USC's Kiki Iriafen, Rayah Marshall selected in WNBA draft

There are several ways to mark the success of a college basketball program, and one is certainly how many of its players end up coveted at the professional level.

In that regard -- and of course many others -- the USC women's basketball program continues to standout.

For the third year in a row, the Trojans had two players selected in the WNBA draft on Monday night, as Kiki Iriafen went No. 4 overall to the Washington Mystics and Rayah Marshall went in the second round, No. 25 overall, to the Connecticut Sun.

Iriafen is USC’s first top-10 WNBA Draft selection since Ebony Hoffman went No. 9 in 2004. She is the fourth overall first-round pick out of USC and highest since 1997 when Tina Thompson was No. 1 and Pam McGee was No. 2.

Both Trojan post players were instrumental in helping USC to its highest AP ranking since 1984 at No. 2 in the nation and on to the program's first regular-season conference title since 1994 in claiming the Big Ten title in 2024-25. With work from Iriafen and Marshall in the paint, the 2025 Trojans amassed a 31-5 overall record while getting back to the NCAA Elite Eight.

An All-Big Ten first-team selection, the 6-foot-3 Iriafen averaged 18.0 points and 8.4 rebounds per game in her lone season at USC after transferring in from Stanford. She posted 12 double-doubles while shooting 49 percent from the floor. She also earned spots on the AP and USBWA All-America third-teams.

A 6-foot-4 center, Marshall averaged 7.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game and closed out her collegiate career with her 40th career double-double as a Trojan in USC’s NCAA Elite Eight loss to UConn. She ranks as USC’s No. 19 all-time scorer with 1,258 career points and seventh all-time in career rebounds (1,150) and double-doubles (40). Marshall set the USC single-season blocks record as a sophomore and finished her time at Troy as USC’s No. 3 all-time shot blocker with 304 — behind greats Lisa Leslie and Cheryl Miller.

In 2024, USC grad students McKenzie Forbes (Los Angeles Sparks) and Kaitlyn Davis (New York Liberty) were selected as the 28th and 35th overall picks, respectively, in the third round. In the 2023 draft, USC had back-to-back picks in the third round, with grad students Kadi Sissoko (Phoenix Mercury) and Okako Adika (New York Liberty) selected as the 29th and 30th overall players chosen, respectively. Sissoko would go on to make the Mercury roster and compete in the 2023-24 season.