Norfolk State’s Diamond Johnson and USF’s Sammie Puisis are among the names you should know heading into the women’s NCAA Tournament.
If you’ve been even a casual observer of women’s college basketball this season, you know who JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers are. Perhaps you’ve seen Hannah Hidalgo and Flau’Jae Johnson in commercials, or Lauren Betts block shots and Aziaha James cross over defenders in highlights.
But do you know the best player for the MEAC champs? What about the best guard in the Big 12 who isn’t named Hailey Van Lith? How about the best shooter from Tampa, the city hosting the Final Four? What about the top player out of the best mid-major conference, the Ivy League?
We’re here to tell you about all the under-the-radar players you need to know about as March Madness gets underway this week.
Sammie Puisis, USF
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The sixth-year guard missed nearly all of last season with an knee injury and picked up right she left off this year, reestablishing herself as one of the best 3-point shooters in all of women’s basketball. Puisis makes 3.1 shots from behind the arc per game, which is eighth-best nationally. She leads USF in scoring with 14.8 points per game and lit up Duke this season for 23 points. She also scored 34 against Memphis, and has twice this season made at least seven 3-pointers in a single game.
USF plays Michigan State in the first round.
Diamond Johnson, Norfolk State
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Johnson has been a bucket everywhere she’s been. As a freshman at Rutgers, she became part of the 50-40-90 club — that’s shooting percentages from the floor, 3-point range and the free throw line — the only freshman since 2009 to do so while playing in at least 15 games and more than 20 minutes a contest. As a sophomore at N.C. State, she was ACC Sixth Player of the Year while helping the Wolfpack make the Elite Eight. She’s now helped Norfolk State make the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season while averaging 19 points, 6.1 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.7 steals per game. She’s one of just two players nationally who averages at least 19 points, six boards, three assists and three steals per game.
Norfolk State faces Maryland in the first round.
Harmoni Turner, Harvard
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The Ivy League Player of the Year has led the Crimson to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007 and averages 22.5 points per game, which is ninth-best nationally. She’s also fifth in PER and fifth in win shares this season. Turner has scored 25 points or more in a single game nine times this season, all wins for Harvard.
Harvard opens tournament play against Michigan State.
Sela Heide, Oregon State
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A 6-foot-7 fifth-year forward, Heide doesn’t start that often for the Beavers and plays less than 19 minutes per game, but when she enters a game she is typically awesome and efficient. She has the best field goal percentage in the nation at 69.9 percent, she leads the country in points per scoring attempt with 1.4, and is also first in effective field goal percentage. In 17 minutes off the bench in Oregon State’s WCC championship win, she had 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting, nine rebounds and two blocks. When the Beavers call on her, she provides a spark.
Oregon State plays North Carolina in the first round.
Serena Sundell, Kansas State
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Sundell doesn’t play for a mid-major, obviously. She’s at a Power 4 program in the Big 12. But it still feels like she’s been overlooked this season. Despite averaging 7.1 assists per game — good enough for second-best in the nation — she wasn’t a finalist for the Lieberman Award, given annually to the country’s top point guard. The senior is also a top-notch perimeter defender and posts 13.6 and 4.5 rebounds per game. As star center Ayoka Lee has been sidelined for much of the latter portion of the season, Sundell has been a big reason why the Wildcats have won games without Lee. She had 27 points, six rebounds and four assists in an upset victory over TCU, and 21 points in their Big 12 tournament win over UCF.
Kansas State opens the tournament against Fairfield.
