Raenett Hughes is a name you'll be hearing more about -- not just this year, but next year as well. UT-Dallas photo

By Ryan Scott
D3sports.com

This year there is no Sydney Moss, no Madison Temple, and not just because Thomas More left for the NAIA. What I mean is that there’s no dominant women’s basketball player in the division this season.

That doesn’t mean there’s a dip in talent, but it does mean no single player has distinguished herself above and beyond the rest through the course of the year. We enter postseason play without a real understanding of who the best player in the country might actually be.

We have some clues, though. I’m highlighting five candidates in this column. There are more. These may not even be the five best; in the end, after all the games are played, the D3hoops.com Player of the Year might be someone else.

These five, though, have shown exceptional ability and consistent performance, while also helping to lead some of the best teams in the country. I hope this column will not just pique your interest in some of the best Division III women’s basketball players, but serve as a bit of a primer for teams to watch over the next several weeks.

Ultimately team success will likely be the determining factor for which player gets the highest individual honor at the end of the season. The one who steps up the most in March will make a very strong case. This is list, for certain, is not complete, but it does contain five exceptional players poised to do just that.

DePauw might be the most under-the-radar team in the country. One loss, No. 3 in the rankings, cruising along, win after win, just sitting there in Hope’s Great Lakes Region shadow. Sydney Kopp makes them go. Currently leading the Tigers in points, rebounds, assists, and steals, Kopp is a versatile scorer who’s only gotten more dangerous as her career has progressed.

Sydney Kopp has been a starter ever since she arrived at DePauw, and has carried the Tigers to the big non-conference wins that got them to the No. 3 spot in the D3hoops.com Top 25. DePauw athletics photo

“Sydney arrived on campus a great offensive player and she’s developed into a complete player,” says coach Kris Huffman. “She takes great pride in her work on the class and she’s developed into a very good defender. She has great composure when being double teamed and there’s no doubt she wants the ball in big moments.”

Kopp has started all 111 games in her DePauw career and does indeed save the best for the biggest moments. She scored 36 in a one-point win at Whitewater, 35 in a two-point victory over Illinois Wesleyan, and has literally been the difference-maker on any number of occasions. DePauw’s non-conference schedule was tough; they could have easily dropped more games. A big part of the reason they didn’t was Sydney Kopp.

Maddie Hasson knows all about putting a team on her back, as well. The Bowdoin senior has stepped farther into the limelight with the departure of four seniors from last year’s squad. Against Tufts, in one of the more anticipated battles of the season, Hasson was relentless on both ends of the floor. She was not the only one scoring or defending or rebounding, but she did all of those things with an intensity that stood out beyond even the glitz of such a high-profile game.

“Maddie is spending more time away from the basket this year,” says Bowdoin coach Adrienne Shibles. “We needed to move her to small forward and she has adjusted to this role seamlessly.” The change has also shown off her versatility, at home on the perimeter or in the post.

In a season where the best player on the national champion is likely to win Player of the Year, Hasson fits the mold perfectly. A notoriously humble, team-first player, despite being a high school star in Maine (playing for her mother, Lynne), Hasson has been able to fit in to an always deep, talented Polar Bear squad. That she can also stand out is something special. Bowdoin’s only two losses this year were to NESCAC foes Tufts and Amherst, but no one would be surprised to see Hasson holding all the trophies at the end of the year.

Madeline Eck was a first team preseason All-American for Amherst, and she’s done nothing but live up to those lofty expectations; still, it’s teammate (and fellow All-American) Hannah Fox who’s blowing the doors off this season. Both are incredible players and could be on the short list for every award, but Fox has made her senior season one to remember.

D3hoops.com Classic followers should be well aware of Amherst's Hannah Fox. It shouldn't surprise you that she also plays well outside of Las Vegas. Amherst athletics photo

“She’s a basketball junkie,” says coach GP Gromacki. “At Amherst you typically get well-rounded students with lots of different interests, but Hannah just loves the game of basketball at all levels. She always knows how her Sixers did the night before and she’s also the last one to leave the gym. If I can’t find my 10-year-old, he’s probably shooting baskets with Hannah Fox.”

That passion is what you notice right away when watching Fox play. She seems to operate with a different speed and awareness, always finding her teammates are and knowing where the ball needs to be. Despite being the shortest player on the roster, Fox leads Amherst in rebounding along with points.

Three losses isn’t many for even the best teams, but its uncharted territory for Amherst. While bringing along an unusually young group of players, Fox has kept the ship steady and is always ready to make the big play. Amherst wins with defense and Fox gets 2.3 steals per game, often serving as a one-woman fast break to get the bucket and get right back on D. It’s a defense that could take the Mammoths all the way, and you better believe Hannah Fox will be right out in front.

“Rae is so even keeled sometimes it’s frustrating,” says UT-Dallas coach Polly Thomason of her guard, Raenett Hughes, the only junior on this list. “She just does not change her attitude or her work ethic or her desire to compete based on failures or successes.”

That quiet confidence was essential early as the Comets dropped three of their first four games in a season with sky-high expectations. “She comes into the gym with a smile and she’s excited to be there and it’s infectious,” adds Thomason. Hughes may not need to be a vocal leader with four seniors on the squad, but she’s earned the respect of her teammates with her play on the floor.

Against No. 13 Trinity (Texas) and the great Abby Holland (who also deserves POY consideration), Hughes scored a career-high 35 on 14-for-17 shooting, almost entirely in the paint. She’s 5-6. She’s also a tremendous athlete who continues to improve and expand her game. The range is coming and with another season left to play, those outside shots may not be too far off and opponents will be hard-pressed to find any weaknesses at all.

Hughes is a true shooting guard, with a team constructed to help her focus on scoring, which UT-Dallas needs her to do to win. All the starters are good rebounders and her point guard, Victoria Pena, is a fellow preseason All American. Hughes gets to the rim often, hits more than she misses, and leads the team in steals. We haven’t had a non-senior POY since Sydney Moss; if it happens this year, it will almost certainly be Raenett Hughes.

Taite Anderson cares about being Player of the Year. She didn’t used to, but as coach Jon Herbrechtmeyer reports, “She said, ‘I don’t care about awards,’ and I told her, ‘If you’re MIAC Player of the Year, that means we have a real chance to win the league.’ She said, ‘I care about that.’”

Her coach’s prediction has nearly come true. Individual awards haven’t been handed out just yet, but Bethel is poised to be the first team not named St. Thomas to win the league in six seasons. It’s a culmination of Anderson’s journey of acceptance.

Says Herbrechtsmeyer, “She called me her senior year of high school and said, ‘I think I’m coming to Bethel, but I don’t know why you care, I’m not that good a player.’ ” The coach had to point out to Anderson she played on one of the top teams in the state, had guarded all five positions the night before, and each one of those opponents was getting a college basketball scholarship.

Taite Anderson has been a frequent presence on the D3hoops.com Team of the Week this season. Photo by Caleb Williams, d3photography.com

They don’t typically score a lot of points in the MIAC, but Anderson is averaging 21, along with seven rebounds per game. She’s been a double digit scorer her entire career and as she’s grown, so has Bethel’s future. Though it’s not on the scoreboard where Anderson makes the biggest difference.

The day after Bethel’s lone loss, a shocking upset by 4-19 St. Mary’s, Anderson addressed the team, refusing to make excuses and owning up to a collective lack of preparation. “That was our most important moment of the season,” says Herbrechtsmeyer. “That’s how you win championships: with the players leading and setting the bar and holding the team accountable.”

We don’t know if Taite Anderson or Raenett Hughes or Sydney Kopp or Hannah Fox or Maddie Hasson or any of a dozen other outstanding student athletes will win the ultimate individual prize in Division III women’s basketball this season. It’s likely that one of them really care, other than that, this season especially, being named D3hoops.com Player of the Year probably also means you’re holding up the Walnut & Bronze in Columbus, Ohio.