The 2025-26 NCAA women's basketball season just wrapped up last week with the UCLA Bruins as champions for the first time. There's no rest for the weary, however, as the 2026 WNBA Draft, where teams choose 45 of the best NCAA and international players, was held Monday in New York. The reigning champs became the first women's team to have six players taken in a single WNBA Draft.
Now that the 2026 WNBA Draft is over, RotoWire.com, as part of our WNBA betting coverage, looks at where this year's Bruins team members wound up in the now-15-team league.
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At the end of the night in the Big Apple, six UCLA women's basketball players were indeed selected, which compares favorably with other women's champs that had five or more players taken in the draft. Our interactive graphic above gives you a deeper dive into the college programs that produced the most WNBA Draft picks in one year.
How does this year's UCLA squad compare with some of the best in the sport's history? RotoWire, your home for sports betting apps reviews, set out to find the answers.
Where This Year's UCLA Squad Stands
As it turned out, UCLA's star players didn't wait long to see where they'd play in the WNBA. The 6-foot-7 Lauren Betts came off the board first, at No. 4 overall to the Washington Mystics. That started a three-pick run of UCLA stars, with Betts' teammates Gabriela Jaquez (No. 5 to the Chicago Sky) and Kiki Rice (No. 6 to the Toronto Tempo) joining her in the league.
With the ninth pick, the Mystics added Betts' UCLA teammate, fellow frontcourt star Angela Dugalic. Then shooting guard Gianna Kneepkens was selected by the Connecticut Sun with the 15th and final selection in the event's opening round, making UCLA the first school with five WNBA first-round picks in one year.
The sixth and final selection from Westwood was point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who will join Kneepkens in Connecticut in 2026. The Sun drafted Leger-Walker with the third pick of the second round (18th overall), adding her to the backcourt during the club's final season in the Nutmeg State.
That franchise is moving to Houston for 2027 to become the new Comets. See our story on How Have WNBA Franchises Fared After They Moved? for that history.
WNBA Draft History Comparison
Looking back before Monday, four NCAA programs had five players drafted in a single draft class dating back to the WNBA's debut season in 1996. In 1999 and 2008 the Tennessee Volunteers had five players selected. The 2019 Notre Dame Fighting Irish and 2023 South Carolina Gamecocks equaled that feat.
One interesting trend is that all four of those college teams produced the No. 1 overall pick. That did not happen in 2026.
Of those four previous teams, Notre Dame had five players come off the board the quickest – they all went between No. 1 overall (Jackie Young) and 19th (Marina Mabrey). The Bruins knocked the Fighting Irish off their pedestal by having six players selected within the draft's opening 18 picks on Monday night. How many will make a WNBA fantasy impact this season?
How This Year's Bruins Class Could Help Their New Teams
Now that the WNBA Draft is done, it's fair to look forward and see that none of the six UCLA players picked are likely to find themselves on a championship-caliber roster like the one they're leaving behind.
The two top UCLA picks (Betts and Dugalic) are now playing for the Mystics, who have +10000 odds at Caesars Sportsbook to win the 2026 WNBA championship. That is 10th out of 15 teams.
The championship outlook for Leger-Walker and Kneepkens is even bleaker. The Connecticut Sun check in alongside the expansion Portland Fire for dead last in WNBA title odds on Fanatics Sportsbook, at +50000.
The other 2026 expansion team, the Toronto Tempo (Rice's new squad), has +6000 odds to win the 2026 WNBA title at BetMGM Sportsbook. That is 11th out of 15 teams.
The Chicago Sky (who took Jaquez on Monday) are +8000 to win the WNBA title in 2026 at FanDuel Sportsbook (ranking T12 with the Tempo). That's the championship outlook, or lack thereof, for each of the six players that led UCLA to title glory.
Still, Bruins coach Cori Close's now-former players achieved another bit of history, sending a record number of players to the 15-team WNBA via the league's three-round draft.
Also see: WNBA Pay Revolution: Projected 2026 Salaries Under the New CBA
