How to watch and everything to know about 2025 WNBA draft where UConn star is consensus No. 1 overall pick

(CNN) — Following the end of the NCAA tournament, the next tentpole event in the women’s basketball calendar is the WNBA draft.

With teams looking for an injection of college talent to galvanize them ahead of the 2025 season, the draft offers franchises an opportunity to reset and recalibrate.

There is added intrigue as the WNBA’s first expansion team in 17 years, the Golden State Valkyries, will participate in their first ever draft.

Here’s everything you need to know.

How to watch

This year’s edition of the WNBA draft is being held at The Shed in New York City on Monday night.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert will announce the picks, with coverage of the event starting at 7.30 p.m. ET on ESPN. The draft can also be streamed on ESPN+ and the ESPN App.

Who’s going No. 1?

There is plenty of theorizing about who will go where, but there isn’t much doubt over who will be selected first overall by the Dallas Wings.

Having brought a 12th NCAA women’s championship back to Connecticut, UConn guard Paige Bueckers is widely expected to be drafted No. 1 after rounding out a stellar college career in the most emphatic fashion.

The senior has already been widely known on the women’s basketball scene and blossomed during her title victory, doing almost everything to help the Huskies to victory. She averaged 24.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.8 steals and 1.3 blocks per game in the 2025 NCAA tournament.

The win ends Bueckers’ time on the collegiate level in perfect fashion as she formed a potent backcourt with fellow guard Azzi Fudd.

Bueckers leaves Storrs as the top scorer in UConn’s women’s basketball history – a remarkable achievement for such a storied program – and third overall in points in women’s basketball history, despite missing the whole of the 2022 season with a torn ACL.

With a vast array of experience already, the 23-year-old enters this year’s draft as the consensus No. 1 overall pick and is primed to be an immediate difference-maker on the pro level.

Bueckers will be in attendance in New York to see her name called and, like Caitlin Clark last season, will be the early favorite to claim the Rookie of the Year accolade.

Who else to keep an eye on?

Outside of the Huskies legend, there is plenty of intrigue about who will be selected by which team.

Arguably, the most fascinating prospect in the draft is Dominique Malonga, who played in France and didn’t play a minute in the NCAA.

Still only 19 years old, Malonga averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds a game for ASVEL Féminin in 2024 and has recently shot up in mock drafts due to her high upside.

She became a viral hit when a video of her dunking at the age of 16 was widely shared, but since then the 6-foot-6-inch budding star has developed her skills to become a more well-rounded player.

Malonga was the youngest member of France’s silver medal-winning women’s basketball team at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and the Cameroon-born center offers a rare blend of agility, size and ball handling skills which, if they coalesce, could make a potent skillset.

Kiki Iriafen is another top prospect who will likely be picked at the top of the first round after excelling for the USC Trojans during the NCAA tournament.

A forward with an enviable combination of size and ball skills, Iriafen is the prototypical wing and already fits the mold which some of the WNBA’s most impactful players – like three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier – have carved out.

Aneesah Morrow is another impactful forward who could be a vital addition to a winning team having grown into an all-round player with the LSU Tigers.

She averaged nearly 21 points per game along with 12.3 rebounds and 1.5 steals during the postseason for LSU. Her combination of size and scoring could make her a perfect player for the pros.

Full first round draft order

1) Dallas Wings

2) Seattle Storm (via Los Angeles Sparks)

3) Washington Mystics (via Chicago Sky)

4) Washington Mystics

5) Golden State Valkyries

6) Washington Mystics (via Dallas Wings via Atlanta Dream)

7) Connecticut Sun (via New York Liberty via Phoenix Mercury)

8) Connecticut Sun (via Indiana Fever)

9) Los Angeles Sparks (via Seattle Storm)

10) Chicago Sky (via Connecticut Sun)

11) Chicago Sky (via Minnesota Lynx)

12) Dallas Wings (via Phoenix Mercury)

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