Could this College team beat a WNBA team?

[CocoHusky]

Not really sure how you can make these statements so confidently.
Dupree and Pondexter are in the twilight of their careers, but are multiple time WNBA All-Stars. Pondexter was voted one of the top 15 players in WNBA history some years ago.
Vivians and Ionescu likely wouldn't be guarding each other, but VV played better in both of their head to head matchups in college.
Wheeler was 7th in avg. minutes played per game. Tiffany Mitchell played more. You also left off the #2 pick in the draft last year, Kelsey Mitchell, who was Indiana's 2nd leading scorer and scored 3,400 points in college.
Not as easy an answer as you make it seem, IMO.

Definitely not an easy answer, what fun would that be? Dupree is one of my all time favorite players since she was putting in work for Dawn at Temple. As you correctly point out she is in the twilight of her career, a former member of USA basketball world championship team and 34 years of age. Candice is not tangling with McGowan or Brown successfully in the post in 2019.
Cappie is two years older than Candice.
There is no D in Kelsey Mitchell and that's all I'm going to say about that.
Tiffany Mitchell over Erica Wheeler is a good call I can definitely see how you would want to go that route.
What is your proposed line up for the Fever?

 

[IWearShoes]

Definitely not an easy answer, what fun would that be? Dupree is one of my all time favorite players since she was putting in work for Dawn at Temple. As you correctly point out she is in the twilight of her career, a former member of USA basketball world championship team and 34 years of age. Candice is not tangling with McGowan or Brown successfully in the post in 2019.
Cappie is two years older than Candice.
There is no D in Kelsey Mitchell and that's all I'm going to say about that.
Tiffany Mitchell over Erica Wheeler is a good call I can definitely see how you would want to go that route.
What is your proposed line up for the Fever?

Dupree, Pondexter, Achonwa, Vivians and K Mitchell with T Mitchell and Wheeler off the bench. No idea how it would go, but I would not be at all surprised if the Fever was much too experienced and savvy for the collegians.

 

[CocoHusky]

Dupree, Pondexter, Achonwa, Vivians and K Mitchell with T Mitchell and Wheeler off the bench. No idea how it would go, but I would not be at all surprised if the Fever was much too experienced and savvy for the collegians.

Ok. I believe that @bbballfan23 proposed college line up was:
Ionescu , Durr, Lou, Pheesa McGowan. Personally I like Brown more than I like McGowan and I like Arike more than I like Durr.

1) Dupree vs . Brown
2) Achonwa vs Napheesa
3) Cappie vs. KLS
4) Vivians vs. Arike
5) K. Mitchell vs. Ionescu
I still think the collegian win matchups 1-5. With McGowan & Durr on my bench I think the collegians win there also.

 

[IWearShoes]

Ok. I believe that @bbballfan23 proposed college line up was:
Ionescu , Durr, Lou, Pheesa McGowan. Personally I like Brown more than I like McGowan and I like Arike more than I like Durr.

1) Dupree vs . Brown
2) Achonwa vs Napheesa
3) Cappie vs. KLS
4) Vivians vs. Arike
5) K. Mitchell vs. Ionescu
I still think the collegian win matchups 1-5. With McGowan & Durr on my bench I think the collegians win there also.

So you believe every current college senior would be better than each of the 5 pros. I'll simply agree to disagree.

 

[Fightin Choke]

So you believe every current college senior would be better than each of the 5 pros. I'll simply agree to disagree.

I agree, IWearShoes. Remember how dominant Plum was in college? It's a different game in the W. Rookie seasons are usually not nearly as impressive as people suspect they will be. Sure there are exceptions, but it is extremely unlikely all 5 of Coco's collegiate starters play like veterans their first season.

 

[CocoHusky]

I agree, IWearShoes. Remember how dominant Plum was in college? It's a different game in the W. Rookie seasons are usually not nearly as impressive as people suspect they will be. Sure there are exceptions, but it is extremely unlikely all 5 of Coco's collegiate starters play like veterans their first season.

First let's get on the same page. Who said anything about a whole season? The original criteria as stated by @bbballfan23 was "Could this team beat a WNBA team?" I took that to mean 1 game. I would invite both you and @IWearShoes to clearly state which of the matchup you have identified would not favor the collegians in a single game. If you want to go to a five game series I would take this lineup of collegians over 2018 Indiana Fever 3 games to 2.

 

[Fightin Choke]

I wasn't talking about a whole season either, so I'm not sure where you got that. When I referred to rookies not being awesome in their first season, I simply meant that they were not so great out right out of college, as it takes a while to adjust to the game. So should we just count the first WNBA game each rookie plays?