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Washington Huskies Women's Basketball: Junior Forward Tabbed For Preseason Watchlist
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- Washington Huskies Women's Basketball: Junior Forward Tabbed For Preseason Watchlist
(James Snook/Imagn Images)
The 2026-27 women's basketball season is officially underway. The No. 16 Washington Huskies are set to begin their campaign against the UC San Diego Tritons at 11 a.m. PT on Monday at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.
As evidenced by their top-16 placement in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll , the Huskies have a wealth of talent on the team, arguably the most under head coach Tina Langley, who will enter her seventh year at the helm of the program and is coming off bacck-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.
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Among Washington's talented crop of players include returning senior guard Sayvia Sellers and returning junior guard Avery Howell. Sellers was a preseason All-Big Ten selection and was first-team All-Big Ten last season. Sellers was All-BIg Ten honorable mention last year.
Sellers and Howell both were named the preseason watchlist for the Naismith Women's Player of the Year, and the latter of the two also made the preseason watchlist for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award , which is given to the best shooting guard in the country.
There will be a healthy amount of expectations for the returning players on the team, but several of the new additions will also have some preseason hype behind them.
Junior post Tilda Trygger transferred to the Huskies from North Carolina State this offseason. She's listed at 6-foot-6, a height that few players in women's college basketball meet or exceed.
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Trygger will likely provide a mismatch advantage for Washington against most of its opponents this season and will allow Langley to go with a two-post starting lineup with sophomore Brynn McGaughy — a rarity in the seventh-year head coach's tenure in the Pacific Northwest.
The Stockholm, Sweden, native averaged 10.6 points on 51.8% shooting from the floor (33.9% from 3-point range) across 30 games (all starts) with the Wolfpack last season. She also pulled in seven rebounds, blocked 1.3 shots and dished 1.2 assists per contest.
The NC State transfer will also, respectively, enter the year on the shortlist for an award.
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Trygger was one of 20 players tabbed to the preseason watchlist for the Lisa Leslie Award , which is annually awarded to the best center in women's basketball.
The 6-foot-6 post is one of five centers from the Big Ten to be named to the watchlist. The other four players are: the UCLA Bruins' Sienna Betts; Ava Heiden of the Iowa Hawkeyes ; Elsa Lemmila for the Ohio State Buckeyes ; the Minnesota Golden Gophers' Gracie Merkle; and Ashley Sofilkanich of the Michigan Wolverines .
