{"id":326424,"date":"2025-12-02T17:38:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/326424\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T17:38:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T17:38:10","slug":"ucla-could-be-prepped-to-break-this-wnba-draft-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/326424\/","title":{"rendered":"UCLA could be prepped to break this WNBA Draft record"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b1\">With the Dallas Wings winning the draft lottery again and the <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/college\/womens-college-basketball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NCAA<\/a> season in full swing, fans are watching for who might be going first overall at the 2026 WNBA Draft. Last season, Paige Bueckers <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/paige-bueckers-playing-connect-four-basketball-court\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was a lock for the top spot<\/a> pretty much all season long, but <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/wnba-mock-draft-wings-win-the-draft-lottery-and-find-paige-bueckers-running-mate\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who Dallas will go with<\/a> this time around is a bigger question.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b4\">Some mock drafts have UCLA star Lauren Betts going first overall. This would not shock me at all. Already this season, the 6-foot-7 center is averaging 13.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game. If she doesn&#8217;t go first, there is no way she falls out of the top four picks. With that being said, she&#8217;s not the only Bruin that <a href=\"https:\/\/fansided.com\/wnba\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WNBA<\/a> teams are looking to draft. UCLA has the potential to set a new record for most players selected in a single WNBA Draft.<\/p>\n<p>Bruins in the 2026 WNBA Draft<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ba\">Along with one of the most efficient bigs in NCAA women&#8217;s basketball right now, in Lauren Betts, UCLA has a handful of guards that could be selected in the upcoming draft \u2014  starting with Kiki Rice and Gianna Kneepkens. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Gianna Kneepkens tonight \ud83d\udd25<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 20 points <br \/>\u2022 4 rebounds <br \/>\u2022 8\/14 FG<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xCoJm5UfOF\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/xCoJm5UfOF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Women\u2019s Hoops Network (@WomensHoops_USA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WomensHoops_USA\/status\/1988118745768742939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 11, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bg\">Rice is already having one of her best seasons of basketball, averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game so far this year. Last week, she put up 20 points and 11 rebounds in a win over ranked Tennessee. If WNBA teams are looking for a sharp three-point shooter, UCLA offers Gianna Kneepkens. Kneepkens spent the first four years of her collegiate career at Utah before transferring to UCLA in the offseason. So far this season, she is averaging 13.9 points and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 45.8 percent from beyond the arc. Both Rice and Kneepkens are expected to go top-10 in the upcoming draft.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bj\">The talent at UCLA doesn&#8217;t stop there. Along with Rice and Kneepkens, the UCLA locker room has three other elite players. Charlisse Leger-Walker, Gabriela Jaquez, and Angela Dugali\u0107 are all expected to be drafted a little further down on the board. Leger-Walker spent four years with Washington State before tearing her ACL in 2024, transferring to UCLA, and redshirting the 2024-25 season. Since returning, and making her debut with UCLA, she has looked great, averaging 10.6 points and 6.1 points per game.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bm\">In my opinion, Gabriela Jaquez is the player to watch this season. In the Bruins&#8217; win over Tennessee, she recorded 29 points, shooting 71.4 percent from the floor. In their game against Duke, Jaquez put up 23 points. I am sure WNBA teams will be watching how she develops throughout the season, but I could see her draft stock going up. Finally, Angela Dugali\u0107 would be a great addition for a team looking to draft a dominant big. So far, this season, she is averaging 11.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. <\/p>\n<p>Schools with most players selected in a single WNBA draft<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/01kbg1xhapg8tnkydnp4.jpg\" alt=\"Chamique Holdsclaw #23...\" title=\"Chamique Holdsclaw #23...\" width=\"682\" height=\"454\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"by\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Chamique Holdsclaw #23&#8230; | Ezra Shaw\/GettyImages<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c2\">If all six of those players end up being drafted in the upcoming WNBA Draft, UCLA will have officially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncaa.com\/news\/basketball-women\/article\/2023-04-10\/schools-most-players-selected-single-wnba-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">broken a record<\/a> that has been in place since 1999. During the 1999 WNBA Draft, five players from Tennessee were selected: Chamique Holdsclaw, Tonya Edwards, Lisa Harrison, Carla McGhee, and Kellie Jolly Harper. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c5\">In 2008, Tennessee had five players drafted again when Candace Parker, Alexis Hornbuckle, Shannon Bobbitt, Nicky Anosike, and Alberta Auguste were all selected. The Volunteers stood alone as the only team with five players selected in the same draft for over 10 years. In 2019, Notre Dame joined the club when Jackie Young, Arike Ogunbowale, Brianna Turner, Jessica Shepard and Marina Mabrey were all selected.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"c8\">South Carolina is the last school to come close to breaking the record, as they tied Tennessee and Notre Dame when Aliyah Boston, Laeticia Amihere, Zia Cooke, Brea Beal, and Victaria Saxton were all drafted in 2023. UCLA has a real chance of taking the crown if all six of their stars hear their names at the upcoming draft. <\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the Dallas Wings winning the draft lottery again and the NCAA season in full swing, fans are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-326424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326424","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=326424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}