'Oh' goodness! Oliviyah Edwards on quick rise to top of 2026 girls basketball recruiting class

The 6-foot-3 forward is a five-star prospect, and has consistently been ranked inside top 10 in her class

Five-star 2026 girls basketball prospect Oliviyah Edwards is a consensus top-10 player in her class. / Photo by Todd Milles

AUBURN, Wash. - She's got the hulking 6-foot-3 frame to get noticed, the shiny game to be revered - and a slam-dunk marketing name.

As one of the nation's top 2026 girls basketball prospects, Oliviyah Edwards has a pretty good thing going on right now.

Recognize the name? To her past combatants, as far back to her one ninth-grade season at Lincoln of Tacoma, she was known as "O Block."

Now, she's found something snappier - "Big Oh."

But the one expression you might hear most watching her go to work against other top recruits in the country is, "Oh, Damn!"

"Huge growth points in her game," said Jeff Wilson, the girls coach at Lake Washington who faced Edwards' Lincoln team in the 2023 state playoffs - and whose best player in Ashley Uusitalo is her club teammate now.

"To me, she's always used her athleticism and strength really well ... but now her balance and her belief in her jumper is night-and-day different."

Edwards, currently the fourth-ranked recruit in the country among to-be seniors by ESPN.com, has scholarship offers from nearly every NCAA Division I women's basketball powerhouse in the country.

She named her top 10 last summer: Duke, Florida, Florida State, LSU, North Carolina, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Tennessee, USC and Washington - and has already seen LSU, South Carolina, Tennessee and USC.

Edwards knows the next few months are going to be hectic, but said she is taking a methodical approach to figuring out her landing spot.

"I am going to push (the decision) as far back as possible," Edwards said. "With coaches (movement) and the transfer portal, I want to wait and see what it looks like. I don't want to commit too early. So I am probably going to do it next summer."

In the meantime, Edwards will get to finish what she considers a stress-free final AAU season with the Northwest Greyhounds on the Adidas 3SSB circuit.

Of course, along the way, Edwards will surely bump into other top recruits in the coming months - such as Colorado teenager Brihanna Crittendon (No. 11 recruit in 2026), who plays for Jason Kidd Select out of northern California.

The two squared off Sunday at the "Battle in the Emerald City" at the Auburn FieldhouseUSA.

Also 6-foot-3, Crittendon put that thing-of-beauty perimeter shot on display, knocking down 3-pointers as the game's leading scorer - 27 points.

Edwards' 21 points game in a variety of ways - putbacks, drives, mid-range fadeaways and a 3-pointer. Her squad also won the game.

Afterward, it was all love between the two highly-regarded players.

"I just want to have fun and be able to give my teammates a good experience, especially the younger group," Edwards said. "I already got what I need (in offers). I don't really need to play AAU. But I want everybody else to get the (college) coaches to come - and my team to get looks."

After a busy AAU season wraps up, Edwards is non-committal as of now on where she will play her senior season. She has spent the past two seasons at Issaquah-based Elite Prep, the only prep academy in Washington to offer girls basketball, playing on the "Grind Circuit."

Whatever she does, Edwards is certainly a better-yourself worker, first and foremost. The rest of it - national clout, including being ranked as the best player in her class or receiving a McDonald's All-American Game nod - remains promising but secondary.

"To be honest, I just want to get better,' Edwards said. "It would be fun to do that (receive national acclaim), but I don't think that's a goal in my mind.

"In my mind, I just want to be prepared for when I go to college. That is really what I am focusing on, and I'll just let everything else come to me."

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