Intel: Who leads for the top 2026 WBB recruits?
With AAU season over, many recruits are beginning to focus in on their recruitment. Let's take a look at where many of the top women's basketball prospects stand.
2026 recruiting
- Thread starter Carolina151
- Start date
6-4 Aussie W/F Sitaya Fagan reportedly going to announce 4 finalists soon
Aussie teen sensation's record NCAA interest | Basketball.com.au
Sitaya Fagan has a record 26 NCAA Power Four offers, the most ever for an Australian women’s player.www.basketball.com.au
She has self-reported P4 26 offers, including UNC, which is an all-time record for an Aussie.
Highlights:
Note: with the changing landscape of player compensation, it remains unclear how revenue share applies to athletes on an F-1 (student) visa. the general consensus is that it is not allowed. In addition, any active participation in NIL advertising is also not allowed, which includes content creation and signed memorabilia. That leaves passive activities, like selling of name, image and likeness, like video games, jerseys and similar. or deals that are signed and executed overseas. Such NIL is a new niche and not every team is pursuing it.
All of this is to say that international players right now are comparatively a bargain; they will not factor into your rev share budget. And if your school can work with partnered businesses to navigate some international NIL deals even just a little, this may be a niche you can stand out in for international recruits. So if you can swing it, this could be a really smart way to fill out your roster with talent that is secured under their market value when compared to U.S. players.
I have no idea where UNC stands in this way, but UNC MBB has stated a commitment to seeking international talent, and has two such recruits coming in. UNC WBB, to my knowledge, has made no such public commitment, but the recent results speak for themselves: Taissa Querioz (BRA) and Elina "The Finnisher" Aarnisalo (FIN) were just added to the team. (Henderson has dual USA and Can citizenship so does not apply to her.) Elina's agency is SIG Sports out of Netherlands.
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Watched her in the FIBA U19. She's a player for sure. Played well vs the top teams in the tourney like france and a loaded team USA. Offensively she's still raw but you can see the potential. She's an animal on defense. Had a highlight reel chase down block against team USA
In some publications she is ranked number 2. ESPN has her ahead of Kate for those who did not know. The rankings are up and down for the top 4 players in the 2026 class. Some publications have the top 4 flip flopped. Someone had posted earlier that UNC was not in the running for her. No surprise here.
3397Char you do not need to explain how you post the rankings. To be honest, it does not really matter if you ranked numbers 1 through 4. The rankings are going to flip flop anyway. Case in point, Chavez was ranked number 1 all of her junior year. She was number one during the fall of her senior season. When the McDonald's AA game came, she had dropped to number 3. I really do worry or get caught up by players who ranked one through 4. Those players are legit anymore. Bill Bellick stated the same thing. I use the eye test, and I can pretty much know which player can play and which ones are overrated. The rankings how pretty much for the fans to get excited about, college coaches use the eye test. That is why they scout.
Scouting means watching a player in person where you see the good, the bad and the intangible. Preferably against good competition in a truly competitive environment (not an all-star game.) Coaches combine that with camps and work-outs to assess. And a "Scout" does this often, where hopefully they will develop a sense of differentiating great from good. That is a full-time job.
We as fans do not have access to that. What we see is cherry-picked highlights in YouTube videos (or similar) where every decision is good and every shot goes in. We can see athleticism, indication of a shooting touch, maybe some occasional hustle plays. But that is far from the full picture.
So what we have to go on is rankings (which in WBB is far from robust), offer lists (though in WBB we are relying on self-reported lists), scouting publications (see above on the fledgling nature,) and Team USA or similar invites (a great indicator but not every player can afford the opportunity, and not every player is an American citizen.)
So I agree that it is far from an exact science. And even if it were as robust as MBB or FB, it would still be not all that reliable. But rankings, scouting reports, offer lists. and all-star invites are the best that we have and far more reliable than the "eye test" by you or me. If you or I actually had that skill we could be pretty wealthy and sought after for employing it. Certainly fun for discussion, though.
We as fans do not have access to that. What we see is cherry-picked highlights in YouTube videos (or similar) where every decision is good and every shot goes in. We can see athleticism, indication of a shooting touch, maybe some occasional hustle plays. But that is far from the full picture.
So what we have to go on is rankings (which in WBB is far from robust), offer lists (though in WBB we are relying on self-reported lists), scouting publications (see above on the fledgling nature,) and Team USA or similar invites (a great indicator but not every player can afford the opportunity, and not every player is an American citizen.)
So I agree that it is far from an exact science. And even if it were as robust as MBB or FB, it would still be not all that reliable. But rankings, scouting reports, offer lists. and all-star invites are the best that we have and far more reliable than the "eye test" by you or me. If you or I actually had that skill we could be pretty wealthy and sought after for employing it. Certainly fun for discussion, though.