Timing of WBNA draft

[cabbie191]

This is an offshoot of the thread on Lloyd's decision.

For those who follow the mechanics of the WNBA season and the draft more than I do - is it absolutely critical that the early declaration by eligible non-seniors be made with 24 hours after the conclusion of the NC. Is there not any wiggle room to extend the deadline to 48 or 72 hours?

 

[Farney]

My best guess is you need teams to know who's in the draft and give them a chance to do background work on people and conduct player interviews. Basically teams had a week to do all the background work on Loyd, who I doubt they expected would be available. So they had to attempt to talk to her, family, former coaches, etc in an attempt to glean as much info as they can.

 

[bleeckerhusky]

Although it's true that a player in the NC game has to declare within 24 hours of the game, it's also true that she can withdraw her declaration up to 5 days before the draft. This bought Muffet and Loyd an extra two or three days to discuss her decision, but apparently they did not make use of this extra time.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Based on Video Interview of Muffett, Jewel had made up her mind and didn't give any of the ND Coaches the opportunity to talk her out of it. I'm wondering if Niele Ivey pursuing the Georgia Head Coaching job limited the ability to talk her out of the decision. Ivey was Jewel's primary coach and there was no guarantee the she would be at ND next year when decisions were being made.