Tianna Hawkins enters Week 3 of Athletes Unlimited basketball as the points leader after a dominant second week in which she rose 14 spots up the leaderboard. As for the other three captains this week, Lexie Brown will look to continue her undefeated streak, while Natasha Cloud and Isabelle Harrison attempt to find some balance.

With games resuming Wednesday, here are three storylines to look out for in Week 3.

Rosters are set and Week 3 is here 🤩

Which team has the best chance of going undefeated? 🤔#BeUnlimited | #AUHoops pic.twitter.com/dH0Ezowvhy

— Athletes Unlimited (@AUProSports) February 6, 2022

Will Tianna Hawkins continue her offensive production?

In the second game against Team Russell last week, Hawkins set a single-game scoring record with 38 points, helping Team Brown to a 98-85 victory. Roughly 24 hours later, she outdid herself, recording 46 points on 20-of-27 shooting from the field. She added 10 rebounds to claim her second MVP 1 honors of the week and lead Team Brown to a 3-0 record.

“It’s just having the hot hand and my teammates did a good job of feeding me the ball both tonight and last night,” Hawkins said.

It was a turnaround from Week 1, in which Hawkins averaged 15.3 points per game. In addition to vaulting from 14th on the AU leaderboard to first, she  now leads the league with 25.2 points per game and is pulling down 8.2 rebounds per game.

But Hawkins’ basketball savvy will be put to the test this week. The lone new captain in Week 3, she will need to prove she can put together a good team to remain the league leader. Outside of standout individual performances, AU places emphasis on team wins, giving out 50 points per quarters won and 100 points per games won.

There’s evidence that she may have done so when drafting her roster on Sunday. Destinee Walker set a single-quarter scoring record this season with 18 points, while Jessica Kuster is well-rounded and currently shooting 44.4 percent from 3-point range. Hawkins also selected veteran Sydney Colson and former captain Mercedes Russell, who currently sits seventh on the leaderboard. Hawkins will have to rely on them as much as herself if she wants to make a splash in Week 3.

Does Lexie Brown have a future as a GM?

Throughout Week 2 of the AU season, Lexie Brown showed that not only can she hoop, but she also might just have a career as a general manager one day.

I know it was only a week, but I truly have a future in being a GM 😂🤗

— Lexie Brown (@Lexiebrown) February 6, 2022

Not many expected the performance that Team Brown turned out in Week 2, but Brown was confident in her team’s abilities from the jump. The squad found a balance that worked for them and helped them go undefeated on the week.

“I drafted them for that exact reason,” Brown said last week. “I played with a team that we were super big, I played with a team that we were kind of big, but I didn’t really have any pick-and-pop players, and I think I play best with that with the attention I draw, to be able to kick out to the shooters. And they just have to have confidence to knock it down.”

Brown will look to repeat that performances in Week 3 with a new team. With eight of 11 players on her roster sitting inside of the top 25 on the individual leaderboard, there will be no shortage of talent.

Team Brown will have to contend with the duo of Natasha Cloud and DiJonai Carrington, who have developed strong chemistry through the first two weeks of the season. Team Cloud has also added Essence Carson, who is averaging 12.5 points per game while shooting 50.8 percent.

Isabelle Harrison will return as a captain this week after going 5-1 through the first two weeks. Notably, she drafted Ty Young and held onto Courtney Williams and Odyssey Sims.

Can Taj Cole make the jump to captain?

Will this be the week that Taj Cole vaults into a captain position? The guard amassed 1,064 points in Week 2 to hold onto the No. 5 spot on the leaderboard.

One of four athletes picked up during the Athletes Unlimited tryouts in Atlanta, Cole has already made a splash in AU. Through the first week of play, she averaged 19.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and five assists per game. Last week, the Connecticut Sun signed her to a training camp contract, indicating that AU can serve as a showcase for WNBA teams looking for roster depth.

Opportunity: Secured ✅

After an impressive @AUProSports debut, @TCOLE_0 will be heading to the @ConnecticutSun this season on a training camp contract, sources tell @RachGall. pic.twitter.com/Gup1xoWly5

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) February 2, 2022

Cole followed up Week 1 with an equally productive Week 2, scoring 23 points against Team Russell and dishing out a game-high 12 assists against Team Cloud. Brown and Cole have been a dynamic duo this season, so it came as no surprise that Brown drafted Cole with her first pick on Sunday.

Cole sits 333 points behind Harrison for the fourth and final captain spot, but making the jump is not entirely out of the question. The AU format rewards good performances and consistency, and Cole brings both.

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

The Tour de France Femmes confirmed its course for 2026 this week, setting up next year's event as the longest iteration of the race in the women's tour history.

The 2026 course will run in nine stages starting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on August 1st and continuing through the finish line in Nice, France, on August 9th.

Cyclists will cover a total of 1,175 kilometers, with 18,795 meters of climbing.

The course will feature three flat stages and three hilly stages as well as two mountain stages and one individual time trial, with riders tackling Mont Ventoux — an iconic climb from the men's event — for the first time.

Though 2026 will only by the fifth edition of the modern Tour de France Femmes, the race will make its debut in a standalone time slot one full week after the men’s race ends, with recent record viewership fueling the move to separate the races rather than continue the previous tactic of scheduling the two events back-to-back.

"We no longer need men for the Tour de France Femmes to exist,"  said race director Marion Rousse at Thursday's course unveiling. "There's no need to have the men's race as a platform to launch the women's race. Now people are waiting to see us."

"People have embraced us," Rousse continued. "The new dates, separate to the men, prove it."

This weekend's slate of international soccer features more than one blockbuster matchup, as some of the summer's top performers, including England and Brazil, begin the long process of preparing for the 2027 World Cup.

Reigning UEFA Women's Euro champions England will be hosting 2025 Copa América Femenina winners Brazil at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester on Saturday, when the Lionesses officially kick off their four-game Homecoming Series to close out 2025 play.

The match between world No. 4 England and No. 7 Brazil will serve as the first of the series of friendlies that will span the final two international breaks of the year, with the Lionesses closing out the opening pair of games against No. 15 Australia on Tuesday.

Elsewhere, while England fans will be enjoying the team's victory lap after their second-straight Euro title, other top UEFA competition are honing in on 2025 Nations League play.

Behind a long-range goal from winger Klara Bühl, No. 5 Germany snagged a narrow 1-0 victory over No. 6 France on Friday morning, taking the lead in the pair's two-leg semifinal.

The second Nations League semifinal round kicks off at 2 PM ET on Friday, when No. 1 Spain faces No. 3 Sweden live on Prime.

How to watch England vs. Brazil this weekend

England takes on Brazil at 12:30 PM ET on Saturday, with live coverage streaming on Prime.

The Wings have found their next sideline leader, as multiple reports on Thursday linked longtime University of South Florida (USF) head coach Jose Fernandez to the open position in Dallas.

Fernandez is still finalizing his contract with the WNBA team, with the 53-year-old exiting USF having led the Bulls for 25 years, making 10 NCAA tournament appearances along the way.

Calling his impact "profound," USF athletics CEO Rob Higgins acknowledged that Fernandez is leaving for a WNBA position in a Thursday statement.

"While this is a bittersweet moment for our program, it is a well-deserved opportunity for Jose," said Higgins. "We are incredibly proud of him."

Replacing Chris Koclanes after one year, Fernandez will become the fifth Dallas head coach in seven seasons, with the Wings trying to build a title-contending roster around 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 1 pick and reigning Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers.

Fernandez will also be the third WNBA hiring out of the college ranks in the last two years, joining Atlanta Dream boss Karl Smesko (FGCU) and LA Sparks manager Lynne Roberts (Utah).

Hoping to improve on a 13th-place 2025 finish — and make the WNBA Playoffs for the first time since 2023 — Dallas could claim a second straight No. 1 draftee next year, with the Wings entering 2026 with the highest odds to snag the top pick in the league's draft lottery.

The WNBA league office and the Players Association (WNBPA) exchanged escalating public statements this week, as both sides dispute terms surrounding a key issue in the ongoing CBA negotiations: revenue sharing.

"When the players opted out [of their CBA] a year ago, they made it clear they wanted a salary system that values their labor and allows them to grow with the business they are very clearly driving," WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told ESPN in a statement this week, citing the vast disparity in revenue sharing percentages between the WNBA and the NBA.

Jackson continued by claiming that the WNBA intends to "run out the clock" and double down on a model that "intentionally undervalues the players."

Days ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said publicly that "[Revenue] share isn't the right way to look at it," pushing instead for salary increases in "absolute numbers."

WNBA leadership, however, denied that their current offer to players omits all revenue sharing, with the league calling the WNBPA's claim "incorrect and surprising," while indicating that an uncapped revenue sharing model "directly tied to the league's performance" is on the table.

"It is frustrating and counterproductive for the union to be making misrepresentations about our proposals while also accusing the league of engaging in delay," the WNBA's statement continued. "That is simply not true."

With both parties not seeing eye to eye, a resolution before the October 31st CBA deadline appears unlikely, though a formal request for an extension on negotiations is not currently in the cards.