STANFORD, Calif. – The WNBA's 23rd season tips off tonight and four Stanford alumnae represent the Cardinal on the opening-day rosters of the league's 12 franchises.
The 2016 WNBA MVP, Nneka Ogwumike enters her eighth professional season with the Los Angeles Sparks. Last year she averaged 15.5 points on 52.5 percent shooting, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists and earned her fifth All-Star nod, but was unable to participate in the WNBA's summer showcase due to illness.
Ogwumike has started each of the 217 games in which she's played during her professional career and averaged 16.4 points on 55.8 percent shooting and 7.6 rebounds. In 2016, the three-time Stanford All-American became just the third Cardinal to win a league most valuable player award in any sport, joining NFL quarterbacks John Brodie (San Francisco 49ers; 1970) and John Elway (Denver Broncos; 1987).
Chiney Ogwumike will be teammates with her older sister for the first time since leading Stanford to back-to-back Final Fours in 2011 and 2012 following an April 27 trade with the Connecticut Sun. Last season, Ogwumike was named an All-Star for the second time and averaged 14.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. She shot 60.3 percent from the field, the third highest mark in the league.
Ogwumike was the first overall pick in 2014 by the Sun. That season, she was named WNBA Rookie of the Year and was selected to her first All-Star team. She's posted career averages of 14.1 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game while shooting an efficient 57.2 percent from the floor.
Erica McCall, the 17th overall pick in 2017, returns for her third year with the Indiana Fever. She has appeared in 64 games over her first two seasons and averaged 3.1 points and 2.5 rebounds in just under 12 minutes per game.
Alanna Smith will become the 30th Stanford player to appear in a WNBA game once she steps on the court for the Phoenix Mercury for the first time.
The 12th All-American in program history and eighth overall pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft, Smith had a superb senior season in which she shot 51.5 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from behind the arc and averaged a team-high 19.4 points per game to go with 8.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks.
She was one of two players in the country to average 19.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game last season and finished her career 10th in school history in scoring (1,703) and second in blocks (225) and made 155 career 3-pointers. Smith is just the fourth NCAA women's basketball player over the past 20 years to put together a career of 1,600 points, 150 made triples and 200 blocks joining Elena Delle Donne, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
The Australian forward, who also totaled 81 triples, 78 blocks and 699 points is the only NCAA women's basketball player to accumulate 70 3-pointers, 70 blocks and 600 points in a season in the last 20 years. She was 34th in the country in scoring (19.4) and 33rd in blocks per game (2.17), the only player in the NCAA in the top 40 in both categories.
Also the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and an academic All-American, Smith is just the fourth player in program history to earn both All-America and academic All-America honors, joining Chiney Ogwumike, Kristin Folkl and Kate Starbird.
McCall at the Fever open their season tonight at 5 p.m. PT against the New York Liberty on NBATV. Phoenix gets underway tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. PT against the Seattle Storm on ABC and the Sparks' first game against the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday at 5 p.m. PT will be streamed live on Twitter (@WNBA).
