Who’s got next?
It’s the age-old question in sports and specifically basketball, where athletes age out before they know it and are replaced by an increasingly skilled crop of new, young players. We are seeing it in both the NBA and the WNBA, where players are coming (mostly from the NCAA) with advanced skill sets that are ready to compete.
Canada has three players in the WNBA and a senior national team that just placed fourth at the 2022 FIBA World Cup, but who are the next generation of Canadian women set to make their mark on the WNBA and with the national team in the coming years? After all, with the relative lack of media coverage for women’s basketball, we usually don’t hear about female ballers until they actually get drafted or play big minutes in international competitions. But lurking beneath the surface is a group of young Canadian women (104 of them, to be exact) who are not only competing in the NCAA, but in some cases dominating it. There’s a reason Canada’s women’s program is ranked No. 5 in the world and the girl's program is ranked No. 8.
From legitimate WNBA prospects to national team considerations to players amidst their breakout season, here are six Canadians to keep an eye on in NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball this college season:
Amihere is the only player on this list expected to be selected in the 2023 WNBA Draft next April, where she could go anywhere from the late first to the early third round depending on how she finishes her senior season. Coming off a 2021-22 season in which she won a national championship with the Gamecocks — and a summer where she played a key role in the senior national team’s World Cup run, averaging 7.3 points in 20 minutes per game against grown women — the 21-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. is hoping to keep the ball rolling and repeat with the Gamecocks.
Currently averaging 8.2 points, 1.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per game while shooting 62 per cent from two-point range through five games off the bench this season, Amihere is a versatile six-foot-four forward with the type of skill set that makes her a walking mismatch on both ends of the floor. Offensively, she can put the ball on the floor and has the speed and footwork to fly past almost any defender and finish at the rim. Defensively, she can guard multiple positions and is a shot-blocking menace, averaging 1.4 blocks per game. While her three-ball and ball-handling are still a work in progress, Amihere seems primed to take the world by storm in the coming year.
After losing to fellow countrywoman Amihere in the 2022 National Championship game, Edwards is hoping to help bring the storied UConn women’s basketball program back to glory in her third season there. The six-foot-three, Kingston, Ont. native has a mix of power and grace that is rare for players her age, combining a lethal face-up game with a bruising post-up package that makes her incredibly difficult to guard.
After an impressive summer with the Canadian under-23 team, where Edwards was the MVP of GLOBL JAM after averaging 15.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game en route to the championship, Edwards has kept up the momentum as a junior. While she has only played two games so far this season, Edwards is thriving as a primary option for the Huskies, averaging 17 points and 10.7 rebounds on 60 per cent shooting while taking 20 field goals a game. While it’s still early, as Edwards is a year and a half away from league eligibility, expect to hear Edwards’ name called during the 2024 WNBA Draft if she keeps up this level of play.
Simply put, Day-Wilson is a show. Every time the five-foot-six point guard from Toronto steps on the floor, something exciting happens, even if her shot selection and turnovers can leave her coaches frustrated at times. That’s because Day-Wilson plays with a flare, pushing the ball in transition, throwing no-look passes, and hitting step-back threes to fire up the Cameron Crazies at the storied Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke.
Last season, Day-Wilson won the ACC Freshman of the Year honour, chosen by coaches in the NCAA’s toughest conference after averaging 12.7 points, 3.7 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game. In the summer, Day-Wilson averaged 16 points, 5.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game as the starting point guard of Team Canada’s under-23 program at GLOBL JAM, helping lead Canada to a perfect 5-0 record when she put up 19 points and nine assists in the championship game. Now, she is hoping to gain more of head coach Kara Lawson’s trust in her second season at Duke while helping lead the team back to the March Madness tournament after they missed out a season ago.
Despite being another sophomore, Kyei is the youngest player on this list, only turning 19 in October of this year (although Day-Wilson is only a few months older). The six-foot-eight centre immigrated to Calgary from Ghana when she was 13 years old, and only received her Canadian citizenship this past summer.
Kyei is still a raw prospect who is relatively new to the game of basketball, but she is rapidly developing at Oregon and with Canada Basketball, seeing her averages jump up from 3.7 points, 3.3 rebounds, 0.3 assists and 0.6 blocks in 8.6 minutes per game in her freshman year to 9.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 1.2 blocks in 21.8 minutes per game this year, earning the trust of her Oregon coaching staff after a summer with Team Canada.
In fact, due in large part to her overwhelming size, Canada Basketball has a lot invested in Kyei. Like Zach Edey on the men’s side, they are hoping that she can one day play a key role on the senior team and fill their biggest hole, which is a bruising centre. That’s why she went from being the starting centre on the GLOBL JAM team to joining the senior team at the World Cup this past summer, where she played sparingly but got to train and watch at the highest level of competition. It’s clearly paying dividends.
Ejim just keeps getting better. The six-foot-one forward from Calgary is playing her third season at Gonzaga, where she has finally cemented herself as a starter and is averaging 18 points, 8.2 rebounds, one assist and almost two steals per game on 54/40/73 per cent shooting. Ejim, who comes from a storied Canadian basketball family, is an undersized big who uses her long arms to poke the ball free and her athleticism to out-leap similar-sized players for rebounds, where she seems to be subscribing to the belief that the “board woman gets paid.”
Lattimore was the No. 38 prospect in the class of 2021 and the top-ranked Canadian player per ESPN, ahead of her best friend, Shyeanne Day-Wilson, whom she played with at Crestwood Prep in Toronto. In fact, the two of them committed to Syracuse University together before the program had a coaching scandal that left them both looking for new schools at the last minute. So the six-foot-four forward went to the University of Texas, where she only played sparingly as a freshman. However, Lattimore transferred to Miami for her sophomore season, where she is off to an encouraging start, averaging 8.8 points and 3.3 rebounds on 60.6 per cent shooting for the 5-1 Hurricanes as a rim-running machine with nice touch around the basket.
Honourable mentions:
Sarah Te-Biasu — Guard — Junior at Virginia Commonwealth
Shaina Pellington — Guard — Senior at Arizona
Tara Wallack — Guard — Sophomore at Washington State
Merissah Russell — Guard — Junior at Louisville
In the next “Canadians Abroad” column, two Fridays from now, we will highlight a few Canadian men to watch in the NCAA this season.
