Women's Basketball Star Leaves School Early for Pro Career

It's official. Epiphanny Prince, one of the better Rutgers players, will leave school to take up pro ball in Europe during the 2009-10 college season, effectively skipping her senior year of school in hopes of making a bee line to the pros.

There's not so much as a beeline in the WNBA as a wandering of the ol' crow. The WNBA's rules for entry are considered to be more stringent than those of NBA draft prospects who are one-and-out. Essentially, you have to either:

a) Enter the WNBA Draft at the same time that your college class graduates. If you didn't go to college, you have to wait until four years after your senior year of high school and enter when you would have entered if you had attended four years of college, or

b) Play two years overseas. This is how Europeans make it into the W. I've never heard of a high school player skipping college to play two years in Europe, but it could theoretically happen.

Signs on jerseys. And now, female college basketball players skipping school for the European option. I'm telling you, it's a whole new ball game.

Ms. Irrelevant

Ms. Irrelevant (*) is the name I'm giving to the person drafted dead last in the WNBA Draft in any year. (I would like to think I coined the term, but I could be dead wrong about that.) The name is inspired by the NFL's "Mr. Irrelevant", the name given to the last person chosen in the NBA draft. As Rebecca of Game Notes of Doom pointed out to me "at least Mr. Irrelevant gets a trip to Disneyland - Ms. Irrelevant gets nothing."

The reason this last-past-the-post draftee got the name of Mr. Irrevelant in the NFL is that due to the size of NFL drafts and that in past years the NFL Draft has gone at least eight rounds, it was unlikely that the last person drafted would make the team, much less see any playing time. I decided to look at the various "Ms. Irrelevants" and see what had become of them.

1997: Catarina Pollini - 4th round, 32nd pick in Regular Draft, Houston Comets

Catarina Pollini actually played for the Houston Comets in their inaugural season - she just didn't play very well. With a championship team, there was little place for Pollini, who played a grand total of 94 minutes in 13 games and was significantly underwhelming. She was already 31 years old when she was drafted and when leaving the Comets would play in Italian basketball until her retirement at age 40.

1998: Monica Lamb - 4th round, 40th pick in Regular Draft, Houston Comets

Monica Lamb played three years with Houston, and was a fairly decent player in 1998 - she started 25 games and hit 54 percent of her field goals. The problem was that she was 33 years old when she was drafted, a victim of the fact that anyone who was good at anytime before the league started was likely to be drafted - those teams in the early years were virtually a Who Was Who in Women's Basketball in The 1980s and 1990s.

The decline soon began. She only played 36 minutes in 1999 due to an orbital hemorrhage when she was poked in the eye by a teammate. By 2000 she had lost her starting position, and in May 2001, she retired. Lamb now spends her time running the Monical Lamb Wellness Foundation and its associated basketball camp.

1999: Elaine Powell, 4th round, 50th pick in Regular Draft, Orlando Miracle

The two new expansion teams - the Orlando Miracle and the Minnesota Lynx - were given extra picks at the end of the four rounds. The Miracle chose Elaine Powell, and ever since, Powell has been playing in the WNBA - still active, playing for Orlando, then Detroit, then Chicago, then Detroit again. Powell was 29th in Total Career Games played at the end of the 2008 season and is 16th overall in Total Assist Percentage - not bad for someone who was picked last.

2000: Abbie Willenborg, 4th round, 64th pick in Regular Draft, Houston Comets

Willenborg was the last pick in a bloated 16-team league. Willenborg was the first of our Ms. Irrelevants never to play as much as a second in the WNBA. She's now Abbie Gutzmer and is a girls' volleyball coach at Vernon Hills High School in Illinois. She is also a mathematics teacher.

2001: Beth Record, 4th round, 64th pick in Regular Draft, Los Angeles Sparks

Record would also never make a WNBA team. She would play in Israel in 2002, scoring 20.4 ppg/7.2 rpg for Galil Elyon, and played in Turkey in 2003 and in the NWBL, an off-season women's semi-pro league in the United States. The last anyone heard of Beth Record, she was playing on a exhibition team in 2003. She stated that if her basketball career didn't pan out, she would use her sociology degree. Hopefully, that's what she's doing now.

2002: Tiffany Thompson, 4th round, 64th pick in Regular Draft, Los Angeles Sparks

A graduate of Old Domininon, her common name makes it hard to find out anything about her, as there are younger players now with the same name. The Tiffany Thompson that was drafted by the Sparks seems to have fallen from the face of the earth.

2003: Mary Jo Noon, 3rd round, 42nd pick in Regular Draft, Los Angeles Sparks

By now, the WNBA had shrunk from 16 teams to 14 teams. Furthermore, the fourth round of the draft was dropped - the fates of Willenborg, Record and Thompson might give you some indication why.

Mary Jo Noon was one of those players that disappeared. In 2003, she said that she didn't want to be remembered for just basketball. Be careful what you wish for.

2004: Kate Bulger, 3rd round, 38th pick in Regular Draft, Minnesota Lynx

There were now 13 teams, and inexplicably, one fewer draft pick in the third round. Kate Bulger, the last player selected, was more famous for being the sister of the NFL's Marc Bulger than for her non-existent WNBA career, as she was the fifth Ms. Irrelevant in a row not to make a WNBA roster. Like many of the others before her, Bulger faded away into obscurity.

2005: Heather Schreiber, 3rd round, 39th pick in Regular Draft, Los Angeles Sparks

Schrieber was the sixth Ms. Irrelevant who didn't make a team. However, she had a fallback position - she returned to the University of Texas to play Volleyball. Her sporting career at Texas ended at the end of 2005. She had hoped to coach after she finished at Texas, but I have no idea if she's coaching basketball or volleyball.

2006: Marita Payne, 3rd round, 42nd pick in Regular Draft, Connecticut Sun

With the league back up to 14 teams, this pushed Marita Payne's pick into the 40s. She didn't make the league in 2006 but was signed to a training camp contract by the Minnesota Lynx in 2008. The Australian native played basketball in Turkey in 2007 and 2008, and played for the Australian WNBL in the 2008-09 season.

2007: Kiera Hardy, 3rd round, 39th pick in Regular Draft, Connecticut Sun

The league had fallen back to 13 teams again. Hardy managed to play some preseason games for the Connecticut Sun, but never broke into a regular season roster. Hardy has played in Iceland and the Czech Republic since then.

2008: Charel Allen, 3rd round, 43rd pick in Regular Draft, Sacramento
Monarchs

With the Atlanta Dream joining the WNBA family, the last pick was somewhere back in the 40s and somehow, an extra pick snuck into the list, making Charel Allen pick #43 and the 2008 Ms. Irrelevant.

Even though Allen played only 49 minutes for the Monarchs, Allen finally broke the eight year streak of the last player not making the league, ending the record of ignominy among final picks.

(* * *)

So what are the conclusions?

There are only a couple of good players who have come off that last pick - Elaine Powell and maybe Monica Lamb, but Lamb was already old. Catarina Pollini might have had a good career, but one year in the WNBA was enough for her. Allen hasn't played enough to be considered "good".

The other eight out of twelve players never made it on to a WNBA team. Furthermore, those players from the first three drafts were simply not representative of the years to come, drawing on a pool of much older players.

So here's to you, Ms. Candace Byngham, formerly of Louisville, the 2009 Ms. Irrelevant of the WNBA. Here's hoping that you break the barrier and that your WNBA career is a long and happy one.

______________

(*) - There are some who might object to me using the term "Ms. Irrelevant" due to the use of "Ms." - that I am somehow trying to promote radical lesbian communist feminism. However, that would be up the players to decide. If anyone wants to be called "Miss Irrelevant", I aim to please.

WNBA Draft Net Mock Draft is Posted

Here is bullsky's Mock Draft. Go over there and take a peek! Who does he predict for the Dream?

#1: Angel McCoughtry, F, Louisville
#18: Abby Waner, G, Duke
#25: Devanei Hamptom, F/C, California
#27: Sade Logan, G, Robert Morris

The Number 18

I was reading the good ol' WNBA message boards and bemoaning the fact that Alison Bales got traded to the Phoenix Mercury. One of the wiser posters, Richyyy, stated that it was most likely that Atlanta's embarassment of riches - due to Holdsclaw possibly playing and the acquisition of Lyttle - meant that the Dream had to jettison someone from an overcrowded boat, and that Bales drew the short straw.

As for the #18 pick we received in return, Richyyy surmised that it was most likely the person coming to camp would not be signed, thus allowing the Dream to get rid of Bales's salary without taking on any obligations in return. But this led me to ask myself a question ...how many #18 picks have ever seen time in a WNBA uniform?

The answer might surprise you: all of them! Let's go through the list:

1. Chantel Tremitiere (1997) - Tremitiere came in with a slew of great players in that first draft year. Unfortunately, she was outclassed. She played one year for the Utah Starzz, and then played two more years for the Sacramento Monarchs. Acquired in the expansion draft in 2000 by the Indiana Fever, she played one more year before retiring with an ankle injury.

She played one season with the Shreveport Aftershock as quarterback in the Independent Women's Football League in 2007 - at 37 years old.

2. Andrea Kuklova (1998) - Kuklova played two seasons with the Phoenix Mercury - in the second season she only played five games. She continues to play basketball in Europe and owns a pension (sort of a bed and breakfast) in Slovakia.

3. Michele Van Gorp (1999) - Van Gorp played six years in the WNBA, first with the New York Liberty, then with the Portland Fire, and the final four with the Minnesota Lynx. Her best years were with Minnesota, but she was never a superstar. A stress fracture in her foot suffered with the Lynx in 2004 led to her retirement and an eventual lawsuit against the Lynxy's medical staff. She's probably best known for being the WNBA's first openly gay player.

4. Tonya Washington (2000) - Washington played for the Washington Mystics from 2000 to 2002, and was traded mid-season in 2003 to the Seattle Storm. In all of her years, she was a "below replacement level" player. In 2004, she was playing in Europe, but she disappears from the radar after that.

5. Tammy Sutton-Brown (2001) - Sutton-Brown played for the Charlotte Sting until the team folded in 2006, and then moved her skills over to the Indiana Fever, where she still plays.

6. Lenae Williams (2002) - Williams played the 2002 season for the Detroit Shock. She would be traded to the Phoenix Mercury after the 2003 training camp, be picked up by the Charlotte Sting and Indiana Fever, and never play a minute for any of those latter three teams. She is currently playing for Mondeville in the French league.

7. Jordan Adams (2003) - Adams played one season for the Lynx in 2003. She would be signed - then waived - by the Seattle Storm in 2006. Adams is currently a special education teacher.

8. Kelly Mazzante (2004) - Mazzante was drafted by the Charlotte Sting. After the Sting folded, she picked up with Phoenix and has played there ever since. Mazzante has had a couple of decent WNBA years.

9. Angelina Williams (2005) - Williams played for the Mercury in 2005 and the Shock in 2006. In her rookie year with Phoenix, she only shot 30 percent from the field. The last time she was seen in 2008, she was playing for the Tampa X-Factor of the Women's Blue Chip Basketball League.

10. Liz Moeggenberg (2006) - Moeggenberg played a couple of years for the Chicago Sky. She is currently playing for Tarbes in the French League.

11. Tyresa Smith (2007) - Smith played for the Shock in 2007 - for a grand total of seven minutes. She was signed as a free agent in 2008, but waived two months later. That winter she played for Novosibirsk in the Superleague A Russia; it is unknown with what team she's playing now.

12. Olayinka Sanni (2008) - Played for the WNBA Champion Detroit Shock in 2008. So what will happen to her in 2009?

In other words, even if the #18 pick doesn't play for the Dream, she might play somewhere. But as you see, not all #18 picks are Tammy Sutton-Brown.