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Dallas Wings players huddle in the third quarter against the Las Vegas Aces during a WNBA preseason matchup in Austin on May 3, 2026. They’ll play the Indiana Fever Saturday in Indianapolis.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brendan Maloney\/Hearst Newspapers<\/p>\n
Ryan Ruocco will be on the call for a season opener the WNBA has never seen.<\/p>\n
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As the\u00a0ESPN lead WNBA play-by-play commentator researched ahead of Saturday\u2019s clash between the Dallas Wings<\/a> and Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, he found an interesting stat. <\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first season opener ever where you have each of the last four No. 1 overall picks playing in the game between the two teams,\u201d\u00a0Ruocco told The Dallas Morning News on Friday.<\/p>\n The Wings boast the last two in 2025 No. 1 overall pick Paige\u00a0Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, the top selection in 2026. Indiana claims 2023 No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston and 2024 No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark.<\/p>\n Related: Dallas Wings’ season opener pits WNBA’s last 4 No. 1 overall picks against each other<\/a><\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Boston,\u00a0Bueckers and Clark all earned Rookie of the Year honors after their respective inaugural seasons in the league, and the young talent, along with Fudd, represent a new era for the league<\/a> marked by massive growth and higher visibility.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Saturday will also mark the first time\u00a0Bueckers and Fudd play together in an official game as pros after the duo won a national championship at UConn in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just an amazing way to start off the season, to introduce audiences to this incredible young talent,\u201d\u00a0Ruocco said. \u201cI think both the Fever and the Wings are going to be contenders for a very, very long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure this is going to be a rivalry at some point in the not too distant future.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: Azzi Fudd, Paige Bueckers ushering in star-studded era for Dallas Wings and WNBA<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Fever, bolstered by back-to-back No. 1 picks advanced to the\u00a0WNBA semifinals last season, though Clark sat out most of the year due to injury.<\/p>\n Dallas, which finished a combined 19-65 over the last two seasons, could follow the same blueprint with its own pair of consecutive No. 1 picks, a new coach in Jose Fernandez and a revamped roster.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n In free agency, the Wings re-signed All-Star guard\u00a0Arike Ogunbowale and signed a pair of former Minnesota Lynx forwards: reigning co-defensive player of the year Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard. Dallas returned center Awak Kuier from overseas and other members of the young core that includes Aziaha James and Maddy Siegrist. The addition of three-time WNBA champion Alysha Clark and Odyssey Sims gave the Wings veteran leadership.<\/p>\n Ruocco said he loves what Dallas did in the offseason, including drafting Fudd. <\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI believe [she] is going to be an incredible pro,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Related: What made Azzi Fudd the right pick for Dallas Wings? Let the team’s leadership explain<\/a><\/p>\n For the Fever to further ascend,\u00a0Ruocco said the team will need the health of its three stars: Boston, Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, an All-WNBA First Team selection in 2025.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a championship trio right there,\u201d\u00a0Ruocco said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n They\u2019re flanked by Sophie Cunningham and\u00a0Lexie Hull, along with Monique Billings and rookie Raven Johnson.\u00a0 \u201cThe fire was simmering, and it was starting to burn, and then Caitlin [Clark] came along and that was jet fuel,\u201d\u00a0Ruocco said. \u201cAnd it took the league to a completely different stratosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n The arrival of Clark, who amazed audiences by willing Iowa to back-to-back national championship games behind the strength of her elite passing and logo threes, had a significant metric impact on women\u2019s basketball that\u00a0Ruocco likened to Tiger Woods\u2019 effect on golf.<\/p>\n In 2025, the Fever ranked as the\u00a0WNBA\u2019s most-watched team on television and in 2026, lead the league in nationally televised games with a record 44 of their regular season games set to reach a national audience. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The team with the second most nationally televised games? The Wings with 36.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: How to watch Wings-Fever: Season-opening showdown with Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark<\/a><\/p>\n Bueckers, one of the most visible WNBA stars with a huge sponsorship portfolio, has also greatly contributed to the popularity of women\u2019s basketball and helped the Wings reach a historic level of relevancy. Fans and commentators often pit Bueckers and Clark against each other.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the players don\u2019t feed into it, having competed against each other for a long time and with each other as USA Basketball teammates.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think the greatest way to show respect is to compete and really bring the best out of each other,\u201d\u00a0Bueckers told reporters Thursday after practice in Arlington. \u201c… I have great respect for her and what\u2019s she\u2019s done for the game of basketball and women\u2019s sports in general. She\u2019s a generational player, and every time we take the floor and get to compete against each other, it\u2019s always a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s all fans can ask for Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings players huddle in the third quarter against the Las Vegas Aces during a WNBA preseason matchup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,257342,248032,248033,434],"class_list":["post-631935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-tp-wnba","tag-tp-arike-ogunbowale","tag-tp-paige-bueckers","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631935","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=631935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Over the last five or so years, Ruocco said he\u2019s seen the gameplay in the WNBA improve over time and more investment in the league at ESPN and elsewhere.<\/p>\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775097980_886_rawImage.jpg\" "\\"#\\"")
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