1 Key Women’s Player From Every Mid-Major March Madness Team

You know all about the five Power Conferences in women’s college basketball, and they make up a significant portion of the March Madness bracket. There are at least 26 mid-major teams in each year’s NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament however — 27 this year — and we’re here to tell you about their most important players. The ones that will have to thrive for their teams to have a chance to advance. Before The Big Dance begins, here is the key player from each mid-major team competing in the 2026 Women’s Basketball Tournament, organized by seeding. 16-Seeds Samford, Briana Rivera: The Bulldogs’ sophomore guard transferred from Austin Peay, where she played just 12.4 minutes per game as a freshman. With Samford, she broke out as a starter averaging over 30 minutes and used that time to lead the entire country in made 3-pointers: Rivera sank 109 shots from beyond the arc, one of just two players to reach triple-digits in the category, and her 36.5% shooting percentage from deep led the Southern Conference. While her defense doesn’t match the quality of teammates like center Emily Bowman, Rivera’s 3-point shooting will be at the top of the scouting report for tournament opponents. SFA, Makana Gardner: Harmonie Dominguez might have finished third in Division I in 3-pointers, but sophomore forward Makana “Cha” Gardner is the more complete threat. She’s second on the team in Offensive Rating behind Dominguez, at 107.5 to her 109.5, but she is also second on the Ladyjacks in Defensive Rating, at 86.2, and averaging 14.9 rebounds per 100 possessions. The 6-foot-3 Gardner averages just 21.4 minutes per game, but they are impactful ones. Southern, Jocelyn Tate: It might seem odd to name a bench player as the key to a tournament team’s success, but this sophomore guard led the Southwestern Athletic Conference in Defensive Rating, at 74.1. While she scored just 7.7 points per game, the Jaguars’ team leader, forward Demya Porter, averages just 9.7 — the Jaguars win with defense, and Tate coming off the bench for 20-plus minutes per game is the key to that. UTSA, Cheyenne Rowe: No one in the American Conference sank more 2-pointers than this junior forward. Rowe scored 14 points per game, largely from inside the arc — she averaged just 1.5 3-point attempts — and also pulled down 8.8 rebounds. Both of those marks led the Roadrunners, and she will have to use her size to her advantage to notch plenty of both against a UConn team with plenty of that to spare. Missouri State, Lainie Douglas: There is going to be significant pressure on Kaemyn Bekemeier from SFA in their First Four matchup — and No. 1-seed Texas, should Missouri State advance — as the junior guard led Conference USA in points per game (17.4) and had a team-high 8.2 rebounds. That means sophomore forward Lainie Douglas, who led the conference in FG% (56%) and effective FG% (55.9%), will have to step up. Douglas, despite fewer minutes, actually led Conference USA in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), thanks to the top Offensive Rating and second-best among starters Defensive Rating on the Bears. California Baptist, Filipa Barros: Senior forward/center Emma Johannson led the WAC in blocks, and freshman guard Lauren Olson was tops on the Lancers in points per game, but senior guard Filipa Barros is the best combination of offense and defense on the roster. She averaged a double-double with a conference-best 10.0 rebounds per game and 11.2 points to go with them, while also having the best adjusted Plus/Minus in the WAC and top PER on the Lancers. 15-seeds Jacksonville, Priscilla Williams: Fifth-year guard Priscilla Williams is 6-foot-2, and she uses every bit of that height to pull in boards that the Jaguars desperately need. Williams might be a guard, but she grabs a conference-leading 26.1% of the available defensive rebounds in her games, and averages 8.6 total rebounds. She also scores 15.4 points and averages 2.4 assists per game, making her the key to Jacksonville’s success. High Point, Macy Spencer: The junior forward led the Big South in minutes, field goals, 3s, effective FG%, FT%, points per game and total points. Her 96 3-pointers not only led the conference, but were tied for fifth in Division I. There are better defensive players on the roster, but Spencer isn’t a bad one, either — she’s just far more offense-oriented, and it’s a potent offense at that. FDU, Kailee McDonald: The sophomore guard tied for fifth in Division I with 96 treys, and her 124.0 Offensive Rating led the NEC. While McDonald’s shooting percentage is far lower than teammate Rebecca Osei-Owusu, who shot 59.4%, that’s because they take far different shots. Osei-Owusu didn’t take a single shot from 3-point range all season, and was a conference-best 59.4% from 2-point range. McDonald, conversely, attempted 4.1 from inside the arc per game; she averaged 5.3 3-pointers per night on nearly 37% shooting from deep. Holy Cross, Meg Calahan: The Crusaders’ senior forward is 6-foot-2, and is in the midst of her best collegiate campaign. She is scoring a team-best 15.3 points per game while also posting career-highs in rebounds (4.0) and assists (2.0), and led the Patriot League in FT% at 86%. While she shoots from deep a few times per game, she’s much better from within the arc and angling for fouls to complement 52.4% shooting from 2. 14-seeds UC San Diego, Erin Condron: The Australian-born junior forward is the best offensive player on the Tritons, and their second-best defender among starters, per Defensive Rating. She averaged 15.7 points per game while pulling down 8.6 boards, while also leading the Big West in both FG% (53.6%) and effective FG% (54.0%). Charleston, Grace Ezebilo: While the twins Taryn Barbot and Taylor Barbot understandably get much of the attention for their high-level play and familial relation, there is no player more important to Charleston outperforming expectations than junior forward Grace Ezebilo. Charleston plucked her out of junior college, and she responded by leading the Coastal Athletic Association in rebounds. If she can channel the kind of game she had from late-January into late-February, when she averaged a double-double with 10.5 points and 16.5 rebounds per game to go with 2.5 steals, Charleston could make life more difficult for Duke in the round of 64. Vermont, Nikola Priede: The senior center is the key to the Catamounts’ game, as she’s their top scorer (17.7), rebounder (7.7) and shot blocker (1.5), all while shooting just under 60%, too. Priede was one of 10 semifinalists for the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, as well, and finished in the top 10 in Win Shares, Offensive Win Shares and Defensive Win Shares, as well as just outside the top 10 in the nation in PER. Priede can be extremely disruptive against 3-seed Louisville, and will also have to be for Vermont to advance. Howard, Zennia Thomas: Howard, as a team, has a negative Net Rating this season, which makes its chances in March tenuous at best. However, senior forward Zennia Thomas is legit, a threat for a double-double (she had nine of them in 2025-2026) who led the MEAC in points, rebounds and Offensive Rating. 13-seeds Idaho, Debora Reis Dos Santos: While not a starter — the senior forward made just one start in 29 games this season — Debora Reis Dos Santos has made a massive impact on the Vandals. She leads the team in rebounds with 8.4 per game, and has averaged 11.3 points. It’s worth noting, too, that her minutes increased as the season went on, and with good reason: she didn’t play 20 minutes until the final non-conference game, in which she scored 22 points with 15 rebounds, and then averaged 20.8 from that point forward. She’s been the most productive player on the team on a rate basis in both scoring and boards, as the Per 40 Minutes numbers suggest, and she’s first in both Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating, with the former leading not just Idaho but the Big Sky. Green Bay, Jenna Guyer: Guyer has spent time lining up as both a forward and a center as a senior, and while she’s arguably not the best offensive or defensive player on the team, she is easily the best mix of both for the Phoenix in her first year as a starter. She more than doubled her points per game (15.1) and rebounds (6.3) despite a similar usage increase, so her past performance wasn’t just a burn-fast approach. She’s just that good, and Green Bay is better for it. Miami (OH), Amber Tretter: The RedHawks are dancing because of their defense, and junior forward Amber Tretter is at the heart of that: she led the MAC in Defensive Rating, at 80.1, and paired that with a team-best 114.8 Offensive Rating. Tretter’s 14.5 points and 8.2 rebounds per game are both team-highs, as well, and if Miami (OH) is to persist in March Madness, it will be because Tretter delivers on both ends of the court. Western Illinois, Mia Nicastro: The senior guard-forward combo for the Leathernecks is one of the top mid-major players in the nation — Nicastro is a finalist for the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, but even without that possible hardware, you would know it from just looking at her numbers or her play. Her 24.2 points per game led the Ohio Valley Conference and is fourth in Division I. She just missed averaging a double-double, with 9.9 rebounds per game, but still led the OVC with 252 defensive boards. She had the most field goals, minutes, 2-pointers, free throws and points in the conference, and is seventh in the nation in PER. One of the best mid-major players, yes, but also just one of the best period. 12-seeds Murray State, Sharnecce Currie-Jelks: She might be all of 5-foot-4, but Poock is one of the biggest sources of offense in the country. The junior guard averaged 22.4 points to lead the Missouri Valley Conference, which was also good enough for 10th in the nation. The difference maker for the Racers this year is going to have to be senior forward Sharnecce Currie-Jelks, though, an Indiana transfer who led The Valley in rebounds per game (11.7) as well as both total offensive and defensive boards, while averaging a double-double on the season thanks to 17.9 points per game. Between Poock and Currie-Jelks (as well as junior guard Keslyn Secrist, the MVC leader in Offensive Rating) Maryland can’t double everyone. Colorado State, Lexus Bargesser: The senior guard and Indiana transfer ended up with the most playing time she’s ever had after coming to Colorado State, and paid back the opportunity with 15.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game. She ranks second among Rams starter in Offensive Rating (107.8) and second in Defensive Rating (81.7) — which also happens to be good enough for third in Mountain West. On top of all that, Bargesser is first in the conference in PER and second in adjusted Plus/Minus. JMU, Peyton McDaniel: The fifth-year guard led the Sun Belt in adjusted Plus/Minus as well as Offensive Rating (121.6) while averaging 18.9 points per game and leading the conference in points scored. The 6-footer also grabbed 7.5 rebounds per, with 2.2 assists and 1.6 steals to go with them. She’s coming off a monster game in the Sun Belt conference tournament, in which she dropped 28 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists on Troy in 34 minutes. Gonzaga, Lauren Whittaker: Another semifinalist for the 2026 Becky Hammon award, the freshman Bulldog has been the key to their success this year. The New Zealand native was the MVP in her home country’s U-19 tournament, and it’s easy to see why once you see the 6-foot-3 forward in action. She averaged a double-double with West Coast bests of 19.4 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, led in overall FG% (55.3%), 2P% (60.2%), effective FG% (59.2%) and PER (38.5). That PER was also good enough for sixth in Division I, right behind Notre Dame star Hannah Hidalgo and ahead of the likes of UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes. Whittaker is a gamechanger and potential bracket buster. 11-seeds Rhode Island, Sophia Vital: While the junior’s standard numbers don’t jump off the page, the 5-foot-5 guard is a defensive menace who led the Atlantic 10 in Defensive Rating at 79.2, nabs just under 2 steals per game and pulls down 5.5 rebounds despite her smaller size. Vital also does a little bit of everything on offense, averaging 7.7 points and 3.6 assists — the latter the best on the Rams — so she’s not merely a defensive stalwart. Rhode Island will need Vital at her best to upset 6-seed Alabama and advance. Fairfield, Jillian Huerter: It would be easy enough to point to junior guard Kaety L’Amoreaux or junior forward Megan Anderson here, as they are the Stags’ top scorers and L’Amoreaux is even the top player in the MAAC by PER thanks to her fantastic offensive abilities, and a Becky Hammon award semifinalist. However, the possible difference maker for Fairfield is sophomore guard Jillian Huerter. She led the conference in 3P%, hitting 43.6% from deep while averaging 5.2 attempts from 3-point range per game — 73% of her total shot attempts were from 3. Defenses — especially ones that suffer against the deep ball like first-round opponent Notre Dame — can’t double up all three of these players beyond the arc, so planning the offense around getting open looks out of Huerter, as was often the case against tougher MAAC competition, could deliver an upset. South Dakota State, Brooklyn Meyer: Meyer is one of five finalists for the 2026 Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year Award, and with good reason. The 6-foot-2 senior forward scored 22.4 points per game, just missing the Division I top 10 by two hundredths of a point: Halli Poock scored 22.38 points per game, Meyer 22.36. She finished third in the nation in PER, though, behind only UConn’s Sarah Strong and North Dakota State (and fellow Becky Hammon finalist) Avery Koenen. Meyer also averaged 8.0 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.9 blocks per game, and sports an effective FG% of 64.6%. Richmond, Maggie Doogan: The WNBA tends to look to the Power 5 conferences for future draft picks, but Maggie Doogan is an exception. The reason that the Richmond Spiders were able to make it as an at-large team in this year’s tourney — the only at-large mid-major team at The Big Dance — is because of Doogan’s fantastic performance. She is also a finalist for the 2026 Becky Hammon award, with the senior forward leading the Atlantic 10 with 21.0 points per game and 50.3% shooting, as well as 40.2% from 3 — she just missed a 50/40/90 season by hitting a “mere” 89.2% on her free throws, and she also had 7.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game. 9-seed Princeton, Fadima Tall: While depth is Princeton’s game more than anything, one that allows it to cover for the lack of a true star, there is plenty of high-end possibility on display, too. Junior guard Fadima Tall stands out for her ability to do a bit of everything and do it well: she averaged 13.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 2.4 steals in just 28.8 minutes per game, and finished first among starters on the Tigers in both Offensive Rating and Defensive Rating. If the Tigers are to get past the high-end offense of Oregon State and then take on likely second-round opponent, 1-seed UCLA, Tall is going to have to do a little bit of everything and do it exceptionally well.