Gatorade Girls’ Basketball Player of Year finalists making big impact in NIL

Some of the biggest winners through nearly two years of name, image and likeness come from women’s basketball.

College stars like Hanna Cavinder and Haley Cavinder at Miami, Paige Bueckers at UConn and Flau’jae Johnson at LSU have On3 NIL Valuations well north of $640,000. Plus, there are 16 players who have valuations of more than $100,000. Success in NIL is also cascading down to the top girls high school players.

Juju Watkins of Chatsworth (California) Sierra Canyon, Hannah Hidalgo of Haddonfield (New Jersey) Paul VI and Jadyn Donovan of Washington (D.C.) Sidwell Friends School were announced Wednesday as finalists for the Gatorade National Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year. And while all three are forces on the court, they’ve also made a big impact through NIL. On3 breaks down the On3 NIL Valuations of the three finalists for the national player of the year.

Guard Juju Watkins

On3 NIL Valuation: $156,000
On3 high school women’s basketball NIL rank: No. 3
Social media followers: 218,000

USC signee Judea “Juju” Watkins is a five-star prospect in the Class of 2023 from Chatsworth Sierra Canyon, in the L.A. suburbs. Following her junior season, Watkins was named the Los Angeles Times Girls Basketball Player of the Year after averaging 24.8 points and 10.3 rebounds. Watkins won a gold medal in 2022 for USA basketball and was selected as the Gatorade California Player of the Year. She repeated the honors this season, when she averaged 28.1 points, 3.7 assists, 14 rebounds and 2.6 steals.

She became the first high school star to sign with Klutch Sports for representation and has become one of the faces of NIL for female student-athletes.

Her NIL deals with Nike and Lids grabbed national attention, and her presence with brands and fans is only growing. For example, she’s seen a 33% increase in her On3 NIL Valuation over the past 10 weeks.

Guard Hannah Hidalgo

On3 NIL Valuation: $16,200
On3 high school women’s basketball NIL rank: No. 8
Social media followers: 14,100

Notre Dame signee Hannah Hidalgo is another five-star prospect in the Class of 2023 who has a lengthy list of accomplishments. Along with her status as one of the most heavily recruited players in the country, the 5-foot-6 point guard was the 2021-22 Courier Post South Jersey Player of the Year, 2022 Olympic Conference Player of the Year and a member of the 2022 All-Conference First Team.

Through her first three years at Haddonfield (N.J.) Paul VI, Hidalgo averaged 21.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 5.4 steals. She upped those numbers in the 2022-2023 season with 28.8 points, 5.1 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 7.3 steals to earn Gatorade New Jersey Player of the Year honors. On the USA Basketball front, Hidalgo was a member of the 2022 U17 National Team, where she helped lead USA Basketball to a 7-0 record and a gold medal in the 2022 FIBA U17 World Cup in Debrecen, Hungary. She averaged 7.7 points, 2.1 rebounds and 2.6 steals per game while overseas.

She’s poised to make bank when she arrives in college through NIL opportunities. She signed with the SIG Sports agency to represent her NIL opportunities, and there should be plenty when she arrives in South Bend.

Guard Jadyn Donovan

On3 NIL Valuation: $10,600
On3 high school women’s basketball NIL rank: No. 12
Social media followers: 5,400

Jadyn Donovan is a five-star recruit who signed with Duke in November over a host of other top national programs. Like Hidalgo and Watkins, Donovan is also a McDonald’s All-American. As a senior at Sidwell Friends School, Donovan averaged 15 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.1 steals and was named the Gatorade Washington, D.C., Player of the Year.

Donovan was a 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball U17 World Cup gold medalist and a 2021 FIBA Americas Women’s Basketball U16 gold medalist. She is the Blue Devils’ highest-ranked signee since 2015.

Donovan is also represented by SIG Sports, and she’s already executed a handful of NIL deals, including with Operation Warm to help gift 100 coats for children in foster care in the D.C. area. As with Hidalgo, having representation from SIG will help her maximize NIL opportunities when she arrives in college.

About the On3 NIL Valuation

The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets the standard market NIL value for high school and college athletes. A proprietary algorithm, the On3 NIL Valuation calculates an athlete’s NIL value using dynamic data points targeting three primary categories: performance, influence and exposure.

About On3 NIL Valuation, Brand Value, Roster Value

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career.

The On3 NIL Valuation accounts for an athlete’s roster value and brand value. Roster value is the value an athlete has by being a member of his or her team at his or her school, which factors into the role of NIL collectives. Brand value factors in an athlete’s personal brand and the value it could bring to regional and national brands outside of the scope of NIL collectives.

The On3 NIL Valuation is publicly available. Performance, Influence, and Exposure ratings along with the athlete’s personal Brand Value Index and Roster Value Index are available only to the athlete in the “Athlete Verified” private dashboard on the On3 Athlete Network.