Janiah Barker

Janiah Barker (born November 8, 2003) is an American basketball player for the Las Vegas Aces of the Women's National Basketball Association. She played college basketball for the Tennessee Lady Volunteers, Texas A&M Aggies and UCLA Bruins. She attended Montverde Academy in Montverde, Florida, where she was ranked the number 3 recruit in her class by ESPN. Barker was drafted by the Aces with the 14th pick in the second round (29th overall) of the 2026 WNBA draft.

Early life and high school career Barker was born in Marietta, Georgia but grew up in Tampa, Florida. Barker started her high school career Tampa Bay Technical High School in Tampa, Florida before transferring to Montverde Academy her senior year. Barker scored eight points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in the national championship game. She also played in both the McDonald's All-American Game and Jordan Brand Classic. Barker committed to playing college basketball for Texas A&M Aggies over offers from Georgia Lady Bulldogs, becoming the highest ranked recruit in program history.

College career In her freshman season at Texas A&M, Barker started seven games for the Aggies, averaging 22.8 minutes a game. She put up a career-high 24 points against Georgia, shooting 10-of-11 (90.9%) from the field in 20 minutes of action after missing the previous 10 games due to injury. As a freshman, Barker averaged 12.7 points and 5.9 rebounds per match. In her sophomore season, Barker recorded eight double-doubles, averaging 12.2 points and 7.6 rebounds in 30 games played as a sophomore. For her junior season, Barker transferred to UCLA. After being on a Final Four team at UCLA, Janiah Barker, Londynn Jones, and the entire previous UCLA freshman class entered the transfer portal. Janiah went to the University of Tennessee, which had a poor 16-14 season record.

National team career Barker won a gold medal with the United States under-16 national team at the 2019 FIBA Under-16 Americas Championship in Chile.