Throughout the 2025-26 women’s college basketball season, much was made of the UCLA’s Big 6 and how they were all likely to be drafted into the WNBA at the conclusion of the season.
Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić led the Bruins to the national championship, accounting for all of the team’s points in the semifinal and final, and then, indeed, all heard their names called on draft night, marking a record for players selected from
one school in a single draft. Five of them went in the first round (also a record), and Leger-Walker was not far behind, going to the Connecticut Sun with the third pick of the second round.
Of the six, center Lauren Betts is under the most pressure to become a great player; she was also the best player in college and was the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player. At times leading up to the draft, she was projected to go No. 1 overall, before falling to fourth on draft night.
But while expectations are high for the long run, Betts is currently the third post in the Washington Mystics’ rotation, playing behind starters and stars Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin. The question entering the season was: Will she have much impact at all in that situation?
Let’s break down the performances Betts and the other Bruin rookies so far during their highly-anticipated debut campaign, beginning with the brightest young Bruin star, at least so far.
Gabriela Jaquez (Chicago Sky, No. 5 pick)
21.3 total stat score | 4 G | 29.6 MPG | 53.3% FG | 50% 3PT (3 makes) | 83.3% FT (15 makes) | 1.3 TOV
Jaquez was the surprise final lottery pick, going three spots higher than our Eric Nemchock’s projection and six spots higher than ESPN’s prediction.
She was the No. 19 recruit out of high school, yet stood out as one of the two best at the 2022 McDonald’s All-American Game, winning co-MVP along with Rice.
Now, she’s off to the best WNBA start of any Bruin with 12.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, including a breakout 20 and eight performance Sunday night in the 3-1 Sky’s win over the Minnesota Lynx.
Jaquez has a sneaky way of sometimes being the best Bruin from this class. In addition to her exploits in the McDonald’s All-American Game, she capped her career by being the star of the national championship game with 21 points, 10 boards and five assists.
She’s the type of player who’s always in the right place at the right time, as she moves well without the ball and loves to get out in transition. Her 3-point shooting really improved as a college senior (39 percent), and she shot 86 percent from the free throw line after shooting as low as 63.2 percent as a freshman. So far in the W, she’s carried over her stellar efficiency at the stripe, including going 7-for-7 Sunday night.
Jaquez is looking like a great pick-up at No. 5. In recent years, Chicago has been labeled as the worst place to play, and they had been doing seemingly nothing right in their front office, including trading away Angel Reese before this season. Yet, after that, they made a good trade for Rickea Jackson and picked up Skylar Diggins in free agency in addition to drafting Jaquez. Perhaps Jaquez can be part of getting this team back into the playoffs.
Kiki Rice (Toronto Tempo, No. 6 pick)
15.3 total stat score | 4 G | 23.5 MPG | 51.9% FG | 41.7% 3PT (5 makes) | 81.8% FT (9 makes) | 0.3 TOV
Rice debuted against the Mystics, a game in which both she and Betts were held scoreless. But since then, Rice has been off to as good a start as Jaquez, scoring 12, 11 and 19 points in her subsequent three games for Toronto.
It’s interesting that she has only had 1.5 assists per game, as she is known as a distributor more than a scorer, having averaged five assists per game (and a modest 12.8 points) as a collegiate junior before Leger-Walker took over as the lead distributor this past season. Now, she’s averaging 10.5 points (14 if you take out the first game outlier), which is great for a rookie. And she already has a game with three made 3s; in college she only achieved that four times and only had four once.
She improved her efficiency from downtown as a junior and senior, but it wasn’t on high volume. Perhaps the Tempo will ask her to continue to test her chops from distance.
Charlisse Leger-Walker (Connecticut Sun, No. 18 pick)
11.3 total stat score | 4 G | 19 MPG | 36.4% FG | 20% 3PT (1 make) | 71.4% FT (5 makes) | 1.0 TOV
Jaquez and Rice appear to be key contributors already. Now we move down to the Bruins who are battling to prove themselves.
Leger-Walker entered the league with probably the lowest expectations. But she has pretty high upside if you consider what she accomplished at Washington State before taking on a smaller role on a loaded UCLA team. She was the third best freshman in the country in 2020-21 behind only Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark.
She had her first truly strong W performance on Friday, going for 10 points and four helpers on 3-for-5 shooting (1-for-1 from 3).
That’s very solid, even if her Sun fell to 0-4. She is certainly finding playing time on this struggling team. Before Sunday, she was averaging just four points and under two assists while shooting under 30 percent from the field and 0-for-4 from 3, but at least she was averaging 19 minutes. She has gotten more playing time than Kneepkens, who is also on the Sun and was taken three spots earlier in the draft.
Look for the Sun to continue to give Leger-Walker room to develop this season. Next year, they become the Houston Comets, and they may be interested in what she has to offer moving forward.
Gianna Kneepkens (Connecticut Sun, No. 15 pick)
8.5 total stat score | 4 G | 13.6 MPG | 36.8% FG | 14.3% 3PT (1 make) | 100% FT (1 make) | 0.5 TOV
Kneepkens actually fell further than expected in the draft. Eric had her going at No. 9, while ESPN slotted her in at No. 8. She is known for being a lethal 3-point shooter, but Eric noted in his mock draft that “she’s a good enough passer and cutter to contribute in areas beyond only shooting.”
She’s shown flashes of wanting to contribute in a more well-rounded way, taking 12 shots from 2-point range compared to seven from beyond the arc.
But so far, she’s only made one 3, giving her the lowest 3-point percentage of any of these Bruins who have attempted at least one. That’s despite being the best of them in college (43.1 percent with 335 makes).
In all likelihood, she’ll start making her 3s at a better clip. For now, like Leger-Walker, though to a lesser extent, she appears to be in the rotation for Connecticut.
Lauren Betts (Washington Mystics, No. 4 pick)
8.1 total stat score | 3 G | 14.8 MPG | 30.8% FG | 0 3PA | 75% FT (3 makes) | 0.3 TOV
Unfortunately, Betts was unable to start her career off with a bang, going 0-for-4 from the field in Washington’s opener. However, she did grab five rebounds in that contest, and went on to notch seven points in the team’s home opener.
She looked good in that game, and I was left wishing she had gotten more playing time to truly show what she can do. But in a close game that went to overtime, Austin was awarded 33 minutes of playing time and Iriafen had 28 compared to Betts’ 18 minutes.
Betts has great inside touch and the ability to adjust quickly after receiving a pass before putting the ball in the basket.
She just needs to get used to WNBA speed and physicality. She’s going to need to a lot more minutes to start putting up star numbers, and that just isn’t in the cards right now. But in her seven-point performance, she flashed some key-contributor potential that Mystics fans can get excited about.
Angela Dugalić (Washington Mystics, No. 9 pick)
5.2 total stat score | 3 G | 9.8 MPG | 37.5% FG | 20% 3PT (1 make) | 0% FT (2 attempts) | 0.3 TOV
Eric had Dugalić going at No. 24; ESPN didn’t have her in their first round. The Mystics took a chance on her at No. 9, and she, like Betts, is a frontcourt player playing behind Iriafen and Austin.
She has seen her minutes decrease from 12 to 10 to six over her three games, which isn’t a positive slope, but it’s still early. She scored five points in the home opener, including cashing in on a 3. In college, she was a 32.2 percent 3-point shooter with 107 makes.
She’s going to make all the hustle plays and is just a solid all-around player who was an X factor for UCLA during their championship run.
Perhaps she, and all six Bruin rookies, can make it in the W.
