{"id":229570,"date":"2025-10-16T17:53:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/229570\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T17:53:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T17:53:07","slug":"lady-vols-basketball-forward-projected-as-a-top-10-wnba-draft-pick-by-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/229570\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Vols Basketball Forward Projected as a Top 10 WNBA Draft Pick by ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>Lady Vols basketball forward Janiah Barker at practice on Sept. 23, 2025. (Photo via Ryan Sylvia | RTI)<\/p>\n

We\u2019re right around the corner from Lady Vols basketball returning to the floor for year two under Kim Caldwell. Despite a strong first season in Knoxville, Caldwell\u2019s Tennessee team did not produce any WNBA draft picks. That could change this year, though. According to ESPN<\/a>, transfer forward Janiah Barker is projected to go in the first round.<\/p>\n

Barker is slotted in ESPN\u2019s mock draft as the No. 10 pick in the draft. There are 13 picks in the first round. This would send her to the Indiana Fever, where she\u2019d team up with the likes of recent college superstars and WNBA All-Stars Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter two seasons at Texas A&M and one at UCLA, Barker will finish her college career at Tennessee,\u201d ESPN\u2019s Michael Voepel<\/a> wrote. \u201cShe has averaged 10.3 PPG and 6.4 RPG over three collegiate seasons and has a skill set with good size that interests WNBA evaluators. She will need to adjust to coach Kim Caldwell\u2019s fast pace, but already spent two seasons in the SEC and is prepared for the league\u2019s style of play.\u201d<\/p>\n

More From RTI:\u00a0SEC Media Day Notebook: The Five Best Quotes From Lady Vols Basketball<\/a><\/p>\n

Barker joins Tennessee for her senior season. She spent two years at Texas A&M before transferring to UCLA, where she was one of the best sixth players in the country off the bench.<\/p>\n

After the year with the Bruins, in which she averaged 7.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game on 46.5% shooting from the field, she entered the portal and was recruited by most big programs across the country. She ultimately picked Caldwell and the Lady Vols.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the freeness of it,\u201d Barker said<\/a> at SEC Media Days on the SEC Network. \u201cThere\u2019s not really a lot of plays, just a whole bunch of hooping. Just get to your bag, do what you do and feel confident in it. I think that\u2019s the main thing that drew me in and the main thing she told me when I got here, she just wants me to be myself. I\u2019m super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee will open the season with a top-10 clash against NC State in Greensboro on Nov. 4. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN2. The Lady Vols are ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll to start the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lady Vols basketball forward Janiah Barker at practice on Sept. 23, 2025. (Photo via Ryan Sylvia | RTI)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[37248,117460,127653,128274,99,2219,37754,434,2940],"class_list":{"0":"post-229570","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-2026-wnba-draft","9":"tag-janiah-barker","10":"tag-lady-vols","11":"tag-lady-vols-basketball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennessee","14":"tag-tennessee-lady-vols","15":"tag-wnba","16":"tag-wnba-draft"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}