pro, Herbert Harrigan was a standout at South Carolina. As a senior, she averaged 13.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game during the regular season and was named SEC tournament MVP. Where Herbert Harrigan excels is on defense. She finished her career at South Carolina ranked second all-time with 210 blocked shots. While it might take some time for her to get back up to game speed after the year off, she could make an all-around impact for whichever captains draft her.

Kirby Burkholder

Most recent team: Energa Torun (Poland)
Position: Guard

Burkholder has extensive experience on the international circuit, playing in Poland, Hungary, Belgium and Italy. Most recently, she averaged 12.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists in seven games for Energa Torun in Poland. Prior to that, she was with ZTE Noi Kosarlabda Klub in Hungary and averaged 14.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.4 assists.

Before heading overseas, Burkholder was a standout guard at James Madison University. As a senior, she averaged 18.6 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, finishing among the top-seven guards in the nation in rebounds per game and earning Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year. Upon graduating in 2014, Burkholder signed with the Mystics and competed in training camp before heading to Italy.

The guard has the high-scoring and high-rebounding potential to capitalize on AU’s scoring system.

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

The NWSL has made a decision, as the league officially moves forward with its new "High Impact Player" rule despite stated opposition from the players union.

Announced last week, the rule change allows clubs to exceed to the NWSL salary cap by up to $1 million to attract or retain players that meet one of eight qualifying metrics set by the league.

Those metrics include major media award rankings like the 30-player Ballon d'Or shortlist and ESPN FC's Top 50 Football Players, as well as marketing power, top USWNT minutes, and end-of-year NWSL awards.

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Developed with Washington Spirit superstar — and current free agent — Trinity Rodman and her potential contract in mind, the "High Impact Player" rule will not go into effect until July 1st, 2026.

Meanwhile, the NWSLPA has spoken out against the mechanism, proposing instead to up the salary cap by $1 million without league-imposed spending regulations.

"Under federal labor law, changes to compensation under the salary cap are a mandatory subject of bargaining — not a matter of unilateral discretion," the union wrote on Wednesday.

Additionally, per The Athletic, NWSLPA executive director Meghann Burke expressed concerns that the rule ties top athlete pay, in part, to player valuations in third party publications — a move that externally defines who a club can consider "high impact."

Led by six Kansas City athletes and five from Gotham FC, just 27 current NWSL players across 10 of the 16 clubs in the expanded 2026 season meet the new HIP qualifying criteria — though all teams could use the mechanism to attract a new athlete to the league.

In a growing global market, the NWSL could be falling into a trap of half-measures, as the union pushes back with league parity potentially on the line.

The Kansas City Current have apparently found a new manager, with ESPN reporting last week that the 2025 NWSL Shield-winners will bring on former MLS head coach Chris Armas to lead the team in 2026.

Armas built his career in the MLS, coaching the New York Red Bulls from 2018 to 2020 before taking over Toronto FC in 2021, then spending the last three years heading up the Colorado Rapids.

The ex-USMNT player also has experience in the women's game at the college level, leading the Division II Adelphi University women's soccer team from 2011 to 2014.

Despite their many victories in 2025, the Current found themselves without a coach after third-year boss Vlatko Andonovski moved into a sporting director role with the club in November.

ESPN reported that Kansas City chose Armas over internal candidates like assistants Milan Ivanovic and ex-Angel City and Gotham manager Freya Coombe.

"I want my staff and people I've worked with to become successful coaches. These are things I'm very passionate about and want to be able to execute," Andonovski told ESPN last month.

Armas would be the first former MLS coach to make the leap to the NWSL, with the winds of change in Kansas City blowing stronger than anticipated.

With the 2026 Winter Olympics fast approaching, US skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin has started the 2025/26 FIS World Cup cycle in top form — particularly in her favored slalom event.

Closing out last season with a victory, Shiffrin is currently on a multi-event winning streak, earning her sixth straight slalom title in Semmering, Austria, on Sunday.

"It was a really hard day today, tough conditions, a really big fight, and the pressure's on… I did my best, best possible run," Shiffrin said afterwards.

Momentum is on her side, with Shiffrin set to enter the 2026 Winter Games in Italy as the winningest skier in World Cup history, surpassing Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark's 86 wins in March 2023 and becoming the first skier to reach 100 World Cup victories earlier this year.

Sunday's race marked the 30-year-old's 106th career World Cup title, with Shiffrin looking to add to her ever-growing historic record with three more slalom events scheduled before the Olympic women's Alpine skiing events kick off on February 8th.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion and 2018 Winter Games giant slalom gold medalist is aiming to return to the podium after failing to medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

Shiffrin will likely hit the slopes again next weekend, when the women's FIS World Cup lands in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for a giant slalom and slalom competition.

South Carolina basketball is stocking up, as top-ranked high school senior Jerzy Robinson announced her commitment to join the head coach Dawn Staley and the No. 3 Gamecocks last Tuesday.

"I chose South Carolina because I had a sense of peace when it came down to the decision for me," Robinson told ESPN. "When I visited South Carolina, I was already home. I was already valued there.... I felt like this was where I needed to be for the next four years."

A 6-foot-2 guard who averaged 27 points and 10.2 rebounds in her junior season at Los Angeles's Sierra Canyon High School, Robinson is now the highest-ranked Class of 2026 recruit heading to South Carolina — as well as the final Top 5 player to make a college decision after also visiting No. 1 UConn and No. 5 LSU.

Robinson first made a name for herself at the youth level, winning three gold medals and the 2025 U-19 FIBA World Cup with Team USA.

The young talent also inked one of the first-ever shoe sponsorships for a high school player, signing an NIL deal with Nike in November 2024.

"Basketball has always been my love and my passion," she said. "To see it pay off and the hard work and the hours pay off, in the sense of I get to play for one of the best universities in the country, I just have so much gratitude."