Why Lauren Betts Is a Unique Case for the Top Pick

Lauren Betts would break a top trend or two if the Dallas Wings chose her with the opening pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft.

NEW YORK—How did the UCLA Bruins secure their first women’s national college basketball title? To paraphrase longtime narrator Ryan Ruocco … you Betts.

(Photo by Greg Fiore/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The efforts of Lauren Betts were the headliner of UCLA’s latest championship affairs on the hardwood. Betts’ All-American breakout as a junior was sweet enough as is, but this one ended in the ultimate triumph: Betts and the Bruins swatted South Carolina in the national title game. Sister Sister became double-double in the opening round when Betts and her freshman sibling Sienna both earned at least 10 points and boards in a clobbering of Cal Baptist.

Lauren and Sienna Betts are sibling goals pic.twitter.com/vkJfzF9IEX

— espnW (@espnW) April 5, 2026

Sienna is set to stick around in Westwood for the title defense, but Betts won’t be alone in her maiden WNBA voyages: four fellow Bruins (Angela Dugalić, Gabriel Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Kiki Rice) will join her in Manhattan when the 2026 WNBA Draft is staged at The Shed on Monday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), and another (Charlisse Leger-Walker) could also get a call fairly early.

“Having five players that potentially could get drafted in the first round never happened before from the same team. It’s been a blast to do it with your friends. It’s been so much fun,” Betts said as the invitees spoke at The Luxury Collection Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “I’m so proud of all of them for getting here. This is like a dream come true for all of us…To experience all of this with them, I feel like I’m a lot less nervous than I would be.”

It’s Rare That a Top Pick is An Inside Job

Collective gratitude perhaps defined the invitees’ comments leading into draft day: professional entries are exciting enough, but Betts and her classmates are entering the league at a vital point on the women’s basketball timeline, being the first ones to debut under the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement.

With that in mind, Betts could be the first to take in the $500,000 salary set to be granted to the top pick. Many mock drafts leading into Monday have Betts at or near the top. It’s highly unlikely that she drops out of the lottery portion, and she could well become the first Bruin to get the top pick honor.

That’s not the only groundbreaking aspect of Betts’ potentially going No. 1: she would be the first California-based pick since Stanford’s Chiney Ogwumike went to Connecticut in 2014 but she’d also break the trend of a budding backcourt monopoly at the top: Aliyah Boston somewhat broke the trend but Charli Collier is perhaps the only top pick that could be considered a “traditional” center in the new decade. Collier’s selection by Dallas in 2021 broke an eight-year trend, as the last listed center chosen first was Brittney Griner.

WNBA News: Connecticut Sun to Relocate to Houston | Key Dates | 30 Must-Watch Matchups of 2026 WNBA Season | WNBA’s 30th Season

Could Betts go No. 1 Overall?

Even with the top pick standing as a legitimate debate going into draft day for the first time in quite a while, Betts isn’t embarking on any sort of campaign. She’s not even looking at mock drafts, knowing that many have been created without knowing the behind-the-scenes work she and her fellow draftees are engaged in.

The UCLA star did, however, make her case for repping the interior at or near the top of a draft staged in an increasingly position-less basketball world.

“I get the job done. I don’t try to do too much, I try to just really stay grounded in who I am and what I do, and be very, very elite in that position,” the 6’7 force stated. “I feel like when you have someone who works so hard on the interior, it creates so much for other people, and I know my role helps my teammates and my guards out, creates easier shots for them. I feel like I just try to stay true to what I was.”

Though Betts would likely be reluctant to take credit from her teammates, one could perhaps use Betts’ SoCal accompaniment as evidence of that impact: all six of the potential draftees averaged at least eight points. True to her interior form, the All-American led the team in success rate from the field with short tries (just two unsuccessful three-pointers this year), but Dugalić and Jaquez both shot better than 50 percent, thanks in part to the opportunities formed.

Lauren Betts was being hounded by multiple defenders, but still had the composure and vision to find Kiki Rice open on the perimeter, and, of course, Kiki Rice makes the big shot pic.twitter.com/t3Pb1v4CeE

— Point Made Joshua (@pointmadejosh) April 4, 2026

Her Mental Health Journey

Betts remains on the campaign trail, albeit for reasons beyond the hardwood, as the center’s latest rebounds center around mental health. Additionally, she spoke about her own experiences in an essay published on Derek Jeter’s Players’ Tribune in March. The aftermath, according to Betts, has been more rewarding than any buzzer-beater.

“It’s been really special. I saw one [reaction] yesterday where it was like, this girl was talking about how she had to check herself into a facility. She felt inspired to talk about it because I came out about it as well,” Betts recalled. “I feel like that’s the whole point of it, just so that people don’t feel shame behind it. I feel like I carried that for so long, but I think once you finally get that weight off your shoulders, like, it just feels really freeing.”

“I feel like the whole point of putting [the essay] out was just so that it reaches somebody,” Betts continued. “To know that people are reading it and feeling like they’re seen and heard is really special for me, and it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to put it out. Any chance that other people, children, can have to look at somebody, I feel like that really means a lot to me, because not all of us get that same experience. So it’s really special.”

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags