All things considered, AU Basketball has provided with the best talent has to offer and delivers once again. The league revealed its final 40-player roster ahead of Season Five in Nashville. Here, these players are highly decorated with numerous accomplishments on their resumes.
One such player is first-year AU Basketball player Tina Charles. Charles is a nine-time All-WNBA player, eight-time All-Star, four-time All-Defensive, and a WNBA MVP. Also, the former No. 1 overall pick is a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist. Another player making their debut this upcoming season is Kiah Stokes, a three-time WNBA Champion with the Las Vegas Aces.
Other players competing in their first AU Basketball season include Kaitlyn Chen, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Aneesah Morrow, and Te-Hina PaoPao. These four players were rookies last season as Chen played 23 games with the expansion Golden State Valkyries.
Barker started eight games with the Los Angeles Sparks, Morrow 23 games with the Washington Mystics, and PaoPao 15 games with the Atlanta Dream.
AU Basketball Veterans Back for Another Season
For fans of the leagues, there will be some familiar names coming back next month. First, Odyssey Sims is competing in her fourth AU Basketball season. The guard has finished in the top 10 of the leaderboard in her previous three, including a second place finish in the 2024 season.
Isabelle “Izzy” Harrison is a member of the Player Executive Committee. The former Tennessee Volunteers player has competed since the inaugural season back in 2022. She was the Defensive Player of the Year that year, placing third on the leaderboard. Additionally, Lexie Brown is the Chairperson of the Player Executive Committee. Like Harrison, Brown has been of all four prior AU Basketball seasons. NaLyssa Smith is back again as she was the champion back in the 2023 season.
A pair of former Seattle Storm teammates, Alysha Clark and Mercedes Russell, will be in the league. Clark made the All-Defensive team last season with a top-15 placement on the leaderboard. Russell, who played collegiately with the Volunteers, makes her return to AU Basketball. She last played in the league back in the 2022 season.
A New Look for Season Five
Fans will not only see this amazing talent in the Music City beginning on Feb. 4, but the jerseys will be different. The teams will each have their own unique personality in lieu of the standard purple, orange, blue, and gold colors. Here, those teams will be the Gold Rush, Eclipse, Rhythm, and Glow.
— AU Pro Basketball (@AUProBasketball) January 8, 2026
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