Culture
WNBA Draft confidential: GMs anonymously scout Paige Bueckers and more March Madness guards
The 2025 WNBA Draft will be headlined by UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who has been penciled in as the top pick ever since she decided to exercise her fifth year of eligibility. But beyond Bueckers, there is a deep pool of lead guards, scorers, and wings who are eager to make their impact at the next level.
Bueckers and several of her fellow draftees, including the Notre Dame and NC State duos, are still competing in the NCAA Tournament. UConn is seeking its first national championship since 2016 and first title for Bueckers. With so much left to accomplish, the draft seems far away, but the April 14 date in New York city is fast approaching, just eight days after the national championship.
Six WNBA general managers shared their candid opinions about the upcoming draft class with The Athletic before the NCAA Tournament began. They were granted anonymity to allow them to speak openly. On Wednesday, we’ll run another installment that includes their evaluations of frontcourt players such as Aneesah Morrow, Kiki Iriafen and Dominique Malonga.
(Players are listed in alphabetical order. Statistics current through Monday. Asterisks indicate a player has an additional year of college eligibility.)
Georgia Amoore | 5-6 guard | Kentucky
19.6 ppg, 6.9 apg, 36.7 mpg
“Great college basketball player. Can she do enough to be a rotational WNBA player who makes it to a second contract?”
“Georgia Amoore’s game will translate due to her ability to run a team and put her teammates in easy scoring situations due to her passing. She will excel in pick-and-roll situations and is a player with a very high basketball IQ.”
“It’s hard to succeed as a tiny, tiny guard, so size is just the main thing. If she can be an insane shooter off the dribble and with range, she has a chance.”
“She’s heady, does a ton of the (Steve) Nash stuff. She’s pretty smart in terms of knowing her limitations from a size perspective.”
“There’s no doubt she’s a scorer, she can shoot, she’s a playmaker. Point guards are at a premium. They’re hard to find.”
Georgia Amoore’s college career was outstanding 👏
🏀 First triple-double in VT history
🏀 Led Hokies to first ACC title and Final Four appearance
🏀 All-time assists leader for VT (656)
🏀 Tied Kentucky record for most points in a game (43)
🏀 2x First-team All-ACC & 1x… pic.twitter.com/mLxsboWkSH— espnW (@espnW) March 23, 2025
Paige Bueckers* | 5-11 guard | UConn
18.7 ppg, 4.8 apg, 63.4 TS%
“My only concerns with Paige are physical. If she can stay healthy, I think she’s an All-Star level talent. She can play with or without the ball which makes her super valuable. She scores at all three levels. She’s big and tall and long enough to survive defensively. I think her offense is better than her defense, but it’s hard to find things not to like about Paige.”
“Despite the fact that people always want to seem to talk about some potential flaws, (she’s)
still the most sure thing today in this draft.”
“The adjustment to the speed and physicality of the game will determine her immediate impact.”
“Great leader. She’s incredibly poised. She’s prepared, pro-ready and so impressive, on and off the court. A franchise foundational player.”
Sonia Citron | 6-1 wing | Notre Dame
14.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 38.1 3-PT%
“Total package player. … She’s got three layers to her scoring, she can defend multiple positions, her IQ is off the charts.”
“Hard to not like her in terms of what the game needs, the 3-and-D. “
“Very, very poised. Obviously shoots the ball tremendously well. She’s got the whole package. The game seems to have slowed down for her.”
“Big fan, don’t know the ceiling, don’t know the star power, but in terms of being a productive player on a winning team and raising the floor of your team, pretty big fan.”
Azzi Fudd* | 5-11 guard | UConn
13.2 ppg, 1.2 spg, 44.8 3-PT%
“She shoots it well but the sample size is so small. Not sure how she impacts the game outside of the threat of her shooting, and I don’t think her shooting numbers are off the charts either, so I’m a little worried about her having a bigger reputation than the actual impact.”
“Health is the No. 1 thing for Azzi. She has all the tools to be a great pro. It really comes down to her health. Great shooting, great defender.”
“She could be a really interesting complementary rotation player who can stretch it. Three-and-D potential player.”
Aziaha James | 5-9 guard | NC State
17.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.7 apg
“Really dynamic. Great finisher. Just gets downhill. Great defender. I think she’s going to be a really, really good guard in this league for a long time.”
“I could see her turning out to have an eight-year career. I could see her fizzling out and it just not working. I see her as a microwave scorer off the bench and those are necessary.”
“Her ability to adapt to defensive game plans against her when she gets to this next level will decide if she makes it or not.”
“A good combo guard, but might need to become more physical and stronger to be able to compete night in and night out in the WNBA.”
Olivia Miles* | 5-10 guard | Notre Dame
15.5 ppg, 5.9 apg, 40.1 3-PT%
“The second safest pick after Paige.”
“She’s definitely an exceptional passer. Her court vision in small spaces as well as full court is really, really special.”
“Big fan, especially if the shooting can continue to be where it’s at. I love the wiggle she has in her game. She’s got great feel, she’s got great change of pace. I love the combination of dribble, pass, shoot. I love her size at point guard. I think she can also probably play on and off the ball.”
“Incredibly dynamic. One of the best scorers I’ve seen in many years. At times, she’s taken out of the end of games defensively, but I think the defensive end is where she still has room to grow. Offensively, an absolute dynamo.”
Will Te-Hina Paopao become the latest Gamecocks player to be a first-round draft pick? (Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images)
Te-Hina Paopao | 5-9 guard | South Carolina
9.7 ppg, 2.9 apg, 37.1 3-PT %
“Solid college player. Clear 3-point shooter. Does she have enough to get by people and create at the next level?”
“Paopao has the ability to hit from long range. She has strong leadership qualities and is another high IQ player who can distribute the basketball.”
“Paopao is efficient offensively. Defends really well. You know Dawn (Staley)’s kids are going to come in and play their role, whatever they’re asked to do, no matter how big or how little. She really impacts the game on both ends of the floor.”
Saniya Rivers | 6-1 guard/wing | NC State
11.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.6 apg
“The good news for her is she can be a point guard. And if you can’t shoot, you better be playing point guard cause then you have the ball in your hands and you can survive a little bit more. A lot to like and a lot to question, but amazing tools to work with.”
“The most athletic guard-wing in the draft, but is there a place for a non-3-point shooter guard-wing in the WNBA?”
“The athleticism is mesmerizing. At times she gets a little bit out of control, so it’s just harnessing that and continuing to get better at just picking her shots, picking when she’s gonna drive, when she’s gonna shoot the 3.”
“Great length from the wing position and the possibility of being an elite defender with her length and athleticism.”
🚨: NC State advances to the SWEET SIXTEEN for the sixth time in seven seasons‼️
No. 2 NC State defeated No. 7 Michigan State, 83-49.
Saniya Rivers became the first player in NC State program history to post a point-assist double-double in an NCAA tournament game, while Aziaha… pic.twitter.com/EYB86AsF8I
— Posther Hoops (@postherhoops) March 24, 2025
Shyanne Sellers | 6-2 wing | Maryland
14.2 ppg, 4.2 apg, 41.8 3-pt%
“I love her size, I love her athleticism. She’s got all the tools, she just sort of at times, comes in and out. Any kid that’s playing for Brenda Freese for four years you know is disciplined on both ends of the floor.”
“She’s a scorer, she can play probably the two and the three and (stretch) four. Availability is often the best ability, and she’s had a little bit of a rocky year with some of the injuries that she’s had. But she’s also shown a really great resiliency in being able to bounce back.”
“Is she reliable or dependable with her scoring ability at the next level? Questions about her current health may have her drop in the draft, and ultimately, what is her best position at the W level?”
Hailey Van Lith | 5-7 guard | TCU
17.7 ppg, 5.5 apg, 1.2 spg
“A tough kid with a high basketball IQ. She can score from all three levels and is a player who, in clutch moments, you can get her the basketball and she can make something happen.”
“Hailey had success being a high-usage player. What will her role look like when she gets small windows in the W? How effective can she be in limited minutes early in her career, when she doesn’t have the ball?”
“So much grit. I love the fire that she brings when she steps onto the court. You know what you’re gonna get from her every single night. The question mark continues to be on the defensive end. She’s going to have to continue to get better. She’s never going to be the best athlete or the quickest, so she’s got to figure out how to pick her spots and be strategic in a way when she’s guarding players that might be a little bit bigger and faster than her.”
“She’s helped herself this year. She’s showing she can impact the game in different areas.”
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos of Hailey Van Lith, Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles: Ron Jenkins, Michael Reaves, Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)
Where do you turn when you need advice? A chatbot? A life coach? A wise and trusted friend?
How about a poet? Poets may not be famous for making the best life choices, but because they subject the mess of human existence to the discipline of language, they can be as helpful as any therapist or mentor.
Good poets know the rules and when to break them, which is something they can teach the rest of us.
To wit:
Giving advice is a peculiar literary undertaking. It flourishes in certain popular genres — graduation speeches, newspaper columns, country and western songs and poems like this one — but what, in these contexts, is it really for?
I’m thinking of situations when you don’t urgently need help but nonetheless enjoy reading answers to questions you may not have thought to ask. What interests you isn’t the content of the advice — you could get all the life hacks you want from A.I. — so much as the voice of the person dispensing it.
Wendy Cope is an English poet, born in 1945, who has been a fixture of her country’s literary scene since the 1980s. More recently, her short, buoyant poem “The Orange” has been widely memed online, bringing her to the attention of new readers beyond Britain.
Cope favors rhyme, meter, brisk jokes and tart aperçus. She addresses romance, friendship and the petty absurdities of modern life with disarming good humor. The last line of “The Orange” is “I love you. I’m glad I exist.” Somehow she makes it the opposite of cringe.
This isn’t the kind of poetry you would describe as “confessional.” And yet …
Question 1/7
Stop, if the car is going “clunk”
Or if the sun has made you blind.
Don’t answer e–mails when you’re drunk.
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.Want to learn this poem by heart? We’ll help.
Fill in the missing words below. You can always refer to the reading by A.O. Scott and full
text above.Let’s start with the first stanza.
A strong sense of place can deeply influence a story, and in some cases, the setting can even feel like a character itself. This week’s literary geography quiz highlights places where authors were born (or lived) that later became locations in their books. To play, just make your selection in the multiple-choice list and the correct answer will be revealed. At the end of the quiz, you’ll find links to the works if you’d like to do further reading.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.
For those of us in the national memory-keeping business, anniversaries hold near-totemic power. Satisfyingly round units of time, ideally bearing fancy, Latin-derived names, serve as the overburdened pegs on which to hang think pieces and museum exhibits, revisionist documentaries and maudlin public ceremonies. The arbitrary nature of such occasions is precisely what gives them their charge, inviting us to set aside complacency and submit to a comprehensive check-in.
In his new book, “America, U.S.A.,” Eddie S. Glaude Jr. presents an intriguing variation on the genre, seeing the country’s 250th birthday as an anniversary of anniversaries: 50 years since the malaise-ridden, schlock-heavy Bicentennial. A century since the subdued Prohibition-era Sesquicentennial. A century and a half since telegraphed reports of George Armstrong Custer’s defeat by the Lakota and Cheyenne at Little Bighorn rudely interrupted the Gilded Age Republic’s 100th birthday party.
If an anniversary offers a snapshot of a moment, the core of Glaude’s book is an old-timey photo album, a collection of notable episodes from earlier national reckonings, long-ago glances in the mirror. An estimable scholar of Black history, politics and religion at Princeton — best known for “Begin Again,” his 2020 meditation on James Baldwin’s relevance for our times — Glaude focuses, as his subtitle puts it, on “how race shadows the nation’s anniversaries.”
Such celebrations, he contends, have never really been the moments for honest self-reflection they are often advertised to be. Instead, the nation usually shatters the mirror, refusing to accept what it prefers not to see. “American anniversaries are often moments to turn a blind eye to the evils of the past and the present,” Glaude writes, “to suppress the fact of America’s divided soul.”
It’s a clever concept, and, needless to say, perfectly timed. Last year, Glaude notes, the Trump administration executed a hostile takeover of the government’s studiously bipartisan 250th anniversary planning. It is now preparing a program that is certain to conceal more than it reveals about the country ostensibly being celebrated.
Glaude, in no mood for celebration, argues that such omissions and evasions also defined commemorations in the past. In 1875, Frederick Douglass predicted “one grand Centennial hosannah of peace and good will to all the white race of this country.” He was right: The nation reached 100 years old at a crucial moment in the post-Civil War fight over racial equality, with white Northerners ready to give up on Southern Reconstruction. The occasion would help the once-warring sections to reunite around a shared commitment to white supremacy. On May 10, 1876, at the opening of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the police tried to bar Douglass from the grandstand, until a white politician vouched for him.
The 150th anniversary came soon after a resurgent Ku Klux Klan successfully pushed for a restrictive immigration law aimed at keeping America a “Nordic” nation. At the lavishly funded, lightly attended celebrations in Philadelphia, Black veterans of World War I were excluded from marching in the opening parade. A writer with The Associated Negro Press wondered “what was in the breast of those black men who fought to make America safe for Democracy and on Monday stood on the sidelines, forgotten, as the Nordic strode by in all his vain pride.”
By 1976, when the nation marked its Bicentennial, the violence of the ’60s had destroyed any semblance of consensus. Vietnam and Watergate had eroded trust in the government. The commission initially tasked with organizing the anniversary was disbanded amid reports of corruption. Corporations filled the vacuum, Glaude explains, with “star-spangled whoopee cushions; patriotic toilet seats; Liberty hamburgers; red, white and blue beer cans.” The author, around 8 years old at the time, dimly remembers donning a pair of tricolor trousers.
A half-century later, Glaude is refreshingly honest about the depths of his despair. “I do not love America, and never have, especially now,” he writes in one of the more startling opening sentences I’ve read in some time. He dismisses this year’s Semiquincentennial as reaching back “to a storybook America that requires either the banishment of Black people from view or the reduction of our role in the country’s history, so as to affirm America’s ongoing quest to be a more perfect union.”
Undoubtedly true. But Trump doesn’t own the country, at least not yet, nor the 250th anniversary of one of the most radically liberatory and confusingly contradictory events in world history — an inspiration, as Glaude shows, even to critical observers of the American experiment, like Douglass. Far from the revanchist MAGA-palooza in Washington, I suspect this summer’s unasked-for invitation to national soul-searching may surprise us yet.
Despite his despair, Glaude concludes that “the past still offers resources for us to freedom-dream.” So, too, does this book.
AMERICA, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries | By Eddie S. Glaude Jr. | Crown | 270 pp. | $31
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