WNBA draft surprises ?

[svetbird]

Reshanda Gray free falling was my biggest shock (and there was a lot this year)

 

[~*Jen*~]

Couldnt the trip have been delayed until after the WNBA draft ?

Yeah, probably not. The 2.5 seconds between NCAA tournament (with the Final Four being a convention of sorts) and the time recruiting opens up again... this is pretty much their summer break. LOL.

 

[UcMiami]

Just for giggles I looked up the HoopGurlz 2011 HS class ranking - interesting that it was at a time where their grade number still had some meaning.
http://espn.go.com/high-school/girls-basketball/recruiting/rankings/_/class/2011
The first two draftees - Loyd was ranked #4 in 2012, and I doubt Zahui B was ranked at all being from Sweden.

98 was assigned to two players - #1 KML and #2 Williams and they were the first 2 2011 class draftees at 3 and 4.

Zero 97 rankings

9 rankings of 96 -
#3 Burdick drafted 14th and #4 Massingale drafted 29 - these two probably had the toughest transition period at TN
The 5-9 players were not drafted (some have missed years due to injury/transfer)
#10 Logic was drafted tenth and #11 Laney was drafted 17th

12 players ranked 95 (four stars)
Only Orange #15 and drafted 23rd and Gray ranked #22 and drafted 16th were drafted this year.

Other notables -
Harrison #29 drafted 12th
Enemkpali #33 drafted 26th
Bradford #37 drafted 7th
Boyd #38 drafted 9th
Mallot #40 drafted 8th
Stokes #42 drafted 11th
Kiesel #58 drafted 13th
Welch #88 drafted 22nd
Hamby #93 drafted 6th
Hrynko #99 drafted 19th

2010 Johnson #46 drafted 28th

 

[BroadwayVa]

For all you WNBA superfans, are there any surprises - players going higher or lower than expected, players being drafted out of the blue, players not being drafted?

I'll start with Kiah Stokes. IMHO, although she wasn't offensively minded this season, I thought her UConn pedigree and defense were 1st round caliber, however many thought she would probably go in the 2nd round.

Lauren Okafor from East Hamdon, Ct who played Center for James Madison University was selected at number 32 to the Liberty.
Lauren was a big reason for the success of JMU this year. Congrats to a nice kid.
I am more than thrilled Lambeer gave up other players to get Kiah Stokes--it makes number 11 even sweeter.

 

[UcMiami]

Couldnt the trip have been delayed until after the WNBA draft ?

Geno also has two jobs - his May schedule is interrupted with a USA basketball training camp so I would guess this was the only time in the next 8 weeks that he could fit the trip in. This may be the first year he has missed if he had a draftable player.

 

[UcMiami]

Just a follow on to the HoopGurlz post: undrafted from 2011 rankings top 15: (SIS = still in school)
5. Forthan - SIS transfers
6. Canty - SIS injury/illness
7. Hartman - undrafted
8. Smith - undrafted
9. Jones - SIS transfer
12. Hammond - undrafted
13. Fagbenle - SIS?
14. Vaioletama - undrafted

As they say - HS rankings are no guarantee of college success!

 

[hoophuskee]

Two suprises as many say with the 5 pick-- and surprised that NY Liberty made the move. As another poster said - "I didn't see that coming." The "beauty" of that pick is that Lambeer looks to win with defense. His mantra is - "find ways to score and defend like rabid dog." This IS Kiah. It a wonderful match for her.

And as another poster brought up -Gray going 2nd round. Very surprised there too.

 

[willtalk]

Not necessarily a shock, but think about this: Kiah Stokes did not even start for her team, and averaged only 18 minutes per game, yet was drafted #11 in the first round! That has to be a record. Has a non-starter ever even been drafted?

I don't know about the WNBA but in the NBA Sven Nater never started a game in college and was drafted in the first round by the Bucks in the 1972 draft. He was also the only player to lead the league in RB in both the ABA and the NBA. He played college for UCLA. Guess why he didn't start or even play very much at all.

 

[Goodgood]

Not necessarily a shock, but think about this: Kiah Stokes did not even start for her team, and averaged only 18 minutes per game, yet was drafted #11 in the first round! That has to be a record. Has a non-starter ever even been drafted?

How many first round players do you think could start for the UConn National Championship team? Maybe two, and one is KML....

 

[sarals24]

Loyd would have started over Nurse, and that's about it.

 

[Goodgood]

Loyd would have started over Nurse, and that's about it.

Right, now we can see why Kiah got drafted in the first round...

 

[Gus Mahler]

How many first round players do you think could start for the UConn National Championship team? Maybe two, and one is KML....

Kiah did start several games in her career.

 

[Goodgood]

Kiah did start several games in her career.

I was responding to aluminny69 who was surprised she was drafted in the first round.

 

[DriveLH]

I don't know about the WNBA but in the NBA Sven Nater never started a game in college and was drafted in the first round by the Bucks in the 1972 draft. He was also the only player to lead the league in RB in both the ABA and the NBA. He played college for UCLA. Guess why he didn't start or even play very much at all.

Bill Walton was ahead of him!

 

[BroadwayVa]

Geno also has two jobs - his May schedule is interrupted with a USA basketball training camp so I would guess this was the only time in the next 8 weeks that he could fit the trip in. This may be the first year he has missed if he had a draftable player.

Then there is the : Geno being there, with his high celeb status, may have over shadowed the day that belonged to Kiah and Kaleena!!! The flowers were a nice touch.

 

[TFintheMix]

A surprise for me was that S. Hammond and B. Smith from Louisville didn't get drafted

I'm not. There were afterthoughts in Louisville's offense