NCAAW: Three WNBA Draft prospects who returned for COVID year in 2025

One of the many effects the COVID-19 pandemic had on NCAA basketball was the granting of an extra year of eligibility to all winter sport athletes. This made it a common occurrence for women’s basketball players to play at least five seasons of collegiate ball before choosing to go pro, a phenomenon that had a ripple effect on ensuing WNBA Drafts.

We’re now watching the final wave of players who took advantage of this opportunity. We’ve profiled quite a few WNBA Draft prospects over the years here at Swish Appeal, and a handful of them chose to exercise their extra years of eligibility after the fact. Let’s check in on how they’re doing now, in their final season of NCAA basketball.

Te-Hina Paopao (South Carolina)

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Paopao remains at South Carolina for a second season after winning a national championship with the Gamecocks in 2024. The former Oregon guard made an immediate impact for Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, bringing an even-keeled presence to the team’s backcourt alongside the dynamic Raven Johnson. She was the best 3-point shooter on a team that went a perfect 38-0 en route to its second title in three seasons.

Not much of that has changed. South Carolina is once again one of the best teams in the country, and Paopao continues to do everything that made her such a key player in the Gamecocks’ most recent championship run. She continues to be extremely reliable with her outside shot (46.2 percent on 3-pointers) and has committed just nine turnovers in 10 games played. Paopao has also developed her game inside the arc, converting on a career-best 53.3 percent of her 2-point attempts, though she’s also attempted just three free throws on the season—perhaps the sole weakness in her game.

If WNBA scouts were impressed watching Paopao in her first season at South Carolina, none of what she’s doing this season should dissuade them. It’s also important to consider just how many WNBA teams could use a guard with Paopao’s skillset next summer; in our recent one-round WNBA Mock Draft, she went to the Chicago Sky at No. 3, though teams like the Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx would probably like to have her as well.

Georgia Amoore (Kentucky)

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Amoore’s name was one of the few that became synonymous with the rise of the Virginia Tech Hokies during head coach Kenny Brooks’ tenure. So it wasn’t a huge surprise when she chose to stay in school and follow Brooks to Kentucky when he was hired there last spring. Amoore’s prolific outside shooting and skill with the basketball made her a standout player in the ACC, earning a pair of all-conference honors and leading the Hokies to a Final Four run in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

Amoore has brought her electrifying game to Kentucky, where she’s currently averaging 15.6 points and 7.2 assists (third in Division I) per game. However, her trademark deep 3-pointers, which Amoore has said are the key to opening up the rest of her game, are not yet falling like they did at Virginia Tech; she’s shooting just 25 percent beyond the arc, which is by far a career-low, and her 3-point volume is also down a bit from where it previously was, though she’s still hoisting 6.8 of them per contest.

Ultimately, Amoore’s jumpshot will probably come around, and her playmaking remains as good as ever. If there’s something to watch for, it’s how she handles the physicality of the SEC’s top teams. Kentucky’s conference schedule will begin at the start of the 2025 calendar year, and if the 5-foot-6 Amoore can raise her efficiency back to the levels we’re used to while she plays against bigger, tougher defenses, it might give WNBA teams more confidence in drafting her.

Ayoka Lee (Kansas State)

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Lee made national headlines when she scored an NCAA-record 61 points in a game in 2022, but anyone who’s been paying even a tiny bit of attention to Kansas State will tell you that her impact on the program has extended far beyond a single-game performance. In fact, Lee recently broke the Wildcats’ program scoring record with her 2,336th career point, and it’ll be hard to imagine anyone passing whatever number she finishes with when she’s finally done.

This is Lee’s fifth season in college, and so far the only thing that’s been able to slow her down is injury. She had been dealing with a nagging knee injury that eventually required surgery and forced her to miss the 2022-23 NCAA season, but since she returned it’s been business as usual, albeit in fewer minutes. Lee averaged 19.7 points and 8.6 rebounds per game as a senior and is putting up 16.4 points and 5.9 rebounds as a graduate student, which is impressive productivity given she’s only averaging about 17.8 minutes of playing time. Lee’s size at 6-foot-6 ensures that she takes high-efficiency paint shots as often as possible; through 10 games in 2024-25, she’s shooting 64.8 percent from the floor, which is a career-best.

Will Lee’s workload increase as the season goes on, or will Kansas State try to keep her fresh for an NCAA Tournament run? And even if that does happen, how much will WNBA teams trust her to stay on the floor? The answers to these questions could be the difference between Lee getting drafted early or not at all. It’s essential that she finish her collegiate career strong.

All statistics, team records and rankings for the 2024-25 NCAA season are current through Saturday, December 14, 2024.