3 U SPORTS Greats You Need to See at HOOPQUEENS This Month
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Let’s be honest: how often do you get the chance to watch some of the greatest players in U SPORTS women’s basketball history compete on the same floor?
At HOOPQUEENS, that is exactly what fans are getting.
You have recently graduated superstars entering the next stage of their careers, current U SPORTS standouts building their résumés and accomplished veterans returning to battle against the generation that followed them.
It creates matchups that previously only existed in debates.
How would one of the best post players from the early 2010s fare against today’s all-time rebounding leader? What happens when a modern positionless superstar matches up with players who dominated an entirely different era?
HOOPQUEENS is giving us the opportunity to find out.
There are plenty of talented players across the league, but these three former U SPORTS stars should be at the top of your must-watch list this month.
1. Madalyn Weinert: A Bucket-List U SPORTS Talent
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Position: Guard/Forward
HOOPQUEENS team: Blaze
U SPORTS program: Brock Badgers, 2021–2026
Of course Madalyn Weinert is on this list.
Few players in the history of U SPORTS women’s basketball have assembled a résumé as complete as the former Brock Badger. Weinert is a three-time OUA Most Valuable Player, a three-time U SPORTS All-Canadian and the reigning U SPORTS Player of the Year.
She became the first player to win three consecutive OUA MVP awards since Ottawa’s Hannah Sunley-Paisley accomplished the feat in 2010, 2011 and 2012. That alone places Weinert in rare company. Her career production makes her case even stronger.
Weinert averaged a double-double across her entire U SPORTS career, producing 20.1 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. She finished with 2,009 career points, making her the sixth-highest scorer in U SPORTS history. She also ranks third all-time with 1,072 rebounds and fifth with 169 blocks.
Those numbers tell only part of the story.
What separates Weinert is the range of ways in which she can control a game. She has the size and physicality to operate around the basket, but she is equally comfortable handling the ball, initiating offence and attacking from the perimeter. She can run a possession like a guard, punish a mismatch in the post or simply take over as a scorer.
There is a legitimate case that Weinert is the greatest player in the history of U SPORTS women’s basketball. Her combination of individual accolades, statistical dominance, positional versatility and sustained production is nearly impossible to match.
She is not merely a player worth keeping an eye on. Madalyn Weinert is a bucket-list player whom Canadian basketball fans should make a point of seeing at HOOPQUEENS.
2. Kiyara Letlow: The Most Dominant Big of Her Generation
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Position: Forward
HOOPQUEENS team: Tide
U SPORTS programs: Cape Breton Capers, 2021–2025; Queen’s Gaels, 2025–2026
In the current generation of U SPORTS women’s basketball, no frontcourt player has been more consistently dominant than Kiyara Letlow.
The four-time U SPORTS All-Canadian averaged 19.8 points and 14.7 rebounds over her university career. Her 1,897 career points rank 10th in U SPORTS history, while her 1,411 rebounds make her the all-time leading rebounder in Canadian university basketball.
Letlow established herself as a force during four seasons at Cape Breton, dominating the AUS and rewriting conference, school and individual record books along the way. She then transferred to Queen’s and brought that same level of production to the OUA, proving she could impose herself within a deeper conference featuring a larger field of teams and a wide variety of frontcourt matchups.
What Makes Letlow Different?
Her effectiveness begins with her motor.
Letlow plays with constant physicality, urgency and relentlessness. Every rebound becomes a collision. Every loose ball becomes a competition. When the ball goes into the air, she approaches it as though possession has already been promised to her.
Offensively, she is a throwback in the best possible way. Letlow is comfortable playing with her back to the basket, creating deep position and forcing defenders to deal with her strength and footwork. She does not need the offence to be overly complicated. Give her an angle, allow her to establish position and she will go to work.
Fans who appreciate traditional post play will immediately enjoy Letlow’s game. Those who do not may find themselves converted after watching her dominate the paint.
She is the most accomplished rebounder U SPORTS has ever seen and arguably the defining interior presence of her generation. At HOOPQUEENS, fans get to see how that dominance holds up against an entirely new collection of elite players.
3. Hannah Sunley-Paisley: A Great From the Past Meets the Stars of Today
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Position: Forward
HOOPQUEENS team: Charge
U SPORTS program: Ottawa Gee-Gees, 2007–2012
Watching Hannah Sunley-Paisley offers something different from nearly every other experience at HOOPQUEENS.
It provides a live look at one of the defining players from a previous generation of U SPORTS women’s basketball.
Sunley-Paisley was a three-time U SPORTS All-Canadian and three-time OUA MVP during her career with the Ottawa Gee-Gees. In 2012, she was named U SPORTS Player of the Year and helped Ottawa capture the OUA championship.
She finished her university career with 1,483 points and remains seventh on the U SPORTS all-time rebounding list with 993 boards. Her 157 career blocks also rank 12th in national history.
More than a decade later, fans now have the chance to see how her game compares with the stars of today.
Watching Sunley-Paisley reveals the qualities that have remained consistent across generations. Rebounding instincts, interior positioning, physicality and an understanding of space never go out of style. At the same time, certain elements of her game may feel like a lost art within modern Canadian university basketball.
That contrast is what makes her presence so fascinating.
HOOPQUEENS can produce cross-generational battles that Canadian basketball fans never expected to witness. What happens when Sunley-Paisley, the seventh-leading rebounder in U SPORTS history, faces Letlow, the all-time leader? What does a battle in the paint look like between the three-time MVP and another former OUA MVP such as Samantha Keltos?
Those matchups give fans an opportunity to do more than compare statistics from different eras. They can watch those eras collide on the court.
Sunley-Paisley is a link to an important period in U SPORTS women’s basketball history, but she should not be viewed strictly through the lens of nostalgia. She remains a competitor with the résumé, experience and skill to challenge today’s stars.
Hannah Sunley-Paisley is a Canadian basketball treasure—and must-watch viewing whenever she steps onto the floor.
Honourable Mention: Myriam Kone Is So Good, Canada Called
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Position: Guard
HOOPQUEENS team: Reign
Current U SPORTS program: TMU Bold
Myriam Kone’s time at HOOPQUEENS may have ended earlier than fans hoped, but for the best possible reason: she received a call-up to Canada’s senior women’s national-team training camp.
That opportunity reflects just how rapidly Kone’s profile has grown.
After transferring from Calgary, Kone was named a First Team OUA All-Star and First Team U SPORTS All-Canadian in her first season at TMU. She averaged 21.1 points per game and helped lead the Bold to their first OUA championship since 2022.
Kone may be the fastest player in the OUA, and there is an argument that she is the fastest player in all of U SPORTS basketball. Her speed places immediate pressure on defenders, but she is far more than a straight-line athlete.
Her handle is smooth, her jumper is fluid and she regularly elevates into a release point that is difficult for defenders to contest. She is also an outstanding on-ball defender capable of disrupting opposing guards at the point of attack.
The opportunity to watch Kone at HOOPQUEENS may have already passed for now, but Canadian basketball fans will have another chance when she returns to TMU.
When the upcoming U SPORTS season begins, expect Kone to enter it as one of the leading candidates for both OUA and national Player of the Year.