January 4, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Why Kiki Rice and Ta’Niya Latson have been two of the nation’s best guards
By The Next
Lincoln Shafer: 'It's just been really encouraging and heartening to kind of see [Latson] put it together'
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer discuss some of the top WNBA prospects in college basketball, including Florida State sophomore Ta’Niya Latson and UCLA junior Kiki Rice.
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Latson, a 5’8 guard, currently leads all of Division I in averaging 28.2 points per game. She is shooting 51.4% from the field and 47.5% from 3-point range. She’s also averaging 4.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.5 steals in only 27.3 minutes per game. Shafer gives his takeaways on how Latson has improved this season:
“She’s scoring at a tremendously efficient rate right now, which is really impressive for somebody with her usage. She’s also, I think, leading the country in usage percentage. … She’s shown that she had the obvious talent from the moment she stepped on the court at Florida State, and it’s just been really encouraging and heartening to kind of see her put it together to a greater degree.”
Related content: Locked On Women’s Basketball: Ta’Niya Latson is making history at Florida State
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Rice, a 5’11 guard, is averaging 13.3 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals for the top-ranked Bruins. She’s shooting 61.1% from the field, which ranks fourth in the Big Ten, and 36.0% from 3-point range. Shafer shares his thoughts on Rice this season:
“To me, the offense is mostly a bonus. The thing that really sold me on Kiki Rice as a WNBA prospect is her defense. She’s one of the best point-of-attack defenders in the country, and I will forever have ingrained in my mind a game she played against [Oregon guards] Te-Hina Paopao and Endyia Rogers as a freshman, where I think she had four blocks against Rogers and Paopao when they’re trying to drive to the basket and she’s just turning them away, keeping them out of the paint. …
“She’s switching more. UCLA has decided, yeah, when we have Kiki Rice and [forward] Janiah Barker out here, sometimes we’re going to pre-switch these actions, and Kiki’s going to start on the four and Janiah’s going to guard the point guards. And [Rice has] been holding her own against fours. And it’s just really fun to see her and Janiah Barker and [center] Lauren Betts just absolutely run that defense.”
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