The Lunar Owls will seek to swoop in for revenge, but Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier won’t be along for the ride.
“Bienvenidos a Miami,” women’s basketball.
Some of the game’s finest are taking their talents (back) to South Beach as the second season of Unrivaled is set to tip off on Jan. 5.
Co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart and backed by a lauded group of investors, Unrivaled is a domestic three-on-three league that can and is meant to host more localized offseason endeavors for players who have made their names in the WNBA. Many familiar faces are making their way back to the action, which will briefly make its way to Philadelphia, while others will join the fray for the first time.
In anticipation of tip-off, Ballislife takes a look at each of the eight squads in a dedicated analysis. Flying high in part four is Lunar Owls BC…
RELATED: LACES BC PREVIEW | BREEZE BC PREVIEW | HIVE BC PREVIEW
The Team: Lunar Owls BC
The Debut: 13-1 (Lost to Vinyl in semifinals)
The Coach: DJ Sackmann
Lunar Owls: The Team
—Rebecca Allen
—Rachel Banham
—Skylar Diggins*
—Aaliyah Edwards
—Temi Fágbénlé
—Marina Mabrey
(*Returning to team)
The Lunar Owls are back, but the boss, alas, is out.
Lunar Owls fans’ morale dropped faster than Times Square’s ball, as they learned the team would be without Unrivaled co-founder and original MVP Napheesa Collier due to ankle surgery. That leaves Skylar Diggins, previously a three-on-three World Cup champion with Team USA back in 2012, as the only Lunar Owl returning to the nest as they seek to avenge their 2007 New England Patriots-style run.
Collier’s control and Sackmann’s oversight led to a sterling 13-1 outing last season, but they fell to Vinyl in the semifinal round despite a showstopping outing from the co-boss.
The Lunar Owls built their success with the terrifying triumvirate of Collier, Diggins, and Allisha Gray. But with Collier hurt and the draft defecting Gray to Mist (the team of Collier’s fellow co-founder, Breanna Stewart), Diggins is the lone leftover working with a group of veteran talents assembled by the lauded developer Sackmann.
Aaliyah Edwards headlines the new frontcourt in a relative case of can’t be ’em, join ’em: Edwards stole the show at Unrivaled’s first one-on-one tournament last winter, reaching the final before giving her fellow former UConn Husky Collier a battle.
Notre Dame Reunion With Mabrey, Diggins
The skill, rather than luck, of the Irish could well propel the Lunar Owls to their ultimate height, as Marina Mabrey joins fellow Notre Dame alumna Diggins. Miami Mabrey has plenty to prove after injuries shut down a potential collaboration with fellow sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu and Phantom.
That should stir well with Unrivaled newcomer Rachel Banham, who is fresh off her best and busiest season with the Chicago Sky a year after she and Mabrey were swapped in a deal involving the Connecticut Sun. It likely won’t take long for Diggins’ two-way prowess to mesh with that of Rebecca Allen, the veteran “Spida” who will spin a new web in Unrivaled.
Photo courtesy of Unrivaled
Allen’s strong wingspan and space-closing could help shrink the Unrivaled court as the Lunar Owls seek to toughen up en route to the postseason return trip. Things are rounded off with the late addition of Fágbénlé, Collier’s injury replacement, fresh off a career-best season helping launch the Golden State Valkyries into a surprising playoff run.
The Spotlight’s On: Aaliyah Edwards
Edwards became one of the breakout stars of Unrivaled last season: the one-on-one prowess saw her take down then-Mist teammate Stewart, the then-Lunar Owl Gray, and Arike Ogunbowale. She then took the opening leg of the best-of-three finale against Collier before gracefully bowing out. She was the second-leading rebounder on last year’s Mist group behind only Stewart and shot over 72 percent from the field in her first five showings.
Such a showcase, however, didn’t translate to the WNBA court, where she originally repped the Washington Mystics. Forces beyond her control (i.e., a back injury and the emergence of Kiki Iriafen) make it hard to truly blame Edwards, but her career was dealt a major curveball when she was traded to Mabrey’s Sun at the trade deadline. She averaged 5.4 points and 3.7 rebounds in 36 total WNBA showings last year, part of an unfortunate dip from her freshman tour.
Aaliyah Edwards played Breanna Stewart in the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament and shut her out 12-0 pic.twitter.com/pTraynRCvN
— UConn on SNY (@SNYUConn) February 11, 2025
Edwards is in a rare spot among her WNBA contemporaries in that she has some form of professional stability as both an Unrivaled rep as a young player under contract (a Connecticut sisterhood that also includes Aneesah Morrow and Saniya Rivers).
But Edwards would no doubt like to let her play do the talking, particularly the form of shaking off a sophomore slump. Working with a familiar face like Mabrey, a developer like Sackmann, and perhaps the behind-the-scenes wisdom of Collier could make this a transformative winter for her, and it’ll be worth seeing how she responds to the grind during her early outings in South Beach.
They Said It
“I think she’s very underrated. Obviously, with our pick, we showed our value in her. If anyone watched the one-on-one tournament, you could see her versatility last year. She was very close to winning the one-on-one tournament against Phee. I looked at multiple layers on this. Layer one was versatility for her, her ability to guard any position on-ball or down low. The other side is, offensively, she sets good screens and [can] knock down a middie. I want to get her extending out a little bit. Let’s see what we can work with this season.”—Sackmann on adding Edwards
“We have a ton of shooters and shooting around me. So I want to just continue to be a playmaker, bring that competitive edge first and foremost, establish the environment of what is going to be the whole season for us, just continue to play-make and complement the players I have around me…the biggest compliment that I can give is competing as hard as I can. I think that establishes the environment on the floor, especially what it’s going to be when you play against our team. We know last year we became a bit of the hunted as far as how we approached the game. I take myself very seriously in these spaces.”—Diggins on year two with the Lunar Owls
Outlook
The Lunar Owls went from a key three to the fun one in the form of Diggins.
It’d be asking a lot to expect the Owls to duplicate last year’s regular-season prowess, considering recent developments. But Sackmann paired solid veteran talents to complement both his headliner and his newcomers. Mabrey’s past and present familiarity with Diggins and Edwards, respectively, should work wonders. Banham and Mabrey can turn the game on its head without warning. Allen and Diggins should create fits on defense before taking their talents the other way.
How much of that success rested on Collier’s talents remains to be seen. Who steps up in the wake of the literally painful emergence will go a long way in re-establishing the Lunar Owls’ nest atop the Unrivaled leaderboard.
Schedule
Lunar Owls BC Schedule
Date
Opponent
Approx. Time (ET), TV
January 5
Rose
8 p.m., TNT/TruTV
January 10
Phantom
7:30 p.m., TruTV
January 12
Laces
8:45 p.m., TNT/TruTV
January 17
Mist
7:30 p.m., TruTV
January 19
Vinyl
9:15 p.m., TNT/TruTV
January 24
Breeze
7:30 p.m., TruTV
January 26
Hive
7:30 p.m., TNT/TruTV
January 30
Rose (@ Philadelphia)
8:45 p.m., TNT/TruTV
February 1
Phantom
7:30 p.m., TruTV
February 6
Laces
8:45 p.m., TNT/TruTV
February 17
Breeze
8:45 p.m., TNT/TruTV
February 21
Mist
9:15 p.m., TruTV
February 23
Vinyl
7:30 p.m., TNT/TruTV
February 27
Hive
8:45 p.m., TNT/TruTV
Previous Previews
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