Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins Headline 2025 Wooden Award Finalists as Women's CBB POY

The Wooden Award named its five women's college basketball finalists on Tuesday, per ESPN's Kendra Andrews, with UConn's Paige Bueckers, USC's JuJu Watkins, UCLA's Lauren Betts, Texas' Madison Booker and Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo making the cut.

Bueckers, Betts and Booker have all led their respective teams to this year's Final Four, while all five Wooden Award finalists also made the Wooden All-American team alongside Kentucky's Georgia Amoore, Florida State's Ta'Niya Latson, Notre Dame's Olivia Miles, LSU's Aneesah Morrow and TCU's Hailey Van Lith.

Bueckers, a senior, already won the award once as a freshman. She's had another excellent season in 2024-25, averaging 20.1 points, 4.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds while shooting 43.2 percent from three.

She has the chance to become the seventh woman to win the award twice, joining Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Maya Moore, Candace Parker and Seimone Augustus.

Watkins, a sophomore, was the favorite for the award for much of the year after averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.2 steals per game. She tore her ACL in the second round of the NCAA tournament, however, and without her USC eventually bowed out to UConn in the Elite Eight.

Betts, a junior, is one of the elite interior players in the country, averaging 20 points, 9.6 rebounds and three blocks per game. She has helped lead the UCLA women to their first Final Four in program history.

Booker, a sophomore, averaged 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game for the Longhorns, shooting 41 percent from three.

Finally, Hidalgo posted 23.8 points, five rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.7 steals per game as a sophomore, shooting 40 percent from three.