The national player of the year race is heating up as teams close out the regular season and enter tournament time. Every game and performance has the ability to sway voters. In the last few weeks alone, two top POY contenders went head-to-head, another guided her team to a signature victory and a fourth fell flat for the first time this year.
There is a case to be made for and against each of USC’s JuJu Watkins, UCLA’s Lauren Betts, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo and UConn’s Paige Bueckers. Bueckers is the only former Naismith and Wooden Award winner playing this season.