Over the last week, Unrivaled players have been staying after practice for extra skill development. The reason? The league’s one-on-one tournament kicks off Monday so players have been getting in additional isolation work.

The bracket for the league’s midseason tournament was unveiled early last week for the single-elimination format until a best-of-three final. Seven players were ruled out on Sunday evening due to lingering injuries, but excitement among the 23 competing players is brewing to see who reigns supreme, and trash-talk among players is high.

“I think it’s going to be an incredible show,” league president Alex Bazzell said. “All the players who are playing are ecstatic for a chance to win the cash prize. It’s gonna be awesome for the culture, too.”

Unrivaled’s pitch to players and prospective investors always included the concept of a one-on-one tournament when they were developing the new professional 3×3 full-court women’s basketball league which launched last month. League founders aimed to satisfy one of the most common questions fans pose: Who would win in a game of one-on-one?

“It’s something for the culture of basketball that the higher levels never do when it comes to All-Star Games,” said Luke Cooper, Unrivaled’s president of basketball operations. “It’s always the one competition everyone is asking for, and we felt like we had an opportunity to do that in a unique way.”

Like other aspects of Unrivaled, player buy-in was critical to the tournament’s development.

“The players are willing to put their name on the line and see who the winner would be, which I think is unique for this level of talent to put themselves out there,” Cooper said.

On Monday at 7 p.m. ET, the tournament begins with an eight-game first round. Here’s everything you need to know about the event.

How the bracket works

Almost all of Unrivaled’s inaugural season participants are playing in the one-on-one tournament. To create the bracket, 30 players were split into four pods with at least one player per team sorted into each pod. The pods were made to distribute talent and positions as well as to create compelling matchups.

Fans, media, players and coaches then submitted seeding recommendations to help create matchups in a traditional No. 1 versus No. 8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 seeding format. The two top seeds in pods A and D received first-round byes.

While the first round was planned to include 14 games, Unrivaled announced several updates to the bracket with players ruled inactive due to injuries and “to prioritize player wellbeing” for the second half of the season.

Bazzell said the league became aware earlier this week that it might have to make changes to the bracket. As Unrivaled weighed how to proceed, it wanted to maintain the integrity of the bracket and not shift matchups around.

“We wanted to give (players) every opportunity to compete,” Bazzell said. “And inevitably it came down to the decision of it’s just not worth it at this stage if you’re not really healthy.”

As a result, seven players will receive byes into the second round. Previously, only Arike Ogunbowale and Jewell Loyd were slated for byes. Only two first-round matchups in Unrivaled’s one-on-one tournament feature multi-time WNBA All-Stars.

Aliyah Boston faces Kahleah Copper, and Skylar Diggins-Smith plays Dearica Hamby. The latter is a must-watch head-to-head, featuring two of the most skilled players in the draw. Hamby is third in scoring during Unrivaled’s debut season (21.2 points in only 12.8 minutes per game), while Diggins-Smith has hit the most game-winning shots (four). The winner of that matchup will meet Ogunbowale in the second round, which is a difficult test, but both Hamby and Diggins-Smith are skilled enough to make a deep run, too.

What are the rules?

The tournament consists almost entirely of single-elimination competition. Only the finals are a best-of-three series. Games are played to a winning score of 11 points, or 10 total minutes in length, whichever is reached first. The clock will not stop during gameplay.

Unrivaled’s regular season uses a modified 18-second shot clock, but its one-on-one tournament will have a seven-second shot clock. Game flow is make-it-take-it, meaning if a player scores a basket, they retain possession. Games follow traditional scoring rules; a 2-point shot still counts for 2 points and a 3-pointer is worth 3 points.

What’s the winning prize?

Players have been drawn to various financial aspects of Unrivaled. The original 36 players all received equity in the league with an average salary of more than $200,000 for the 10-week season. The one-on-one tournament is similarly lucrative.

The prize pool is $350,000 total, with $200,000 going to the winner. Each of the winner’s teammates receives $10,000. The tournament runner-up receives $25,000, and the semifinalists who don’t advance to the final also receive $25,000.

By comparison, the WNBA CBA allocates only $2,575 to the winner of the Skills Challenge and 3-point competition during the league’s All-Star Weekend. (The WNBPA, in partnership with Aflac, provided a $55,000 bonus to the winner of each competition this past summer.)

Prediction

Arike Ogunbowale

Ogunbowale has yet to have a vintage performance at Unrivaled. She has scored more than 20 points only once in her first six games and has not hit a 3-pointer since the end of January. Still, Ogunbowale is one of the most dynamic offensive players in the sport. Her 34 points in the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game — all in the second half — showed that when she heats up she can be nearly impossible to stop.

Ogunbowale has a first-round bye, and although she will have to play a WNBA All-Star in the second round — either Diggins-Smith or Hamby — she should be favored against both players, as well as either of her potential quarterfinal opponents, Satou Sabally or DiJonai Carrington. Showcases seemed to be tailor-made to her strengths. While it’s risky to pick a No. 1 seed, Ogunbowale’s ability to score from all areas of the floor — and trade 3s for 2s — makes her a worthwhile pick.

How to watch

The tournament will be broadcast over three days on Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

The first round begins Monday at 7 p.m. (ET) on TNT and truTV. The second round and quarterfinals air Tuesday from 7-10 p.m. on truTV. The semifinals and finals air Friday on TNT and truTV between 7:30-9 p.m. as the lead-in for TNT’s NBA Rising Stars All-Star Weekend competition

“It’s pretty cool that it leads up to NBA All-Star Weekend,” Cooper said. “We’re not a part of (the weekend officially), but it’s kind of in the same vein of what that week is all about. It gets people in the mindset for skills competition, slam dunk competition, 3-point competition, and our one-on-one competition is kinda in there as well.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, WNBA

2025 The Athletic Media Company