SAN FRANCISCO - The WNBA regular season tips off tonight and 13 former Pac-12 women’s basketball players have earned a spot on eight teams’ opening-day rosters. Six different Pac-12 schools are represented among the eight pro teams, including the defending champion Phoenix Mercury, which has two players on the roster.
The Cardinal has the most representation in the WNBA with six players on the roster, including veterans Jayne Appel (San Antonio), sisters Chiney (Connecticut Sun) and Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks), Kayla Pedersen (Connecticut Sun), Jeanette Pohlen (Indiana Fever) and Candice Wiggins (New York Liberty). Chiney Ogwumike enters her second year in the league after a successful rookie campaign where she was named WNBA Rookie of the Year, an honor her sister earned in 2012. Both were No. 1 draft picks in their respective years.
CALIFORNIA has three former players on WNBA rosters including recent Pac-12 stars Layshia Clarendon (Indiana Fever), Brittany Boyd (New York Liberty) and Reshanda Gray (Minnesota Lynx). The trio led the Golden Bears to their historic run to the program’s first-ever NCAA Women’s Final Four and a share of the Pac-12 regular-season crown in 2013. This will be Boyd and Gray’s rookie season in the WNBA.
Veteran Briann January, formerly of ARIZONA STATE, will be playing alongside Clarendon on the Indiana Fever for the second-consecutive year. Former UCLA Bruin Noelle Quinn and former UTAH Ute Leilani Mitchell are teammates on the Phoenix Mercury. Four-time first team All-Pac-12 honoree Jazmine Davis, formerly of WASHINGTON, earned a spot on the Seattle Storm’s roster and will be looking forward to her rookie season this year.
For mer information on the WNBA, including a full season schedule, visit wnba.com.
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