{"id":586178,"date":"2026-04-06T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586178\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T16:28:09","slug":"uclas-lauren-betts-reveals-wnba-team-she-wants-to-draft-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/586178\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA\u2019s Lauren Betts Reveals WNBA Team She Wants to Draft Her"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UCLA<\/a> women\u2019s basketball team claimed its first national championship in dominating fashion, blowing past Dawn Staley and South Carolina 79-51 on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

And star center Lauren Betts was a big reason why.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-7 senior recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and she contributed two assists and two blocks on 6 of 10 shooting.<\/p>\n

Betts is one of the top players in the country and is expected to be a high first-round pick in the 2026 WNBA draft on April 13. But after her NCAA Tournament<\/a> run and subsequent national championship win, Betts just may have worked herself into the conversation to go in the top five.<\/p>\n

Before UCLA\u2019s national title win, a video emerged on social media of a fan interaction Betts had, in which she revealed which WNBA team she would love to be drafted by.<\/p>\n

More News: A\u2019ja Wilson Reacts to Losing Aces Teammate to WNBA Expansion Team<\/a><\/p>\n

More News: Major Caitlin Clark Announcement Made Away from the WNBA<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI will love you when you get to the Lynx,\u201d a fan shouted at Betts, to which she replied: \u201cI’d love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Minnesota Lynx are one of the top teams in the WNBA (they were the No. 1 seed in the playoffs last season), they\u2019re just one season removed from playing for a WNBA championship, and they boast perennial MVP candidate Napheesa Collier.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for the Lynx, they possess the No. 2 overall pick in this year\u2019s draft thanks to a 2024 trade with the Chicago Sky that involved a pick swap. Chicago finished up with the second-worst record in the league last season and earned the second overall pick, which was sent to Minnesota as part of that deal.<\/p>\n

More News: Dan Hurley Cashes In on Massive Bonus After UConn\u2019s Final Four Win vs Illinois<\/a><\/p>\n

\"UCLA<\/p>\n

More News: UConn\u2019s Geno Auriemma Could Face Punishment After Dawn Staley Incident<\/a><\/p>\n

Drafting Betts second overall would give the Lynx a dangerous foursome of her, Collier (22.9 points per game in 2025), Kayla McBride (14.2 ppg in 2025), and Courtney Williams (13.6 ppg in 2025) capable of going off for double-digit points on any given night.<\/p>\n

In three seasons with the Bruins, Betts averaged 17.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 2.4 blocks per game. <\/p>\n

In addition to her national title victory, Betts was also named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA<\/a> Tournament, and she\u2019s a two-time first-team All-American, a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, a two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, a two-time Big Ten All-Defensive Team selection, the 2025 Naismith and WBCA Defensive Player of the Year, and the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UCLA women\u2019s basketball team claimed its first national championship in dominating fashion, blowing past Dawn Staley and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,547,525,135340,82,6522,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-586178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-tournament","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ucla","15":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}