2025 Women's Wooden Award finalists: Full list of candidates ft. UConn's Paige Bueckers

The five finalists for the Wooden Awards were announced on Tuesday. Three of the finalists in the women's section will feature in the upcoming Final Four of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. The five finalists are UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers, UCLA Bruins' Lauren Betts, Texas Longhorns' Madison Booker, Notre Dame Fighting Irish's Hannah Hidalgo and USC Trojans' JuJu Watkins.

UConn standout Paige Bueckers won the Wooden Award in 2021 as a freshman and has led the Huskies to a dominant Big East Tournament win and their 16th Final Four appearance in the past 17 years. She is the favorite to be picked No. 1 overall during the 2025 WNBA Draft. This season, she has averaged 20.1 points, 4.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game.

Lauren Betts led the Bruins to their first Final Four in program history and will clash against Bueckers on Friday. Betts has averages of 20.0 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks this season. Texas star Madison Booker took the Longhorns to the Final Four for the first time in 22 years and is averaging 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in the 2024-25 campaign.

The other finalists include JuJu Watkins and Hannah Hidalgo. Watkins was having a barnstorming season before it ended due to an ACL injury that kept her out of the USC Trojans' Elite Eight clash. She averaged 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists in the 2024-25 season.

Hannah Hidalgo formed a devastating duo with Olivia Miles, who has since entered the transfer portal, but they could not stop the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from exiting the Big Dance at the Sweet 16 stage when they lost to the TCU Horned Frogs. Hidalgo averaged 23.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.6 assists this season.

Wooden Award finalists named to All-American team

The five Wooden Award finalists, Paige Bueckers, JuJu Watkins, Lauren Betts, Madison Booker and Hannah Hidalgo, were also all named to the Wooden All-American team.

Apart from the five Wooden Award finalists, the team also includes Kentucky Wildcats star Georgia Amoore, Florida State Seminoles' Ta'Niya Latson, TCU Horned Frogs' Hailey Van Lith, LSU Tigers' Aneesah Morrow and Notre Dame's Olivia Miles. The winner of the 2025 Wooden Award will be announced on April 11.

On the men's side, the finalists for the award include Johni Broome from Auburn, Walter Clayton Jr. from Florida, Cooper Flagg from Duke, Mark Sears from Alabama and Braden Smith from Purdue.