Locked On Women’s Basketball: Which 2024 WNBA draft prospects are rising and falling?

One prospect to watch is Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon. Sheldon played in only 13 games last season due to a foot injury, but this season, she’s averaging 19.1 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.3 steals in 30.8 minutes per game. She is also shooting 56.0% from the field and 43.4% from 3-point range. Here’s Lincoln on what he’s seen from Sheldon so far:

“Jacy’s just been really good. I have enjoyed that she’s confidently taking threes out of pick-and-roll and out of dribble handoffs. She’s shooting confidently against unders, which because of her dynamic abilities getting to the rim, she’s going to be seeing a lot of those unders. She’s a really good cutter; she moves naturally without the ball. I like how she fills after releasing the ball on passes … She never stops moving. That’s probably her biggest strength to me is that she just never stops.

“And a lot of that [is,] she’s in that Ohio State press that is high pressure, high intensity, and … they reward that constant movement defensively, and a lot of that has come over to her offensive game. She’s at career highs this season in scoring efficiency, 3-point shooting, free throw rate and points per minute, which, that’s what you want to see from a senior guard who’s probably too good for the Big Ten this year.”

The Next, a 24/7/365 women’s basketball newsroom

The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.

Listen to the full episode to hear Em, Hunter and Lincoln’s evaluations of several more prospects:

• UCLA guard Charisma Osborne
• Utah forward Alissa Pili
• South Carolina center Kamilla Cardoso
• LSU forward Angel Reese
• UConn guard Nika Muhl
• Ohio State guard Celeste Taylor

And for more on Pili and Cardoso, don’t miss last week’s episode looking at how they project as pro players.

The Next and The Equalizer are teaming up

The Next is partnering with The Equalizer to bring more women’s sports stories to your inbox. Subscribe to The Next now and receive 50% off your subscription to The Equalizer for 24/7 coverage of women’s soccer.

Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!

Add Locked On Women’s Basketball to your daily routine

Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.