NCAA basketball is officially back in action, and the reigning champion No. 1 UConn Huskies will tip off their 2025/26 season against the No. 20 Louisville Cardinals in the recently relocated Armed Forces Classic on Tuesday afternoon.
The clash will make history as the first-ever women's edition of college basketball's military-site showdown, as UConn opens their season against a ranked opponent for the first time since 2017.
"It's going to be a lot of learning with five new players," Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said earlier this week. "There's a lot of exciting things that are ahead of us… and I want to help them overcome some of those challenges we're going to have."
Despite losing 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick Paige Bueckers to the WNBA last April, the Huskies enter the season with a healthy roster and more depth than recent years, centering the team around returning starters like top-ranked sophomore forward Sarah Strong and grad student guard Azzi Fudd.
"I have to learn how to sub again," Auriemma joked about having a complete bench to draw from. "We've had three or four years in a row there where there's nobody to sub."
Staying atop the NCAA rankings won't be easy, however — a lesson the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils learned after suffering the 2025/26 NCAA season's first top-ranked upset to the No. 16 Baylor Bears on Monday.
"I think you can learn a lot from the first game of the season, especially when you're playing a good team, because they expose a lot of things about you on both ends," said Duke head coach Kara Lawson about the 58-52 loss.
How to watch UConn vs. Louisville in the Armed Forces Classic
The No. 1 UConn Huskies will tip off the 2025/26 NCAA basketball season by taking on the No. 20 Louisville Cardinals at the US Naval Academy at 5:30 PM ET on Tuesday.
The clash will air live on ESPN.
The season two roster for Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is officially complete, with the offseason league announcing its final three players on Thursday — and revealing that some big names from the venture's inaugural campaign will not feature on the 2026 court.
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese will not return for Unrivaled's second season, though league EVP and GM Clare Duwelius told The Athletic this week that they had "lots of conversations" with the players.
DiJonai Carrington will miss the 2026 campaign as well, as a mid-foot sprain suffered during September's WNBA Playoffs forced the Minnesota Lynx guard to withdraw from next year's competition.
With Carrington leaving the eight-team league's final open roster spots at three, Unrivaled rounded out their 2026 numbers with Chicago Sky guard Rebecca Allen, Indiana Fever guard Aari McDonald, and Seattle Storm center and 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 2 pick Dominique Malonga.
Malonga joins the 3×3 upstart after abruptly terminating her overseas contract with Turkish club Fenerbahçe following a post-WNBA season wrist surgery.
Unrivaled also dropped the list of their 2026 head coaches this week, with returning managers Nola Henry and Teresa Weatherspoon joined by fresh faces including ex-Storm boss Noelle Quinn.
How to watch Unrivaled in 2026
Unrivaled will tip off its expanded 2026 season on January 5th, with live coverage airing on TNT.
Another WNBA team has reportedly landed a leader, with the Seattle Storm rumored to have tapped former New York Liberty and Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Sonia Raman as the team's newest head coach.
Building out her early head coaching career in the NCAA's Division III leading the MIT Engineers, Raman spent four seasons as an NBA assistant in Memphis before joining Sandy Brondello's Liberty staff for the 2025 WNBA season.
According to a Friday report, the Seattle Storm have offered Raman a multi-year deal, and the hiring will make her the first-ever WNBA head coach of Indian descent.
With the Dallas Wings as well as both 2026 expansion teams the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo also recently locking in their new locker room leaders, Seattle's sideline news means that only 2024 champions New York remain without a manager well into the WNBA offseason.
Reports indicate that Raman initially caught the Liberty's eye, after Brondello parted ways with the team following New York's first-round exit from the 2025 WNBA Playoffs.
Raman will replace Seattle's 2021-2025 head coach Noelle Quinn, taking over a Storm roster centered around 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 2 pick and All-Rookie team honoree Dominique Malonga plus an anticipated 2026 lottery pick.
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.
Fresh off her rookie WNBA season, Seattle Storm star Dominique Malonga is causing a stir overseas, abruptly withdrawing from her offseason contract with Turkish club Fenerbahçe this week — and creating controversy in her wake.
Malonga initially signed a three-year deal with the two-time Euroleague champions in March before she "unilaterally terminated her professional player contract with our club without any just cause," according to a Fenerbahçe social media post on Monday.
"We inform the public that we will exercise all our legal rights to seek compensation for any material and moral damages incurred by our club during this process," the team continued.
While she didn't disclose a reason for leaving Istanbul, the 19-year-old did reveal that she recently required surgery to repair a dislocated tendon in her wrist, estimating that she'd be in a cast for six weeks.
The 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 2 pick finished her debut WNBA season averaging 7.7 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, earning herself a spot on the stacked 2025 All-Rookie Team.
Should the contract dispute remain unresolved, Fenerbahçe could attempt to disrupt Malonga's second season in Seattle due to a longstanding "letter of clearance" rule requiring approval from both the WNBA and Europe's FIBA before athletes can move between leagues.
Front Office Sports reported on Tuesday that while the WNBA signed off on the 19-year-old's Turkish contract, Fenerbahçe could deny her ability to return to the US league "under the condition that she violated the terms of her contract."
"If the season tips off in May as it did in 2025, this would give Fenerbahçe and Malonga about six months to rectify any potential dispute and clear her for a WNBA return," warned FOS.
The Dallas Wings are officially making moves, with the franchise announcing Tuesday that it is parting ways with first-year head coach Chris Koclanes after the team finished the 2025 WNBA season in last place with a 10-34 record.
"As we enter a pivotal point in our team's future, we felt a change in leadership at this time was best for our organization," Dallas EVP and GM Curt Miller said in a Tuesday statement. "The Dallas Wings remain dedicated to their pursuit of WNBA Championships and building upon the strong culture established on and off the court."
Helming a Wings side that struggled with injury throughout the 2025 campaign, Koclanes cobbled together 18 different starting rosters as reserves and hardship signings led Dallas to field a WNBA-high 21 players across the season.
With Tuesday's announcement, Koclanes is now the third dismissed WNBA head coach this year, joining now-unemployed sideline leaders Noelle Quinn (Seattle Storm) and Sandy Brondello (New York Liberty) as the Wings look to build around 2025 No. 1 draft pick and reigning Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers.
Dallas also has an eye on the future, heading into the offseason with the best odds to secure next year's No. 1 overall draft selection — their second straight top pick — after a midseason pivot saw the team offload 2025 additions NaLyssa Smith and DiJonai Carrington.
The WNBA Class of 2025 balled out this season, with the league naming every one of this year's top four draft picks to the All-Rookie Team on Monday — the first quartet to achieve the feat since 2014.
The 2025 No. 1 overall draft pick and Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers leads the first-year squad, with the Dallas Wings guard joined by Seattle Storm center and No. 2 pick Dominique Malonga as well as the Washington Mystics' Nos. 3 and 4 selectees — guard Sonia Citron and forward Kiki Iriafen, respectively.
One undrafted player rounds out this year's WNBA All-Rookie Team, with international signee and Golden State Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün making the cut after averaging 11.3 points per game for the 2025 expansion side — helping lead the Valks to a history-making playoff berth in their inaugural season.
Three members of the 2025 WNBA All-Rookie Team — Bueckers, Citron, and Iriafen — also became All-Stars in their debut season, with each joining Salaün in logging double-digit point averages across their inaugural pro campaigns.
Bueckers claimed even more scoring history, with her 692 total points trailing only 2024's Caitlin Clark and 2006's Seimone Augustus for most points tallied in a WNBA rookie season.
As for Malonga, the 19-year-old made her own mark as the youngest-ever WNBA player to record 100 career points.
Paige Bueckers is the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the league announced early Tuesday, as the Dallas Wings guard becomes the fifth consecutive No. 1 draft pick to win the award.
Bueckers is the first Wings player to earn the honor since Allisha Gray in 2017, finishing the 2025 season averaging 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals per game and shooting 47.4% from the field.
The 23-year-old was the only player this season to finish in the Top 10 league-wide in points, assists, and steals per game — all while becoming the fastest rookie in WNBA history to notch 500 points and 100 assists.
While the conversation around the Class of 2025 included several high performers, the Rookie of the Year vote proved to be near unanimous, with Bueckers receiving 70 of the sports media panel's 72 votes.
The remaining two votes went to Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron.
While the race tightened as Citron heated up mid-season, Bueckers's August 20th rookie-record 44-point performance against the LA Sparks likely shut the door to any challengers.
"I know that we continue to do things the right way, we continue to believe in each other, continue to invest our whole lives into this basketball thing, the results will come," Bueckers told reporters after Dallas ended the season with a 10-34 record — securing the highest odds for next year's No. 1 draft pick.
The 2025 season is nearly over for the No. 13 Dallas Wings, but they're banking on the future as the struggling WNBA team locked in the best odds to grab the 2026 overall No. 1 draft pick earlier this week.
After Monday's loss to the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, Dallas — who drafted UConn superstar Paige Bueckers No. 1 overall at the 2025 WNBA Draft — now have a 40% chance of winning first dibs via the 2026 lottery, as well as a near-30% shot at snagging the No. 2 or No. 3 pick.
In an attempt to deter single-season tanking, the lottery uses combined two-year records to determine which team has a shot at a high draft pick.
This year's trades will complicate next season's lottery order, with No. 12 Chicago's natural first-round pick belonging to top-seed Minnesota, while the early selection owned by the No. 11 Connecticut Sun — heavily weighted due to the team's 2024 success — will likely go to Chicago by way of a pick swap involving the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury.
Even more, as the league expands, so must the lottery: The 2026 edition will feature the first five-team lineup in WNBA history, with next season's incoming franchises — the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire — projected to claim picks No. 5 and No. 6.
As for Dallas, after successfully transitioning Bueckers to the pros, the Wings are going all in on NCAA talent as next year’s projected top picks prep for their final college tour.
Leading the 2026 WNBA Draft class is UCLA center Lauren Betts, followed closely by Bueckers's former UConn teammate (and current girlfriend) Azzi Fudd as well as offseason TCU transfer Olivia Miles.
Every lottery is a gamble by definition, but back-to-back losing records in Dallas could spell a silver lining in 2026.
Dallas star Paige Bueckers all but slammed the door on the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year race on Wednesday, tying basketball legend Cynthia Cooper's 1997 single-game rookie scoring record by dropping a career-high 44 points in the No. 11 Wings' narrow 81-80 loss to the No. 9 LA Sparks.
Despite the Sparks officially eliminating the Wings from playoff contention, Bueckers's efficiency was on full display, tallying the highest single-game performance by any player in the league this season while shooting over 80% from the field.
"People have [seen] the struggles — the injuries, the ups and downs," Bueckers said afterwards. "For people to continue to follow me and still believe in me, it really means a lot."
The 2025 No. 1 overall draftee leads a rookie class thriving in the pros, with the No. 10 Washington Mystics' Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen and the No. 13 Connecticut Sun's Saniya Rivers hot on Bueckers's heels.
On the WNBA stat sheet, Bueckers currently sits fifth overall in points per game and ninth in assists per game, while Iriafen is fourth in rebounds per game and Citron — who recently set a new Mystics rookie scoring record with 537 career points — is fifth overall in clutch points.
Despite the Sun's struggles, Rivers has excelled defensively, becoming the fastest-ever WNBA player to record 30 career blocks by doing so in just 31 games.
Ultimately, while Sparks guard Kelsey Plum's game-winning buzzer-beater ended Bueckers's postseason dreams on Wednesday night, the rookie's heroics continue to shine with the WNBA's end-of-season awards fast approaching.