Women's college basketball’s 3 most intriguing true freshmen: Sarah Strong, Toby Fournier, Mikayla Blakes

In recent seasons, we've grown accustomed to elite play from freshmen in women's college basketball. Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark were electric the moment they touched the floor. JuJu Watkins was one of the best players in the country last year.

The 2024-25 freshman class might not have quite as much star power as some classes, but there are still a lot of very good players in it, led by one huge standout who made the midseason Wooden Award watchlist on Tuesday.

Here are three of the most intriguing true freshmen in women's college basketball.

Sarah Strong, UConn

As mentioned in the intro, one freshman made the midseason Wooden Award watchlist. That player was UConn's Sarah Strong, who leads all freshmen in almost every available advanced metric, only ranking below first in VPS, where she sits second.

Strong's play is far from a surprise. She was the No. 1 recruit in this class for a reason, so her being the best freshman player in America is essentially right in line with expectations. Still, I'm not sure people thought she'd be this good this quickly.

One thing that's really made Strong so good this year has been her versatility. She's shooting 83.1 percent at the rim, 25.4 percentage points above the Division I average, but she can also knock down shots from everywhere on the floor. She's made half of her midrange shots. She's shooting a very good 36.3 percent from beyond the arc. It's impossible to defend her because she can beat you anywhere.

And even if you do find a way to stop her shooting, Strong can drop some dimes. Her 23.7 percent assist rate ranks in the 91st percentile. She's also done an absurd job avoiding turnovers — there hasn't been a single game this season where Strong had more turnovers than assists and her 2.89 assists to turnovers is the 53rd-best ratio in Division I.

Strong's an incredibly well-rounded player and a perfect complement to Huskies star Paige Bueckers. Together, the two have a chance to get UConn its first national title since 2016.

Toby Fournier, Duke

Duke forward Toby Fournier has yet to start a game for the Blue Devils. She's averaging just 17.4 minutes per game. Still, she's done enough in the time she's been on the floor to excite anyone who's tuned in for a Duke game.

Fournier had some hype behind her before her freshman season even began because of her ability to dunk, but her performance at Duke hasn't been about highlight-reel plays. It's been about playing very, very high-level basketball.

Post-play has been what Fournier's hung her hat on this season, on both the offensive and defensive end. Offensively, she's used her strength to get deep post position against her defenders while also showing some great awareness, sticking in her space when her defender's gone over to double a driving ball-handler, opening up chances for open shots at the rim. Overall, it's led to Fournier shooting 69.7 percent at the hoop.

On the other end of the floor, Fournier has been a force inside, averaging 3.0 blocks per 40 minutes, which ranks in the 95th percentile. Duke's opponents shoot 50.8 percent at the rim with Fournier on the floor and 58.4 percent at the rim with her off the floor, highlighting how important she is at defending the paint for the Blue Devils.

This Duke team is an impressive 12-3 to start the season and features high-level talents Ashlon Jackson and Reigan Richardson, but it's been Fournier who has led the Blue Devils in scoring.

Her ability to shake off a bad performance looks veteran-like. She had her worst college game against South Carolina, scoring just two points on 1-for-4 shooting against a Gamecocks team that has the size to neutralize opposing bigs. But just three days later, Fournier went out against Virginia Tech and dropped 27 points on the Hokies, setting a new career high in points. That one bad performance didn't change the trajectory for Fournier. It helped her refocus and then dominate her next two opponents.

Mikayla Blakes, Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt was expected to be a mid-pack SEC program this season, with the Commodores picked to finish 10th in the SEC preseason poll. But the play of freshman Mikayla Blakes has shifted the direction of the program.

The Commodores sit at 14-2 on the season. The team has an offensive rating of 116.3, a huge jump from last season's 96.8. That will go down as conference play continues because scoring in the SEC is tough, but this still looks like the best offense we've seen from Vanderbilt in the past decade.

Blakes, one of two Vanderbilt players averaging 20-plus points per game along with Khamil Pierre, has been the top-scoring freshmen in the nation, averaging 20.6 points per game and making her the only freshman to average at least 20 per game, though Rutgers guard Kiyomi McMiller is right behind at 19.9 points per game.

While Strong and Fournier win because of their size, Blakes is a very different type of player, a 5-foot-8 menace who can shoot off the dribble but who can also weave through defenders to get the basket. Blakes is shooting 72.1 percent at the rim, a very good number for a player her size. Her ability to find space through traffic makes her dangerous in the pick-and-roll.

Blakes has also been active on the defensive end, swiping away 2.8 steals per game. Her steals-to-fouls ratio isn't great, but cutting down on fouls is something that will likely come with age.