2025 was another banner year for women’s basketball.
It began with an again active WNBA free agency period that reshuffled rosters and created new contenders, resulting in a season that, both unexpectedly and expectedly, ended with another M’VP for A’ja Wilson and another championship for the Las Vegas Aces.
Unrivaled enjoyed a successful debut season, immediately emerging as a viable and vivacious source of offseason hoops, while Athletes Unlimited likewise entertained fans during its first season in Nashville.
Overseas, a surefire Fenerbahçe title was not, as Praha powered its way back to the top in EuroLeague Women. And in the NCAA, UConn re-established their dominance, with the Huskies capturing their first title in nearly a decade.
What’s in store for 2026? Here are Swish Appeal’s five wishes for the WNBA, Unrivaled, NCAA, Athletes Unlimited and EuroLeague Women:
WNBA: A 2026 season
This one’s simple. There’s no room for any other WNBA wishes—from free agency signings to draft picks to top teams to award winners to a champion—without a season.
That said, the burden is not on the players to eventually cave to the league in order to satisfy fans’ desires. It seems like the league might be content with trying to run out the clock, refusing to engage with many of the players’ asks and hoping that, when the clock strikes midnight on the final CBA deadline, the players will give in.
Players getting what they deserve—from higher salaries to an appreciating revenue sharing model to other quality of life benefits—is the prerequisite to a season. So, after the players secure the CBA win that they are worthy of, we’ll start dreaming of all the free agency fireworks, rookie debuts, stat-stuffing play from stars, clutch-time heroics and, for better or worse, unnecessary antics to come.
Unrivaled: More rivalries
One of the bigger unknowns entering the first season of Unrivaled was whether players would approach games with seriousness. Would the league assume more of a pick-up vibe, with most players choosing not to go all out? Or, would a culture of competition develop, where players exhibited a feistiness and fire?
The latter, fortunately, materialized more often than not. The full court 3×3 setting, where players’ mistakes are amplified, resulted in engaged and intense basketball. The care factor and competitive desire were evident, particularly through the chippiness not that emerged between Lunar Owls and Rose. Furthermore, it was encouraging to see players demonstrate that off-court camaraderie could coexist with on-court animosities.
Let’s have more of all that in Season 2! What new rivalries will develop? What opponents will Lunar Owls be hootie hoo-ing at? And which opponents will be hooting back at Owls? How will Rose project their championship swagger? Will the newbies, Breeze and Hive, look to stir up new dramas?
NCAA: March Madness chalk
Yes, March Madness is supposed to be about upsets. Busted brackets! Cinderellas! Unexpected heroes!
And sure, all that’s fun. But oftentimes, early-round upsets reduce later-round drama. The underdog that pulls off an improbable win or two eventually falls in uncompetitive fashion to a clearly superior opponent.
This women’s college basketball season thus far has been defined by a clear top five: No. 1 UConn, No. 2 Texas, No. 3 South Carolina, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 LSU.
Four of those five squads need to compose the Final Four in Phoenix. The best must go through the best in order to win it all. Of course, as the above picture reminds, matchups between the teams considered to be the top dogs also do not always deliver. In the 2025 Final Four, No. 2-seed UConn routed No. 1-seed UCLA before doing the same to another in No. 1-seed South Carolina.
However, seeing the Huskies repeat the feat in 2026 or witnessing one of the Longhorns, Gamecocks, Bruins or Tigers push them to the brink, or even topple them, will be the ideal outcome for this college season.
Athletes Unlimited: A Tina Charles throwback
Rather than a wish, this might be a guarantee.
In her 14th WNBA season at age 36, Tina Charles played in 43 of 44 games for the Connecticut Sun, averaging 16 points as she logged almost 30 minutes per game, all while adding to her all-time ranking on the league’s scoring (second) and rebounding (first) lists. She also further established herself as the W’s ultimate vet, consistently sharing in-game secrets and postgame praise for the league’s up and comers.
Now, Charles takes all those talents to Nashville, making her Athletes Unlimited debut. It not only will be fun to see Charles show off her timeless scoring touch, but also bless AU youngsters with her wizened and tested insights. And, it won’t be too surprising if TC adds AU Champion to her illustrious resume!
EuroLeague Women: Justē Jocytē keeps growing for Girona
Eric Nemchock, our EuroLeague Women expert, just declared Spar Girona to be a real title contender.
A big reason why? Justē Jocytē. While the Golden State Valkyries’ decision to make the then-19-year-old Lithuanian the franchise’s first-ever draft pick might have puzzled some, Jocytē‘s play for Girona in EuroLeague Women is, yet again, proving the Valkyries to be prescient.
The 6-foot-0 now 20-year-old profiles an a near-ideal modern offensive player. She is big guard who can handle, pass and shoot lights out from behind the arc. She’s shooting 40 percent from 3 on over six attempts per game in EuroLeague Women contests, while also averaging almost five assists. It’s easy to envision her slotting into the Golden State offense, serving as a salve who generates efficient opportunities through her actual shot, the threat of her shot and her passing chops.
Before then, expect her game to continue to sharpen, hopefully so much so that Girona gives Fenerbahçe a real foe in the EuroLeague Women playoffs.
Jocytē’s future plans, however, suggests 2026 could introduce new uncertainties for EuroLeague Women.
Not only could a new WNBA CBA institute harsher prioritization provisions that discourage players from participating in EuroLeague, a circumstance possibly aided by the league reportedly considering an earlier training camp start date, but the launch of Project B threatens to pluck players. Jocytē has been announced as a Project B signee, as has Valencia’s Leonie Fiebich and Praha’s Janelle Salaün. Unrivaled also has enticed players away from EuroLeague clubs, with Jocytē‘s Girona teammate, Laeticia Amihere, departing the club for Unrivaled. Ezi Magbegor, a member of Praha last season, opted for Unrivaled over a return to the defending champs.
As Eric consistently emphasizes, EuroLeague Women is the premier European women’s basketball competition. It would be a shame if the growth of the sport—whether fueled by Project B, and its vision for a more glamorous international competition, or the WNBA, and its desire for exclusivity—came at the EuroLeague’s expense.
