Kelsey Plum makes WNBA debut today

SAN FRANCISCO - The 2017 WNBA season tips off today at noon PT and 16 former Pac-12 women’s basketball players appear on Opening Day rosters, including rookie and NCAA all-time scoring leader Kelsey Plum, who just wrapped up her career at WASHINGTON.

Now playing for the San Antonio Stars who selected Plum with the first pick of the WNBA Draft, Plum makes her debut in the league’s first game of the season at noon PT at Madison Square Garden. She and her new teammates take on the New York Liberty, with former CALIFORNIA Golden Bear Brittany Boyd who starts her third season as a professional.

Nine Pac-12 schools are represented and appear on nine WNBA squads. The Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever have three former Conference standouts for the most representation on a single squad. STANFORD has the most former players in the professional league, including Nneka Ogwumike, last year’s WNBA Player of the Year and WNBA Champion. Other Cardinal on rosters are sister Chiney Ogwumike (Connecticut Sun), Jeanette Pohlen-Mavunga (Indiana Fever) and recent graduate Erica McCall (Indiana Fever).

Former UCLA great Noelle Quinn enters her 11th season in the WNBA as a member of the Seattle Storm. Other long-tenured players are the Indiana Fever’s Briann January, just named an assistant coach with her alma mater ARIZONA STATE, enters her ninth season; Phoenix Mercury teammates Leilani Mitchell (UTAH) and Shay Murphy (USC) begin their ninth seasons in the pros.

In addition, several Pac-12 alumni are serving on WNBA coaching staffs, including Karleen Thompson and Miles Cooper of USC, both assisting on the Atlanta Dream bench; Bobbie Kelsey (Stanford), Shelley Patterson (WASHINGTON STATE) and Julie Hargrove (ARIZONA) are assistants at the Sparks, Minnesota Lynx and Mercury, respectively.

For more information on the 2017 WNBA season, links to all the teams websites and this season’s schedule, visit wnba.com.