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Tracking The Notable Women's Basketball Players Returning In 2024-25, Including UConn's Paige Bueckers

As the 2023-24 women's college basketball season winds down, we're going to get announcements – perhaps on senior nights, or in the forms of social media graphics – of seniors announcing whether they will use their extra year of eligibility.

Because of the NCAA's rule during the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020-21 season did not count towards a player's eligibility clock. So, anyone who played that season has had the chance to play an extra season of college basketball. This has created an overflowing transfer portal, older teams, and to some degree, increased parity in the sport of women's basketball.

The 2020-21 freshman class was a star-studded one, and the final class that will benefit from this rule. UConn's Paige Bueckers has already announced her return, while decisions loom for other superstar players like Iowa's Caitlin Clark, LSU's Angel Reese, Stanford's Cameron Brink and North Carolina's Deja Kelly. Don't be surprised if some of these players decide not to enter the WNBA Draft. We saw several of the game's top players return to school last season.

With this list, we'll keep track of all the players who have publicly declared that they will return to women's college basketball for another season in the 2024-25 campaign:

Updated: Feb. 24

UNCASVILLE, CONNECTICUT – DECEMBER 10: Paige Bueckers #5 of the UConn Huskies celebrates in the first quarter against the North Carolina Tar Heels at Mohegan Sun Arena on December 10, 2023 in Uncasville, Connecticut. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Bueckers was projected by many to be a top-five pick in this year's WNBA Draft, but it's clear that she feels like she has some unfinished business with the Huskies. Since leading UConn to back-to-back Final Fours as a freshman and sophomore, Bueckers' time at UConn has been plagued with injuries to her and her teammates.

She's stayed healthy this season, but teammates like Azzi Fudd, Aubrey Griffin and Caroline Ducharme have been sidelined. Bueckers – and Griffin – will return to UConn for one more run at a championship next season.

Dec 8, 2022; Storrs, Connecticut, USA; Princeton Tigers guard Kaitlyn Chen (20) drives the ball against UConn Huskies forward Lou Lopez-Senechal (11) in the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Chen is going to play another year of college basketball, but it won't be at Princeton. The Ivy League generally does not allow graduate students to compete in varsity athletics, so Chen's eligibility in the conference will expire this spring. So, she's been in the portal since September while having a great season for the Tigers, averaging 16 points, 4.6 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game while shooting 37.3% from 3-point land.

The Ivy League is a tough mid-major conference and good players from the league have provided big boosts to major programs over the past few years as transfers. Harvard's McKenzie Forbes is USC's second-leading scorer this season behind JuJu Watkins, and Princeton's Abby Meyers helped Maryland make the Elite Eight last season before getting drafted.

The Ivy League didn't play during Chen's freshman season, so next year will be her fourth college basketball campaign.

March 7, 2023; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Gonzaga Bulldogs forward Yvonne Ejim (15) shoots the basketball against the Portland Pilots during the first half in the finals of the WCC Basketball Championships at Orleans Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

One of the top forwards in the country, Ejim has led the Bulldogs in scoring this season with 20.2 points per game as they have won 21 straight games and put themselves in position to potentially host NCAA Tournament games as a top-16 seed.

Ejim is the only player in the country (as of Feb. 24) averaging at least 20 points, eight rebounds, two assists and one block per game. She's been crucial to Gonzaga's success this season and has showed she can play with anyone in the country. In the Bulldogs' Dec. 3 win over Stanford, she had 27 points and 12 rebounds.

Kyla Jones goes up past Providence's Olivia Olsen on Nov. 15, 2023. (David DelPoio / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Like Chen, Jones will return to another season of college basketball next year, but it will be at a school other than Brown. Jones has been in the transfer portal since December while playing well for the Bears this season, averaging 16.7 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. She's scored more than 1,000 points in her career at Brown and should be able to help a major conference program next season.

Feb 22, 2024; Bloomington, Indiana, USA; Indiana Hoosiers guard Sydney Parrish (33) reacts to making a shot during the second half against the Iowa Hawkeyes at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

Parrish announced back in December that she would play a fifth season of college basketball with the Hoosiers. She played her first two years of college ball at Oregon and has been with Indiana for the last two. Wherever she's been, she's been a sharp 3-point shooter, knocking down 40.2% of her shots from distance this season.

The 6-foot-2 guard dealt with a foot injury earlier this season, but returned to the Indiana lineup on Feb. 22 and scored seven points in their upset win over Iowa.

Running It Back In A Big Way: What Paige Bueckers, Aubrey Griffin Returning Means For UConn Women's Basketball

STORRS — Paige Bueckers subbed out of the UConn women's basketball team's Senior Night game against Georgetown on Friday with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter and one made 3-pointer on six attempts.

Bueckers checked back in two and a half minutes later and immediately drained back-to-back shots from beyond the arc, skyrocketing her 3-point percentage from 16.7% to 37.5% in just 29 seconds. The No. 15 Huskies (22-5, 14-0 Big East) went on to rout Georgetown (16-10, 6-9) 85-44 with 21 points and a season-high eight assists from Bueckers, plus three assists and three steals.

But it's those 29 seconds that perfectly encapsulate the way anything feels possible with Bueckers on the court. It's moments like those — dozens of them over her 69 games as a Husky — that fueled the deafening reaction from the crowd at Gampel Pavilion when a grinning Bueckers announced that she will return for a fifth year in Storrs in 2024-25.

"The overall reaction from the crowd is everything you dream of," Bueckers said. "It's a great feeling to be wanted. It's a great feeling to have people that want to have you back, so it means a lot to be able to tell them that and have the same excitement as they do about me coming back. Having the student section, everybody there supporting me and very excited about the announcement, it was a very, very cool thing to be a part of."

Coach Geno Auriemma didn't know Bueckers had made her decision when she took the mic postgame. His reaction was unsurprisingly subdued, but the wry smile and unmistakable pride in his eyes made it clear exactly how important the star guard's confirmation was.

"Paige is very, very bad at making decisions. Very bad," Auriemma said. "When we were recruiting her I had to threaten her because she couldn't decide. But obviously it changes the whole nature of things. There's a lot of excitement about the possibilities … The coaches were sitting over there like alright, well this settles a bunch of stuff from now on."

Another year of Bueckers is a sign of hope for a UConn team that has faced some of the worst injury luck in the nation during her college career. Bueckers herself has been a victim, sitting out 19 games as a sophomore with a tibial plateau fracture, then missing all of 2022-23 after tearing her ACL in August before the season.

Bueckers was the 2021 Naismith Player of the Year in 2021, becoming the first freshman ever to win the award. She led UConn to back-to-back Final Four appearances in her first two seasons, including to the national championship game when she was just weeks removed from surgery. She currently averages a team-high 20 points, 4.6 rebounds and four assists in her first season back from the ACL tear, also leading the team in blocks and steals.

"Paige has never played with a full team since she's been in Connecticut," Auriemma said after a win at Villanova on Jan. 31. "Paige didn't play all of last year, and the year before she was in the national championship game. All of a sudden now she's not that good, compared to who? Some guys who have never won an NCAA Tournament game yet, or who have never played in a national championship game? I'd like to see Paige play with a full complement of players, and then you can judge for yourself how good she is."

It's not that Bueckers doesn't have talent around her, but the Huskies haven't fielded a consistent starting five since her freshman year. After winning the Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation's best point guard in 2021, five season-ending injuries on the 2023-24 roster have forced Bueckers to play most of her minutes as a power forward. At 6-foot, she is often UConn's second-tallest player on the floor.

"I like playing basketball, so whatever position you put me at I'm going to embrace it, but I give a lot of credit to the post players," Bueckers joked Thursday. "I've always said the guard position is harder than the post, but to manage doing both is extremely hard, so I give them a lot of credit for battling down there in the post on defense. It's tough."

The Huskies are expected to get back three forwards next season, headlined by fifth-year Aubrey Griffin who also confirmed her plans to return. She was UConn's second-best rebounder averaging 9.5 points and six boards before she tore her ACL on Jan. 3. Just having Griffin would lighten the massive burden on Bueckers's shoulders, but UConn should also return two promising young centers in Jana El Alfy and Ayanna Patterson, who have both missed the entire season with injuries. Auriemma also said Friday that he does not expect senior point guard Nika Muhl to return for a fifth year of eligibility, which would leave the position open for Bueckers to reclaim.

As much as it means for Bueckers personally, her decision was anything but selfish. The senior was all but guaranteed a top-3 selection in the 2024 WNBA Draft, but her time at UConn feels unfinished without giving the team another chance to realize its full potential. Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2021, committed to the Huskies in part because of her longtime friendship with Bueckers and their desire to play together in college. However, the pair have played just 17 games together in three seasons because of injuries. Fudd, stuck on the bench after tearing her ACL in November, wore a No. 5 jersey in Bueckers' honor on senior night.

"My only normal year of college basketball was my freshman year, which was the COVID year, so it wasn't normal at all," Bueckers said. "And there's just the love for this program. I love playing here. I love my teammates. I love my coaches. Obviously you think about what this team could do when we're fully healthy, and I feel like our class has kind of learned never to take that for granted."

Auriemma wasn't shocked by Bueckers' decision even though the announcement caught him by surprise. He can tell his star senior still wants to be in college. She wants to play basketball with her friends. If that means accomplishing more of the goals she dreamed of when she committed to UConn in 2019, it will be an added bonus.

"The great unknown is no pandemic and no injuries, what could it have been the last four years with a bunch of healthy bodies?" Auriemma said. "The stars were all lined up wrong and that contributed to all of the injures, then all of a sudden they lined up right and it allows us to take advantage of these unique opportunities."

"I just want it to work out for them. I really do. I desperately want it to work out for them."

Paige Bueckers Will Return Next Season For UConn In Huge Boost For Huskies

STORRS, Conn. — UConn star Paige Bueckers and coach Geno Auriemma both say they will be back at the school next season.

A senior academically, Bueckers made the announcement during senior night ceremonies at Gampel Pavilion following the team's 85-44 win over Georgetown on Friday night.

Telling the crowd she wanted to "address the elephant in the room," Bueckers said, "Unfortunately, this will not be my last year."

Her coach followed that announcement by ending any speculation that he might retire at season's end.

UConn guard Paige Bueckers (5) raises her framed jerseyduring senior night ceremonies after the team's NCAA collegebasketball game against Georgetown. AP

He joked to reporters that he was planning to come back next year as well, "until Paige announced that she's coming back."

He then added, "Yeah, I'll be back."

Bueckers was named national player of the year as a freshman, spending that season playing in front of cardboard cutouts during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading the Huskies to the national semifinals where they lost to Arizona.

She spent most of her sophomore year on the bench with tibia plateau fracture in her left knee, but came back in time to lead the Huskies to the national championship game, where they lost to South Carolina.

She suffered a torn ACL in that same knee before last season and was out the entire year.

Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Nika Muhl and Aubrey Griffin were all honored Friday.

UConn guard Paige Bueckers (5) reaches for coach Geno Auriemma during senior night ceremonies after UConn defeated Georgetown. AP

Griffin, who tore an ACL last month, also announced she will be back next season. She is one of five Huskies out for the rest of the season with injuries.

The others — Azzi Fudd, Jana El-Alfy, Caroline Ducharme and Annaya Patterson — all are expected back.

Edwards and Muhl did not announce their plans, but both said, "We're not done yet."

Bueckers has two years of eligibility remaining.

Edwards, Muhl and Griffin each have one.

UConn guard Paige Bueckers (5) takes it on the chin while defending against Georgetown guard Kelsey Ransom (1) during the second half. AP

But both Edwards and Bueckers have been projected as high first-round picks should they enter the WNBA draft.

As international players, Muhl (Croatia) and Edwards (Canada) also have not been able to make the NIL money that has been flowing to their teammates while in college.

Auriemma said he would be surprised if Muhl or Edwards returned for an extra year.

Auriemma said he wasn't certain Bueckers would be back, until she announced it to the crowd.

"I never pressed her on it either," he said.

Bueckers said Thursday that she is not giving up on winning a national championship this season, despite five decisive losses to top teams — North Carolina State, UCLA, Texas, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

UConn has just four regular-season games remaining including games at home against Creighton on Monday in Hartford and Villanova on Feb. 28 at Gampel.

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