For a Rutgers women\u2019s basketball program that has quietly stocked WNBA rosters for over a decade, the 2026 season has been a reminder of just how far that pipeline reaches. Three former Scarlet Knights are on active rosters around the league this summer, and each has found a different way to make headlines. Kahleah Copper is putting together one of the best scoring seasons of her career in Phoenix. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton became an unlikely national story in Montreal for reasons that had nothing to do with a stat sheet. And Erica Wheeler, the answer to a Rutgers trivia question for years to come, is still playing professional basketball more than a decade after going undrafted. Here is where all three stand as the WNBA season rounds into its second half.<\/p>\n
Kahleah Copper: An All-Star Yet Again<\/p>\n
Through 27 games, Kahleah Copper ranks seventh in the WNBA at 20.5 points per game to go with 3.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists, and she has already cleared 40 points once this season, one of just five players in the league to do so. Her 14 games of 20-plus points rank fourth in the WNBA.<\/p>\n
Copper was named a replacement selection for the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game on July 25 at the United Center in Chicago, taking the roster spot vacated by an injured Kelsey Plum. It is her fifth career All-Star nod and second since being traded to Phoenix in 2024, joining her 2021-24 run in Chicago that included a Finals MVP during the Sky\u2019s 2021 championship season. She suited up for \u201cTeam Coop,\u201d the roster assembled by four-time WNBA champion Cynthia Cooper as part of the league\u2019s 30th-season All-Star Weekend format.<\/p>\n
The selection comes in what has otherwise been a trying season for a Mercury team that has underachieved relative to expectations. Copper has effectively become the engine keeping Phoenix afloat, both as a scorer and as a locker-room presence for a group that has leaned on her the way the 2021 Sky once did during a seven-game losing stretch that preceded their eventual title run.<\/p>\n
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton: Back From Injury, and Back in the News<\/p>\n
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missed the entire 2025 season recovering from left knee surgery, and her return to the Liberty backcourt this year has come with the usual veteran caveats, with limited minutes early, a workload managed around New York\u2019s other options, and averages of 8.0 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists on the season. But no stretch of her comeback drew more attention than a single sequence on July 12 in Montreal.
With 1:48 left in a tight fourth quarter against the Toronto Tempo, Liberty center Jonquel Jones lost a shoe during a scramble for a loose ball. Laney-Hamilton, already carrying a flagrant-1 foul and a technical from a chippy afternoon guarding Toronto\u2019s Marina Mabrey, picked up the shoe and tried to fire it back toward her teammate. It sailed instead into Mabrey\u2019s back. Referee Kevin Fahy assessed a technical for \u201cthrowing a projectile onto the floor,\u201d Laney-Hamilton\u2019s second of the game, and she was ejected as New York went on to lose 93-91 after erasing a 20-point deficit.<\/p>\n
Laney-Hamilton insisted afterward that the shoe throw was never meant for Mabrey, who largely agreed with that account, and Liberty interim head coach Chris DeMarco backed his player publicly while criticizing the officiating that followed. Regardless of intent, the moment made Laney-Hamilton, the answer to one of the more bizarre trivia questions the league has produced in years. However, this should not be indicative of her performance as with Sabrina Ionescu sidelined to begin the season and the Liberty\u2019s roster still finding its footing, her role, and her name in the box score has increased. This is key to keep an eye on as New York approaches the August 2 trade deadline with a middling team.<\/p>\n
Erica Wheeler: Still Going, an 11th Season In<\/p>\n
No player on this list better embodies the long way around than Erica Wheeler. She is back with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2026, the same franchise where she once posted a career-high 13.6 points and 4.8 assists per game during a 2021 stint.<\/p>\n
Wheeler is averaging 8.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 1.1 steals this season, numbers that reflect the role she has carved out at this stage of her career as a steady, pass-first floor general who has become one of just a handful of undrafted players to ever reach 2,500 career points and 1,000 career assists. She remains a vocal veteran presence around the league as well, using her platform every draft night to remind undrafted hopefuls that a training camp invite is still a door worth kicking down, advice she has been living out herself for well over a decade.<\/p>\n
Three different paths, three different roles, and three former Scarlet Knights still finding ways to matter in the WNBA in 2026. Copper\u2019s scoring, Laney-Hamilton\u2019s headline-grabbing return, and Wheeler\u2019s remarkable longevity are all worth tracking as the league heads into the stretch run toward the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a Rutgers women\u2019s basketball program that has quietly stocked WNBA rosters for over a decade, the 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[343241,99,434],"class_list":["post-808685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-rutgers-womens-basketball","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808685","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=808685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}