Guru’s WNBA Report: Collier Overall No. 1 Draft Pick to Dallas In Selections That Also Include Rutgers and Lafayette Stars

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

The first non-playing but formal event to season No. 25 in the WNBA just under one month away from court action was the annual draft Thursday night and suitable to what will be a summer long celebration of a quarter of a century in the existence women’s professional basketball league were historic moments associated with the picks.

The Dallas Wings, who missed the playoffs last summer on the final day of the league-wide action in a bubble environment on.a shortened 22-game schedule in Bradenton, Fla., near Tampa, had three picks in the first round, including a first-ever possession of the top two, which they used to take Texas’ Charli Collier as the No. 1 overall and then made history within history by selecting center Awak Kuier, who will become the WNBA’s first player from Finland if she makes the opening day roster.

For the second straight year because of the COVID pandemic the draft was held by remote with players awaiting at home of their professional futures, the media conducting interviews via zoom software, though this time around commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the picks from an ESPN studio in New York instead of her home in northern New Jersey.

The Wings also used the fifth pick in the opening round to take Arkansas guard Chelsea, who was instrumental in handing Connecticut it’s only loss of the regular season.

Locally, in a surprise plunge, Rutgers’ scoring sensation Arella Guirantes, who averaged 21.3 points per game and was targeted as the sixth pick going to the nearby New York Liberty in many mock presentations, fell all the way to overall No. 22 as the 10th pick in the second round by the Los Angeles Sparks.

“The wait was terrifying,” said Guirantes, who was the only Big Ten player to rank in the top five in points, assists, steals, and blocked shots per game. “It was just a bunch of emotions flying around. I didn’t know because you talk to coaches and they’re selling you a dream.”

New York used its sixth choice of the first round to take UCLA star Michaela Onyenwere after the Atlanta Dream with the third pick selected Aari McDonald, who led Arizona all the way to a final missed shot resulting in being edged by PAC-12 rival Stanford earlier this month in the NCAA title game in San Antonio, Texas, at the Alamodome.

The Indiana Fever had the fourth and last lottery pick, taking West Virginia’s Kysre Gondrezick, who was part of the Mountaineers’ attack to oust Drexel in the NCAA tournament first round.

With a second chance to pick Guirantes, New York passed again with the 17th overall pick, opting for Baylor defensive star DiDi Richards in the fifth pick of the second round.

“This is stunning from everything they (New York) said in talks with us,” said a Rutgers source asking for anonymity because not having permission to speak on behalf of the team.

The failure to go quickly brought back memories of Penn State three-point shooting ace Kelly Mazzante, who just finished her second season as a Bucknell assistant coach, projected high in the first round in 2004 but ending up going in the second round to the former Charlotte Sting. She later landed with the Phoenix Mercury in the dispersal draft and became a member of a WNBA championship squad.

“To not see other things happen from the other side of things, and just be kind of left out on an island, I can’t say I’m not used to it,” Guirantes said. “But it’s okay. God has a plan for me. I know he doesn’t play about me at all. Eleven other teams that missed out, that’s fine.”

When Guirantes gets to Los Angeles, she will find a sister alum in Erica Wheeler, then with the Chicago Sky who made it from undrafted signee to earning All-Star MVP accolades in 2019.

“I’m excited to hear the knowledge she has for me,” Guirantes said. “She knows what it takes to last and survive, beat politics.”

Guirantes wasn’t the only surprise gaining less than projected.

Syracuse’ Tiana Mangakahia out of Australia, who led the nation in assists at 7.2 per game and averaged 11.4 points and 3.1 rebounds, after missing a year battling breast cancer, was totally omitted and late Thursday night signed an training camp contract with Phoenix.

Kiana Williams, one of the stars who led Stanford to its first NCAA title in 29 seasons, was predicted high to middle in the first round and ended up landing as the 18th overall pick, sixth in the second round with the defending champion Seattle Storm.

Williams shrugged it off, talking about fit on a team versus the number taken.

“She’s the first person I thought of when I saw Seattle drafted me,” Williams referenced all-timer Sue Bird, the former UConn all-American who is the oldest player in the WNBA. “I get to learn from a legend. I feel like she’s one of the best point guards ever to play the game, and I’m going to go in there and be a sponge, try to soak up as much information, not only from her but from all the other vets.

“I wasn’t really necessarily worried about what number I was going to get drafted or what round. I honestly just wanted — I just prayed to God that I got drafted to a good situation for me, and I feel like Seattle was one of the best situations for me, and I was extremely grateful.”

Ironically, less than 24 hours earlier, Guirantes, Mangakahia, and Williams were on Associated Press national women’s basketball writer Doug Feinberg’s popular conversational zoom interviews eagerly anticipating where they might land per the projections.

Another player landing slightly lower was Louisville’s Dana Evans, the No. 13th pick overall and first in the second round, and she, too, is heading to Dallas.

“It’s a blessing to finally hear my name,” said Evans, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year. “It’s motivation. Didn’t expect to (fall) this far. I’m ready to take on whatever I’ve got to do.”

And in a league that once had North Philadelphia’s Dawn Staley and now has Saint Joseph’s grad Natasha Cloud out of Broomall in Delaware County on the Washington Mystics, another Philadelphian for the moment in Natalie Kucowski, became just one player above being the equivalent of the NFL pick as Miss Irrelevant, landing in the third round, 35th overall out of 36 at 11th with Seattle to become upstate Lafayette’s first-ever WNBA pick.

Kucowski, who led the nation with a 13.3 rebounding average, is the first former Philadelphia NCAA Women’s Summer Basketball League player since Cloud to be drafted.

She was the Patriot League player and defensive player of the year and isthe all-time Leopards’ rebounder at 1,197 and scorer at 1,415.

Finishing out the first round, after New York, the Sparks of Los Angeles at seventh, took Alabama’s Jasmine Walker.

Chicago at eighth took Australian Shyla Heal while at ninth, the Minnesota Lynx took Tennssee’s  Rennia Davis.

The Sparks came back with North Carolina’s Stephanie Watts at 10th followed by Texas A&M’s Aaliyah Wilson gogng to Seattle.

France’s Iliana Rupert went to the WNBA runner up Las Vegas Aces to round out the 12-team first round.

Second Round

The Aces, also in the second round after Dallas got the first pick, took 14th overall in Arkansas Destiny Slocum, previously with Maryland.

Spain’s Raquel Carrera then went to Atlanta, followed by Oklahoma State defensive star Natasha Mack to Chicago at 16th overall.

After already discussed 17th to New York and 18th to Seattle, Auburn’s Unique Thompson went to Indiana.

The Connecticut Sun, finally getting to pick in this draft, took Baylor’s DiJonnai Carrington.at 20th and Centeal Michigan’s Michaela Kelly at 21st.

Then came the Guirantes move to Los Angeles, followed by. Texcas A&M’s N’dea Jones to Seattle, and Arizona’s Trinity Baptiste rounded out the second round at 24th to Indiana.

Third Round

New York led off the third round with Pacific’s Valerie Higgins at 25th, Indiana then took UT Martin’s Chelsea Perry, Atlanta  took Northwestern’s Lindsey Pulliam, and Los Angeles at 28th and fourth in the round took Wake Forest’s Ivana Raca.

New York at 29th went the international route with France’s Marine Fauthoux, followed by Oregon State’s Aleah Goodman going 30th to the Connecticut Siun.

Another foreigner was picked in Argentina’s Florencia Chagas going 31st and seventh to Indiana, while Phoenix followed taking Texas A&M’s Ciera Johnson.

Georgia’s Maya Caldwell went 33rd and 9th in the third to Indiana, then came Spain’s Aina Ayuso to Los Angeles at 34th and 10th.

The Kucowski pick was next and Las Vegas closed out the night, giving Towson it’s first ever draftee with Kionna Jeter, the second leading scorer in the Colonial Athletic Association. At 36th.

Collier, with her pick at No. 1, reached a goal she targeted five years ago visiting her fatrher, battling cancer, which claimed his life in 2016.

“He’s here with me,” she said of him Thursday night following the selection.

“He’s with me in the moment. My dad is so proud of me. Wish he could see this in real life. Nothing can take this moment away from me.”

Though in an earlier interview last week ahead of the draft Engelbert said expansion could begin to be discussed once the pandemic subsides, for now the hard truth is there are 144 roster openings by the 12-player-per-team allocation, but in reality even less since not all of the 12 franchises career the max limitation.

“It’s really difficult to find a spot in this league and stick,” Los Angeles coach Derek Fisher said on his team’s post-draft call. “Coming off 2020, last year with the draft where players that got drafted didn’t get an opportunity to go to training camp and earn a spot ... it will be difficult for every player who was drafted tonight to stay with the team.”

A year ago, Rider’s Stella Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer, got picked by Phoenix, traded to Chicago, cut on the last day, then later got signed by the then-defending champion Washington Mystics out of necessity due to injuries.

She had one of the all-time debuts when she finally got into a game but then got injured and sat out the rest of the season.

General Manager/Coach Mike Thibault was impressed enough, however, to say, you’re our draft pick, alluding to the Mystics not having a pick Thursday night.

Training camps will begin in two weeks, the season making an early start on May 14 because of the month-long brake for the Olympics. The pause begins July 12 and the season resumes Sunday, August 15, and concludes Sept. 19.

The playoffs begin later that week with two one-and-one done first and second round games, followed by semifinals and finals series of best-of-five games.

The best eight teams regardless of division make the field and the top two teams get two-round byes to the semifinals playing the two survivors of the opening rounds.

And that’s the report.