The Los Angeles Athletic Club’s John R. Wooden Award, presented by Principal, announced its 2025-26 Women’s Preseason Top 50 Watch List Tuesday on WoodenAward.com, and Tennessee’s Janiah Barker, Talaysia Cooper and Zee Spearman are in the mix.
Selected by a preseason poll of national college basketball experts, the list includes 50 student-athletes who are frontrunners for the most prestigious honors in college basketball: the Wooden Award All-American Team™ and the Wooden Award® Most Outstanding Player.
Programs such as Tennessee, South Carolina, LSU and UCLA each boast multiple selections, highlighting the depth and parity across the national landscape in the early stages of the 2025-26 NCAA season.
The players on the list are considered strong candidates for the 2026 John R. Wooden Award® Women’s Player of the Year. Players not selected for the list remain eligible for inclusion on the Wooden Award® midseason, late-season list and the national ballot. The national ballot will feature 15 top players who have demonstrated to their universities that they meet or exceed the Wooden Award® qualifications.
Celebrating its 50th year, the Wooden Award will feature special programming throughout the season with first winner and ambassador Marques Johnson, culminating in the 2026 John R. Wooden Award presented by Principal. Winners and All-Americans will be honored at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Friday, April 10, 2026.
Barker, a 6-foot-4 senior forward from Marietta, Ga., has been named to her third watch list in her first season at Tennessee after earning Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year accolades at UCLA in 2024-25. She is also a member of the 2025-26 USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Player of the Year Preseason Watch List and the Katrina McClain Award Preseason Watch List.
The senior, who put up. 7.4 ppg. and 6.0 rpg. for the Bruins last season, is one of only two Lady Vols to score in double figures in all four contests thus far. She ranks second on the team in scoring at 13.0 ppg. and is third in rebounding at 4.8 rpg., hitting 46.2 percent from the field and making five three-pointers to rank third on the team in that category. She is hitting 35.7 percent from beyond the arc.
Cooper, meanwhile, is on four watch lists, previously earning preseason recognition for the Jersey Mike’s Naismith Trophy, the USBWA Ann Meyers Drysdale Award and the Nancy Lieberman Award. Additionally, the 6-foot redshirt junior guard from Turbeville, S.C., was a 2025-26 preseason All-SEC first team pick by the coaches and a second-team selection by the media after earning 2024-25 All-SEC Second Team acclaim from the coaches and media as well as SEC All-Defensive Team honors.
Cooper, who averaged 16.6 ppg., 5.6 rpg., 3.2 apg. and 3.1 spg. a year ago, has picked up where she left off at the end of last season. She leads Tennessee at 18.3 ppg. and 8.0 rpg., joining Barker as the team’s only two players scoring in double figures each time out. She has notched two 20+ point scoring efforts and a pair of double-doubles thus far, opening with a 23-point, 11-rebound output along with seven assists and three steals vs. No. 9/8 NC State and adding a 22/14 performance vs. Belmont. That rebound total vs. BU was a career best.
Spearman drew her first mention for national player of the year honors and previously was announced as a member of the Cheryl Miller Award Small Forward of the Year Watch List. The 6-4 forward from Dacula, Ga., is in her second season at Tennessee, after averaging 11.7 ppg. and 6.0 rpg. while appearing in all 34 games in 2024-25 and starting 23 of them. She shot percentages of 51.5 from the field, 30.0 from three-point range and 71.0 from the charity stripe.
This season, Spearman has been in the starting lineup for all four games, averaging 11.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per contest to rank third and second on the team, respectively, in those categories. She posted a season-best 24 points and added six rebounds, two assists, a block and steal vs. ETSU on Nov. 7 and just missed double-doubles in her last two games with nine points and eight rebounds vs. UT Martin as well as 10 points and eight boards vs. Belmont.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team on social media, follow @LadyVol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /BallWithTheLadyVols on Facebook.
