STANFORD, Calif. – The WNBA's 28th season tips off tonight and seven players drafted out of Stanford are on the opening-day rosters of the league's 12 franchises. The Cardinal's seven in the league are the fourth-most among all schools (UConn – 16, South Carolina – 10, Notre Dame – 8).
Entering her 13th WNBA season, Nneka Ogwumike made a free-agent move to Seattle this season following a dozen years in Los Angeles. The 2016 WNBA MVP and a six-time All-WNBA pick, Ogwumike is coming off another strong season, finishing sixth in the league in both scoring (19.1 ppg) and rebounding (8.8 rpg).
Ogwumike is joined on the Storm by Kiana Williams. Originally drafted by the Storm in 2021, Williams appeared in 14 games in 2021 and 2022 and makes her return to the WNBA after looking sharp in Seattle's final preseason game, scoring nine points on 3-of-6 shooting.
Cameron Brink will become the 34th Stanford player to appear in a WNBA game once she steps on the court for the Los Angeles Sparks for the first time. The second overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, Brink had a superb senior season in which she shot 51.1 percent from the field and averaged 17.4 points per game to go with 11.9 rebounds and 3.7 blocks. A three-time All-American and two-time National Defensive Player of the Year, Brink was the only player in the country to average 17.0 points, 11.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game last year, and finished with a PER of 45.75, the best mark for a major conference player since 2018-19.
Lexie Hull enters her third professional season with the Indiana Fever after being taken with the sixth overall pick in 2022. She has appeared in 56 career games and started 29, including five last season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.2 rebounds in 17 minutes per game. Hull had the fourth-year option on her rookie scale contract exercise by the team on Friday.
Fellow 2021 national champion Haley Jones enters her sophomore season with the Atlanta Dream. Jones played in all 40 games for Atlanta in 2023, starting six. She scored a career-high 23 against Las Vegas on Aug. 22, had a season-high nine rebounds against New York on June 13, and recorded a personal-best nine assists against the Connecticut Sun on June 15.
Alanna Smith signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Lynx on Jan. 31 following a season in Chicago. Smith saw action in 38 games with the Sky and averaged career-highs across the board with 9.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks in 26.5 minutes per game. A Most Improved Player finalist, she ranked in the league's top ten in several categories, including first in two-point shooting (62.6%), seventh in total blocks (50), ninth in offensive rebound percent (8.0), eighth in block percentage (4.1) and steal percentage (2.5).
Karlie Samuelson signed a two-year deal with the Washington Mystics on Feb. 1 after appearing in 76 games with the Los Angeles Sparks (2023, 2021, 2019, 2018), Phoenix Mercury (2022), Seattle Storm (2021) and Dallas Wings (2019). With the Sparks last season, Samuelson had career-best averages of 7.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists in 34 games. She also shot a career-high 46.3 percent from the field and 94.1 percent from the free throw line. She was sixth in the WNBA in three-point percentage, shooting 42.6 percent, and joined Jackie Young (Aces), Chelsea Gray (Aces) and Lexie Brown (Sparks) as the only players to shoot at least 45 percent from the field and 40 percent from deep.
Since the WNBA's inaugural season, 33 former Stanford players have appeared in a regular-season game and seven players have won a combined eight WNBA championships.