10 April 2011
Draft Day's Tomorrow!
Courtney Vandersloot looks forward to the draft:
Seattle, the reigning champion, picks last among the 12 teams and no one expects the 5-foot-8 Kent, Wash., native to be around that long.
"There’s a part of me that always wanted to go to Seattle," Vandersloot said. "I didn’t know how it works, I just figured I could choose Seattle. It would be great to play at home and I idolized Sue Bird. I thought it would be great to play with her."
The WNBA has a Q&A with Maya Moore, and she is predictably humble:
WNBA.com: You played in the Stars at the Sun game last season and the World Championship in September. You went up against a number of WNBA players and perhaps even some incoming WNBA players along the way. How did that help prepare you for what lies ahead?
MM: That was a great experience to see that I got what it takes but there’s still a lot more work to be done. Being able to learn from the greats. Just watching Sue [Bird], Diana [Taurasi], Tamika [Catchings], Swin [Cash], Asjha [Jones], just to go out there and just little by little get that work done against the best talent in the world. I’m really appreciative of that experience and it gives me a lot of excitement to know that if I keep working hard and keep doing what I’m doing I’ll be in the league with them and be a leader for the national team if I keep working hard. If I keep growing and learning and not settling. So I think it did two things: it gave me confidence, and it also made me hungry. It’s a reminder that I have more to do and it’ll keep me hungry for workouts coming up, training camps and anything that involves working and getting better.
The Storm coaching team has to hope that the draft talent pool runs deep this year, since they have the last pick.
"It's the only time you wish you hadn't won so many games," said Storm assistant coach Jenny Boucek, whose team will draft 24th and 36th in the second and third rounds, respectively.
This isn't draft-related, but I need to throw it in because somehow I missed it earlier: 2010: The Year of UConn Has Shined the Brightest:
And the team of the 2010 WNBA season, the Seattle Storm, featured three former UConn teammates that spent four years together in Storrs, Connecticut. Three players all extremely motivated to win a WNBA championship for slightly different reasons after years of frustration. Sue Bird trying to get past five years of first round playoff losses. Swin Cash overcoming injuries and an ugly end to her time in Detroit. And Svetlana Abrosimova returning to win a championship after a year away from a frustrating WNBA career filled with injuries on mostly losing teams. And that's exactly what they did and they did it in UConn style, dominating the WNBA from start to finish.
Seattle, the reigning champion, picks last among the 12 teams and no one expects the 5-foot-8 Kent, Wash., native to be around that long.
"There’s a part of me that always wanted to go to Seattle," Vandersloot said. "I didn’t know how it works, I just figured I could choose Seattle. It would be great to play at home and I idolized Sue Bird. I thought it would be great to play with her."
The WNBA has a Q&A with Maya Moore, and she is predictably humble:
WNBA.com: You played in the Stars at the Sun game last season and the World Championship in September. You went up against a number of WNBA players and perhaps even some incoming WNBA players along the way. How did that help prepare you for what lies ahead?
MM: That was a great experience to see that I got what it takes but there’s still a lot more work to be done. Being able to learn from the greats. Just watching Sue [Bird], Diana [Taurasi], Tamika [Catchings], Swin [Cash], Asjha [Jones], just to go out there and just little by little get that work done against the best talent in the world. I’m really appreciative of that experience and it gives me a lot of excitement to know that if I keep working hard and keep doing what I’m doing I’ll be in the league with them and be a leader for the national team if I keep working hard. If I keep growing and learning and not settling. So I think it did two things: it gave me confidence, and it also made me hungry. It’s a reminder that I have more to do and it’ll keep me hungry for workouts coming up, training camps and anything that involves working and getting better.
The Storm coaching team has to hope that the draft talent pool runs deep this year, since they have the last pick.
"It's the only time you wish you hadn't won so many games," said Storm assistant coach Jenny Boucek, whose team will draft 24th and 36th in the second and third rounds, respectively.
This isn't draft-related, but I need to throw it in because somehow I missed it earlier: 2010: The Year of UConn Has Shined the Brightest:
And the team of the 2010 WNBA season, the Seattle Storm, featured three former UConn teammates that spent four years together in Storrs, Connecticut. Three players all extremely motivated to win a WNBA championship for slightly different reasons after years of frustration. Sue Bird trying to get past five years of first round playoff losses. Swin Cash overcoming injuries and an ugly end to her time in Detroit. And Svetlana Abrosimova returning to win a championship after a year away from a frustrating WNBA career filled with injuries on mostly losing teams. And that's exactly what they did and they did it in UConn style, dominating the WNBA from start to finish.
Labels: college basketball, Seattle Storm, UConn basketball
# posted by mamurd @ 8:50 PM 
