A year ago, a gold medal looked far off for Kelsey Plum, who was just taking her first steps post-operation after tearing her Achilles.

Cut to July 2021, and Plum and the rest of the Team USA 3×3 basketball team are celebrating their historic Olympic championship.

Plum reflected on her remarkable journey in a press conference following the team’s gold medal-winning game.

“I think coming off the Achilles makes it extra sweet,” she said.

She credited Team USA member and WNBA star Breanna Stewart with inspiring her during her recovery. Stewart suffered an Achilles injury in 2019 and made her way back to playing competitive basketball in 2020.

“I really was grateful I had someone that kind of paved the way for me,” said Plum.

The 3×3 gold medalist also appears to have taken celebration inspiration from Stewart.

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— Anaïs López Gómez (@anaislopez23) July 28, 2021

In the brief moment between Sunday's NCAA basketball regular-season finale and Wednesday's tip off of major conference tournaments, Division I (DI) leagues doled out their individual 2024/25 season awards to top performers on Tuesday — raising the temperature of the National Player of the Year debate.

No. 6 Notre Dame sophomore Hannah Hidalgo topped the ACC, with the conference naming her both Player of the Year (POY) and, for the second straight year, Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY).

Top-ranked Texas's Madison Booker took SEC POY honors just one year after becoming the first freshman to book POY in the Longhorns' previous conference, the Big 12.

Meanwhile, No. 12 Kentucky sophomore center Clara Strack snagged DPOY, rising to the top of a stacked SEC field that includes No. 9 LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, No. 5 South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards, and fellow Wildcat standout Georgia Amoore.

Taking over the Big 12 is No. 8 TCU transfer guard Hailey Van Lith, who became the first Horned Frog to earn POY alongside the conference's Newcomer of the Year award. Earning the league's DPOY nod is No. 16 West Virginia senior JJ Quinerly, who booked the honor for the second season in a row.

After leading the No. 2 USC to a regular-season title, sophomore star JuJu Watkins booked Big Ten POY, while fellow conference debutant No. 4 UCLA saw their standout center Lauren Betts take home DPOY honors.

Leaders emerge in National Player of the Year race

An NCAA basketball season defined by surging parity and momentum swings denied the emergence of any clear-cut National Player of the Year (NPOY) favorite, but three headliners managed to separate themselves from the pack entering postseason play.

Thanks to her late-season heroics, Big Ten leader Watkins is the second most prolific DI scorer at 24.4 points per game (PPG), only trailing No. 22 Florida State guard Ta'Niya Latson, who boasts 25.4 PPG.

Fellow NPOY frontrunner Morrow is just the second player to record 100 career double-doubles in NCAA DI history, though LSU’s recent skid could impact her individual award standing.

After becoming the first-ever freshman to win NPOY in 2021, No. 3 UConn star Paige Bueckers’s 53.3 season field goal percentage has the senior guard back in contention for the 2025 title.

With award-worthy performances across the NCAA bringing unprecedented parity to the sport's end-of-season honors, this year's NPOY race is vastly different from last season's back-to-back no-brainer win by Iowa legend Caitlin Clark, as multiple stars make the case for DI's top individual 2024/25 honor.

The 2024/25 NCAA postseason officially tipped off on Wednesday, with top women's college basketball teams battling in conference tournaments in the lead-up to the Big Dance.

Kicking off this week's deluge of tournaments was No. 18 Tennessee, who avenged their season-ending two loss streak by opening the SEC tournament with a dominant 77-37 win over Texas A&M on Wednesday morning.

Shortly thereafter, UCF tipped off the Big 12 tournament by immediately ousting BYU 81-69, fueled in large part by senior guard Kaitlin Peterson's 35-point performance.

The ACC's debut Wednesday matchup will pit Syracuse against Boston College, while Minnesota and Washington have been tasked with kicking off the race to the Big Ten tournament title.

Most ranked squads like No. 10 Oklahoma, No. 14 North Carolina, and No. 20 Kansas State are waiting in the wings ahead of Thursday’s second-round slate, while AP Poll heavy-hitters No. 1 Texas, No. 2 USC, No. 4 UCLA, and No. 5 South Carolina won’t see their respective conference courts until Friday.

Underdogs aim to upend conference tournaments

While higher seeds have a distinct edge when it comes to conference tournament success, this week also provides underdogs one last shot at impressing the NCAA basketball committee.

Each tournament champion will book their conference's lone automatic ticket to March Madness, while the rest of the field's fate will rest in the selection committee's hands.

Top teams earn byes through to later conference competition rounds, which means lower seeds face significantly longer and more grueling schedules through the single-elimination contests.

Plus, the underdogs have arguably more to lose. Without a standout regular-season record, lower seeds must win their conference title to extend their season into the NCAA tournament, as their at-large selection chances grow dimmer the further they finished down the conference standings.

All in all, though NCAA tournament vets often see Champ Week as just another stepping stone to March Madness, bottom-of-the-table teams have much more at stake, as conference tournaments can upend both seasons and brackets.

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How to watch Wednesday's NCAA conference tournament games

ACC debutant Stanford's 36-season March Madness streak is on brink of collapse, with the unranked Cardinal needing a stellar conference tournament run — or an outright title — to make this year's Big Dance.

No. 11-seed Stanford's first hurdle will be No. 14-seed Clemson, with the pair's Wednesday matchup set for 6:30 PM ET on ACCN.

After two straight Final Four appearances, unranked Iowa will begin their Big Ten tournament campaign against also-unranked Wisconsin in Wednesday's highly anticipated first-round matchup.

The No. 14-seed Badgers and No. 11-seed Hawkeyes will tip off in Indianapolis at 8:30 PM ET, with live coverage streaming on Peacock.

With just one week before the regular season wraps up, Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball announced several roster changes ahead of Monday’s games.

In a blow to last-place Phantom BC, star Sabrina Ionescu's Unrivaled season is officially over. The Liberty standout left Miami due to commitments made before she agreed to join the offseason league.

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In her stead, a reassignment has sent Minnesota Lynx guard and Laces BC player Natisha Hiedeman to compete for the Phantom.

Ionescu’s NY Liberty teammate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is also on her way out, with the Laces relief signee exiting due to an undisclosed injury.

In better news, while the Laces’ Kate Martin and Rose BC’s Kahleah Copper are currently sidelined with injuries, both are expected to return to the Unrivaled court before the league crowns its champion on March 17th.

To help address the roster omissions, the 3×3 league has again boosted its relief player pool. One week after former Washington Mystic-turned-new Chicago Sky signee Ariel Atkins made her Unrivaled debut with the Laces, the league inked Atlanta Dream forward Naz Hillmon to the relief player roster.

Hillmon's contract has her available to fill the league's needs across any of its six teams through the end of the inaugural season.

First-ever Unrivaled playoffs take shape

Despite mounting injuries, Rose BC clinched a spot in Unrivaled’s first-ever postseason on Monday, claiming the playoff position by taking down the Laces 58-53 behind yet another Chelsea Gray game-winner.

A win on Friday will secure the No. 2 seed for Rose — but they’ll have to defeat the league-leading No. 1 seed Lunar Owls to make it happen.

Each of the league's teams have just two games left to book a postseason spot. With two already claimed, the final two semifinalist bids will come down to the wire, as the Laces, Vinyl, and Mist all sit tied with a 5-7 record entering this weekend's final stretch.

Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun! presented by TurboTax.

In this week's Sports Are Fun!, soccer icon Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, retired NWSL star Merritt Mathias, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes all things women's sports.

In true Sports Are Fun! style, the crew dives right in. First up: WNBA legend Diana Taurasi's recent retirement announcement.

"I was introduced to Diana Taurasi at age 10 when she started her career at UConn," recalls Mathias. "At that time, I was very much like, 'I'm going to UNC, I'm going to play on the national team.' To see her at UConn — the UNC equivalent for women's basketball — and just the swag she had, the way she carried herself... For me, she transcended the sport."

"Thinking about her legacy — over 20 seasons, six gold medals, all-time leading scorer," says Diaz. "But a lot of people throughout her career, even now, don't know that she's Latina. I feel like that's a huge part of her legacy."

"To see a Latina dominate the sport as one of the greatest ever, if not the greatest, that's super special," she adds.

The co-hosts additionally tackle the SheBelieves Cup results, the SEC coin flip, the 2025 NWSL jerseys, and so much more.

Co-host Mathias urges new USWNT generation to carry the torch

After that, Sports Are Fun! weighs in on coach Emma Hayes's youthful USWNT. That's when Mathias asks if this generation will keep speaking out on cultural and political issues.

"I hope that this iteration of the USWNT starts to find their collective voice," the three-time NWSL champion asserts. "As they head into the 2027 World Cup, this is the first time this generation of players is being confronted with the weight and responsibility of [wearing] that crest."

"It's the truest reflection of America that we've seen from the USWNT, the most diverse," she continues. "It's also going to play under an administration [where] what makes everything great about this women's national team — diversity, equality, inclusion — is being attacked."

"I love that America looks like this because I love our women's national team," agrees O'Hara. "I think that is a great point."

"Will this generation look at the Megan Rapinoes, the Christen Presses, the Alex Morgans, the Becky Sauerbrunns, the Kelley O'Haras, and say, 'We, like you, will continue to push,'" Mathias asks, shouting out her Sports Are Fun! co-host.

"'We are going to uphold the narrative that marginalized groups matter. Because every single one of them is represented on our USWNT.'"

"That's powerful," O'Hara responds.

About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara

'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.

Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.

From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"

Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.