The four finalists for the women’s basketball Naismith Award dropped yesterday

The GIST: The women’s Sweet 16 doesn’t tip off until Friday, but the Naismith Award — one of college basketball’s most prestigious MVP awards — dropped its list of finalists yesterday. Making the cut? The game’s brightest stars, of course.

Caitlin Clark, No. 1 Iowa senior guard: The NCAA Division I all-time scoring leader added another record to her mile-long list of accomplishments on Monday: most points in a women’s season. The face of college hoops is the unsurprising favorite to repeat as Player of the Year, even if her Hawkeyes stumble a bit along the road to the ’ship like they did Monday night.

Cameron Brink, No. 2 Stanford senior forward: In a Caitlin Clark–less world, Brink would be the likely No. 1 overall pick in next month’s WNBA Draft. The nation’s best forward and the last-ever Pac-12 Player of the Year posts monster stats on both ends of the court nearly every night...plus, her double-braids are always on point.

Paige Bueckers, No. 3 UConn junior guard: Postseason Paige is back, baby! After an ACL tear sidelined her for all of last season, Paige Buckets and her hype man HC Geno Auriemma are reminding everyone why she’s one of the game’s best. Case in point? She drained 32 points to push UConn past scoring machine Dyaisha Fair’s Syracuse squad on Monday.

JuJu Watkins, No. 1 USC freshman guard: In just one season, Watkins has put USC hoops back on the map and into the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1994, when Trojan legend Lisa Leslie was still rocking crimson and gold. She’s already broken tons of scoring records and trails only Clark in points per game this season.

• Watkins’ double-double helped USC sail through Monday’s second round, but the Trojans’ toughest test will likely be an Elite Eight matchup with Bueckers and UConn. Fingers crossed for that star-studded showdown.