The Wade Trophy, named after former Delta State University Coach Lily Margaret Wade, is presented annually to the best upper-class women’s basketball player in NCAA Division I competition.
UConn has the most all-time awards, with ten, and the most individual recipients, with seven winners. Maya Moore won it three times, as did Caitlin Clark, Britney Grinder, Sabrina Ionescu, and Breanna Stewart. Paige Bueckers is the current holder of the award.
Top 5 Wade Trophy winners currently in the WNBA
Several award winners have gone on to make their marks on the WNBA, but we take a look at the top five winners who are still active in the league.
A’ja Wilson
Wilson won the Wade Trophy in 2018 while at the University of South Carolina. She also won the NCAA tournament with South Carolina in 2017. The Las Vegas Aces selected her as the number one overall pick in 2018. Since then, she’s won the WNBA MVP three times (2020, 2022, 2024) and the WNBA title twice.
She has four gold medals with the US women’s basketball team.
Sabrina Ionescu
Ionescu won the Wade Trophy twice (2019,2020). She is the NCAA all-time leader in triple-doubles. She was drafted in 2020 by the New York Liberty as an overall number-one pick. She’s a three-time WNBA All-Star, and she won the WNBA title in 2024. She’s won two gold medals with the US women’s basketball team.
Caitlin Clark
Clark is regarded as one of the greatest college basketball players of all time. She won the Wade Trophy in 2023 and 2024. She is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and was a two-time national player of the year with the Iowa Hawkeyes. In 2024, Indiana Fever selected her as the overall number-one pick.
Aliyah Boston
Boston won the NCAA championship with South Carolina in 2022 and won the Wade Trophy the same year. She was selected overall number one by the Indiana Fever in 2023. She was named 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Year in a unanimous vote and the AP Rookie of the Year.
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Nalyssa Smith
Smith won the NCAA championship with Baylor in 2019 and won the Wade Trophy in 2021. She was selected second overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2022 WNBA draft. She was selected to the WNBA All-Rookie team in 2022.
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