NCAAW Wooden Award Winner Predictions, Betting Odds & Favorites to Win

• The last time the winner came from the national championship team was 2022 (Aliyah Boston, South Carolina)

• Eight of the 21 winners were from the eventual national championship winner

• Seven players have won it twice, all in back-to-back seasons, but one, Maya Moore, won in 2009 and ’11

With the release of the NCAAW’s Wooden Award top 25 mid-season list, the pool of candidates is now limited to those 25 players. The 15 names that end up on the national ballot will all come from this list. So—what does this mean for the odds to win this year’s NCAAW Wooden Award?

Not a whole lot. The odds for the top three contenders( USC’s JuJu Watkins, Connecticut’s Paige Buecker, and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo) have changed, but not too much. As for the rest of the board—let’s just say the gap is significant.

But the season is still young, and while the gap between the top three and everyone else is extensive, there is still enough time for betting boards to shake up again and again. Let’s take a look at the women’s Wooden Award odds and a closer look at a few of the top candidates.

Women’s Wooden Awards Odds

Here are the odds for the top ten players listed at FanDuel Sportsbook. To place a bet, click on the words ‘Bet Here’ located below the player’s odds. New bettors new to FanDuel can claim the following bonus: Bet $5, Get $300 in Bonus Bets if Your Bet Wins.

List of the 25 Players on the Midseason Wooden Awards List

• Georgia Amoore, Kentucky

• Aziaha James, NC State

• Flau'Jae Johnson, LSU

• Cotie McMahon, Ohio State

• Raegan Beers, Oklahoma

• Lauren Betts, UCLA

• Madison Booker, Texas

• Paige Bueckers, UConn

• Audi Crooks, Iowa State

• Yvonne Ejim, Gonzaga

• Hannah Hidalgo, Notre Dame

• Kiki Iriafen, USC

• Ta'Niya Latson, Florida State

• Ayoka Lee, Kansas State

• Olivia Miles, Notre Dame

• Aneesah Morrow, LSU

• Lucy Olsen, Iowa

• Te-Hina Paopao, South Carolina

• Khamil Pierre, Vanderbilt

• Sedona Prince, TCU

• JJ Quinerly, West Virginia

• Sarah Strong, UConn

• Harmoni Turner, Harvard

• Hailey Van Lith, TCU

• JuJu Watkins, USC

NCAAW Wooden Award Trends

• In its 21-year history, the award has gone to 12 seniors, 7 juniors, 1 sophomore, and 1 freshman.

• The position breakdown is as follows: 9 guards, 5 centers, and 7 forwards.

• Five of the last six winners were guards.

• Eight winners were from the national championship winner; four of those winners were from UConn.

• Six winners have come from UConn; two from LSU, Tennessee, Baylor, Oregon, South Carolina, and Iowa; Stanford, Washington, and Duke have each had one.

• There have been seven 2X-winners; six were back-to-back winners.

• One winner’s team lost in the national title game, eight lost in the Final Four, one lost in the Elite Eight, and two lost in the Sweet 16

2025 NCAAW National Championship Odds: Top Three

It may seem kind of crazy, but it’s true. According to the odds, the next winner of the NCAAW Wooden Award will come down to JuJu Watkins, Paige Bueckers, and Hannah Edwards. If it feels too soon for the race to be so close to decided, I’m with you.

But if you take a hard look at each, you’ll find that there is a pretty good  reason why the odds for these three are so much shorter than everyone else’s—these three ladies are the best NCAAW basketball players

It will take a lot for someone to join them, but the opportunity to shake things up will certainly exist as conference play gets going. On that note,  let’s take a closer look at the top three players on betting boards:

JuJu Watkins,  Guard, USC (+130) at FanDuel

• 25.1 points, 6.1rebounds, 4.1 assists per game

• Team’s AP Rank: No. 4

It’s about time she gets some of the recognition she deserves for having a great, impactful season for the Trojans. She has been an integral part of USC’s early success this season and could carry the team on a deep run in the postseason.

Bettors and voters are probably giving her some attention because she’s on pace to break Caitlin Clark’s career scoring record. She’s not going to break this season, though. After all, she’s only a sophomore. She’ll need to keep up this pace for two more years, not to mention the rest of this season.

That’s a lot of time when any of a number of things can happen.

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Hannah Hidalgo, Guard, Notre Dame (+160) at FanDuel

• 25.9 points, 6.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists per game

• Team’s AP Rank: No. 3

Voters tend to gravitate towards players that do two things: score a lot and win. Hidalgo is the second leading scorer in the nation with 25.9 points per game (behind Florida State’s Ta'Niya Latson, 27.9 points per game). Notre Dame is currently 12-2 and the No. 3 team in the latest AP Poll.

Voters also take note of accomplishments, such as how she made history recently as the first player to score 25+ points, 10+ rebounds, and 5+ assists vs. Connecticut on more than one occasion. She has come up big for Notre Dame when the team has needed her most, leading them to wins over Connecticut and USC.

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Paige Bueckers, Guard, UConn (+210) at FanDuel

• 19.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists per game

• Team’s AP Rank: No. 7

Bueckers is playing good basketball, and she is having a solid season. But it is getting harder and harder to call her a legitimate candidate for the Wooden Award. There’s nothing wrong with her game. She just needs to make a splash and give voters something to matter.

Playing good basketball is not enough to win this award. You have to be exceptional to win the award, and Bueckers has not been exceptional this season. To be the best, you have to beat the best, and Paige Bueckers is not doing that.

She’s got time to turn things around, but missing time with a knee injury doesn’t help.

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2025 NCAAW Wooden Awards Odds: Picks

Favorite:  Hannah Hidalgo (+170) at FanDuel

She plays well, scores a lot of points, and makes an impact when Notre Dame plays the top teams in the nation. What more can you ask for other than that? If she continues to play at such a high level and the Fighting Irish keep winning games, it may be hard not to give it to her.

Dark Horse / Longshot: Ta’Niya Latson (+10000) at FanDuel

Florida State is kind of an in-the-background kind of team at the moment, which makes Latson a player that is heard about but not seen as much as she deserves. Her team is 13-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play,  not ranked in the AP but No. 23 in the Coaches Poll, and she leads the nation in scoring with 27.9 points per game.

If the Seminoles can keep winning games, she’ll make her way into the conversation.

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Women’s Wooden Award History 

The NCAA has been naming a Women’s Wooden Award winner since the 2004 season, while the men’s version of the award originated in 1977. A 12-member National Advisory Board chooses a field of 15 players for the ballot, which is handed out to 250 sportswriters and sportscasters.

Below is a list of Women’s Wooden Award winners:

How to Read Women’s Wooden Award Odds 

Futures odds, like for the Women’s Wooden Award, consist of at least three numbers preceded by a plus (+) or minus (-). 

The odds for most players (if not all) will be listed with a plus sign. No player listed with a plus sign has a better than 50% chance of winning. But at any given point during the season, there could be a player who has outperformed the rest of the field so much that she has a better than 50% chance and a minus (-) sign in front of her odds. Such players are considered the “odds on favorite) and will have at least a 50% chance of winning. This typically does not occur until late in the year, when one player has dominated the competition for most of the season.

Oftentimes, every market will have plus money odds; the market with the shortest odds is considered the betting favorite. However, at most, they have a 50% chance of winning (+100). 

In a market with plus-money odds, the odds are how much bettors can win if they bet $100. For example, bet on Paige Bueckers to win the Women’s Wooden award at +160, and a $100 wager will result in a $260 payout (your stake plus $160 in winnings).

With minus odds, the odds are what bettors will have to wager to win $100. For example, bet on Paige Bueckers to win the Women’s Wooden award late in the year when she’s a heavy favorite at -700, and you'll need to risk $700 to win $100.

You do not have to bet $100 if you do not want to. If you want to see what you can win with the stake you are willing to bet, check out our odds calculator.

How to Choose the Best Sportsbook for Betting on the Women’s Wooden Award Odds

Now that you have some insights into the Women’s Wooden Award let’s examine a few of the sportsbooks where you can place a bet. You can check out our full sportsbook reviews on our sportsbooks page, but here is a quick look at three of the leading online sportsbooks to help you decide.

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