UCLA’s star guard Kiki Rice was awarded the 2025 NCAA ELITE 90 award ahead of the Final Four.
The award, presented to the Final Four athlete with the highest cumulative GPA, recognizes academic and on-court excellence. To be eligible, student-athletes must be sophomores or above academically and have participated in a sport for at least two years with the school.
UCLA’s Kiki Rice celebrates Elite 90 Award with Bruins ahead of UConn, Paige Bueckers showdown
Rice, a communications major with an education minor, was awarded the ELITE 90 Wednesday night in Tampa, Florida. The junior, who averages 12.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and a team-leading 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals, is the first-ever Bruin to win the award.
UCLA Women’s Basketball reacts to @kiki_rice0 being named the 2025 Elite 90 recipient.
The award goes to the Final Four athlete with the highest cumulative GPA 👏#MarchMadness x #WFinalFour x @UCLAWBB pic.twitter.com/E9bf1zzcRu
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) April 3, 2025
Rice’s victory breaks the two-year streak by Iowa’s Sharon Goodman, who won the award in 2023 and 2024, becoming the first women’s basketball player to win it twice since Baylor’s Lindsay Palmer won it in 2010 and 2012.
The ELITE 90 puts Rice in elite company, with UConn’s Maya Moore winning the award in 2011.
Rice and the Bruins now look to become the first ELITE 90 winning team to take down the nets since the 2019 Baylor Bears and Lauren Cox. She would join Palmer in 2012 and Cox as just the third ELITE 90 winner to do so.
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But while the Bruins are ranked the No. 1 overall seed in the women’s NCAA tournament, they have a tough challenge on their hands. Ahead of them sit No. 2 UConn and superstar guard Paige Bueckers, who has put up 71 points in the last two games. The Huskies have yet to play a close one, beating each team they’ve played in both the Big East and NCAA tournaments by double digits.
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