OT - WNBA Draft occurs Today

[ZagDad84]

For those who are interested in Wbb outside of the Lady Zags, the WNBA is holding their college draft today.

The draft is televised beginning at 4:00 PM Pacific time on ESPN.

Here is a link to ESPN's rundown on each of the WNBA's teams and the needs to be addressed in the draft.

ESPN Link: https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id...ng-draft-night

ZagDad

[seacatfan]

Sylean better not watch the draft. 3 Oregon Ducks are going to be taken very high in the first round.

[ZagDad84]

Yeah, you got that right.

Sabrina at #1, Sabally at #2 and Hebard at #8.

Not too many surprises. Having the Princeton forward, Bella Alarie (6'4") taken at #5 was maybe a surprising as she is only the third Ivy Leaguer ever drafted and the third 1st round drafted father-daughter combination. Way to rep the mid-majors.

Also maybe a little surprising was Mikiah Herbert Harrigan -- South Carolina -- 6-2, Senior, Forward being taken at #6 which seemed to be a little earlier than projections indicated.

ZagDad

[ZagDad84]

Interesting to see that Pivec from Oregon State did not get drafted until #25.

ZagDad

[sylean]

could care less...wnba not my cup of tea, and I'm pretty sure that not too many Lady zag fans care either , except on the occasion to catch Sloot..... the wnba is not popular sadly..

.I'm glad for the Oregon ducks....first all those national championships and now onto the wnba....wohoo.....lol....

[seacatfan]

Interesting to see that Pivec from Oregon State did not get drafted until #25.

ZagDad

Yeah, not many 3rd round picks stick.

Pretty surprised Beatrice Mompremier from Miami dropped to #20.

[ZagDad84]

...wnba not my cup of tea, and I'm pretty sure that not too many Lady zag fans care either...

Yet here you are.

How, exactly do you determine what Lady Zag fans care about and what they don't care about?

It can't be by their posting habits, because, the vast majority readers on this board simply do not care to talk about anything WBB (Lady Zags or any other Wbb topic). Check the number of posts on each topic on the entire first page. The highest number of posts is 6 no matter how many views it gets (excluding zagineer's roster post and that thread still only has a 0.2% response rate).

The reality is, the people trying to lead discussion on this board have been trying for years to find any topic to spark some interest, and no matter how many logs we toss on the fire, it gets little or way to often absolutely no response, except for the grammar police, the spell checkers or the drive by, want-a-bee moderators complaining about the posting of articles.

This board is essentially one way traffic. Those that post topics and those that simply consume the information and refuse to post.

You might as well shut the board down until October, because attempts at discussion her are futile.

Go back to your hibernation and I will try not to disturb you often until October.

ZagDad

[ZAGS ATTACK BASKET]

Congrats to Coach Graves awesome job, three picks from the Ducks in the first round. Think the Sky were lucky to have Ruthy Hebard fall to pick 8 where they got her. Hebard and Sloot should make a good combo.

Congrats to Sabrina Ionescu on being the #1 pick in the WNBA, am sure she will make waves in the WNBA.

[Zagineer]

Here's a link to a Sporting News article that lists all 36 picks.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/basketball/news/wnba-draft-2020-results-picks-rounds-1-3/rgbbxfo64q131tq5zh0svxhx8

.

[northwest1]

Congrats to Coach Graves awesome job, three picks from the Ducks in the first round. Think the Sky were lucky to have Ruthy Hebard fall to pick 8 where they got her. Hebard and Sloot should make a good combo.

Congrats to Sabrina Ionescu on being the #1 pick in the WNBA, am sure she will make waves in the WNBA.

Ionescu just signed a Nike contract and will have her own shoe. She is now a multi millionaire.

[sylean]

it really says something when you have 3 picks in the top 8 but its stunning that there were no national championships, seriously.....what does that say?....(this year the exception because the season did not finish)....if this was Uconn or Tenn people would be asking....

[SLOZag]

What it says is that the ability of Kelley and his staff to assess, recruit and develop talent from the advantageous platform that is Oregon is currently head and shoulders above the competition. But this wealth of talent is not what Oregon has enjoyed every year -- rather, it is the culmination of years of improved efforts. It seems a bit unfair to me for you to use the wealth of talent Oregon had this past season to critique Oregon's won/loss record in prior years. Most observers believed the only opponent that 2019-2020 Oregon could not beat in March was COVID19.

If your point is to suggest that Kelly is not the greatest in-game coach -- well, that may be, but his record to date at GU and Oregon suggests he's not chopped liver, either.

A parallel situation to your apparent point exists in MBB, where Coach Calipari at Kentucky has experienced similar success in passing players on to the NBA (oftentimes one & done players), but he has not translated that into the kind of consistent playoff success Gonzaga"s MBB team has had over the past 10, and to a lesser extent, 20 years. The knock on Calipari has been that he lacks superior in-game coaching skills, and often recruits based more upon individual talent, and less upon whether or not the player is a team-oriented individual. Yet despite those circumstances, even Calipari's most devout critics would probably agree that when Calipari finally stops pulling down his eye-popping total compensation package, he will be a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. As you phrase things, some of the UK "people might be asking ... ," but they are still paying Coach the BIG bucks, filling the fieldhouse (at least pre-COVID19), and cheering like crazy.

[kyle dixon]

Graves

What it says is that the ability of Kelley and his staff to assess, recruit and develop talent from the advantageous platform that is Oregon is currently head and shoulders above the competition. But this wealth of talent is not what Oregon has enjoyed every year -- rather, it is the culmination of years of improved efforts. It seems a bit unfair to me for you to use the wealth of talent Oregon had this past season to critique Oregon's won/loss record in prior years. Most observers believed the only opponent that 2019-2020 Oregon could not beat in March was COVID19.

If your point is to suggest that Kelly is not the greatest in-game coach -- well, that may be, but his record to date at GU and Oregon suggests he's not chopped liver, either.

A parallel situation to your apparent point exists in MBB, where Coach Calipari at Kentucky has experienced similar success in passing players on to the NBA (oftentimes one & done players), but he has not translated that into the kind of consistent playoff success Gonzaga"s MBB team has had over the past 10, and to a lesser extent, 20 years. The knock on Calipari has been that he lacks superior in-game coaching skills, and often recruits based more upon individual talent, and less upon whether or not the player is a team-oriented individual. Yet despite those circumstances, even Calipari's most devout critics would probably agree that when Calipari finally stops pulling down his eye-popping total compensation package, he will be a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. As you phrase things, some of the UK "people might be asking ... ," but they are still paying Coach the BIG bucks, filling the fieldhouse (at least pre-COVID19), and cheering like crazy.

Graves is a great coach. 3 draft picks amongst first 8 picks goes to show that he developed his players. He had a helluva year with one of the best players in NCAA history. Ionescu can play, er no?

If you watch Sabrina interviewed, she credits KG with her development. I hate when people take shots at Kelly. He built our program from the ground up. We were nothing until he came to Spokane. Let’s not forget this. Again, once a zag, always a zag.

[seacatfan]

Well UConn hasn't won a Championship for 4 years, and probably have at least 2 first rounders most years, so...

I have a feeling sylean's saltiness over Graves leaving is never going to abate.

[seacatfan]

Also Notre Dame had 3 first round picks and 2 in the second round in the '19 draft and didn't win a Championship. They had 5 players picked in the top 19. Sylean care to comment about that? That's way more egregious than Graves' "failure."


edit--of course ND did win the Championship the year before. I'll note that before someone beats me to it. But that was with Brianna Turner out injured. Defending champs, returned most of their roster including 4 starters, and added a player of Turner's caliber, they should've waltzed to another title. They almost won, but Baylor was whooping them until Lauren Cox got injured, so the final score needs to be considered with a large grain of salt.