WNBA Roster stats - college, age, experience

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Checked out the WNBA final rosters, as of yesterday. A little confusion with just a couple of spots - but here is what I found:

- 8 schools account for 40% of the league, with UConn leading the way with 11 (Bird counts, Seattle is retaining her on the roster, duh). Tennessee has 8 players, Duke 7, Rutgers and Stanford 6, with 5 each from Maryland, UNC and Ohio State.

- while about 25% of players are 30 or over (not sure if that is high or low), only 5 are over 35. They would be Katie Smith (39), Milton-Jones and Tina Thompson (38), Nakia Sanford (37) and Becky Hammon (36). If anyone wants to nit, these are the ages they are or will be by the end of the season.

- 20% of the league's players are rookies. To me that seems high. Only 10% have been around 10 years or more, with Tina Thompson the last original (16 years). The players that are in their 11th season are an especially talented bunch, including Bird, Cash, Catchings, Snow and Penny Taylor. In addition to the 5 "oldest" and these, the other players with 10 or more seasons are Katie Douglas (12), Kara Lawson (10) and Plenette Pierson (10).

Interesting, I thought I'd share.

 

[UcMiami]

Interesting stats. I was at first surprised by the 40%/8 schools, but when you think about the duration in the league you are still dealing with WCBB of the early 2000 era which was dominated by a few teams in recruiting wars. 25% over 30 is about right. 20% rookies maybe high, but assume some of the rookies are actually older foreign players in the W for the first time. Also with small rosters and few teams the actual numbers of rookies is relatively small.