STANFORD, Calif. – The WNBA's 29th season tips off tonight and five players drafted or signed out of Stanford are on the opening-day rosters of the league's 13 franchises.
Entering her 14th WNBA season and second in Seattle, Nneka Ogwumike is coming off another strong season, finishing 15th in the league in scoring (16.7 ppg) and 13th in rebounding (7.6 rpg). The 2016 WNBA MVP also made her third consecutive All-Star Game and landed on both the All-WNBA second team and All-Defensive second team.
Lexie Hull enters her fourth professional season with the Indiana Fever after being taken with the sixth overall pick in 2022. She had her best season a year ago, averaging 5.5 points on 44.1 percent shooting, including 47.1 percent from deep. She was second in the league in 3-point percentage and averaged 7.5 points on 58.3 percent shooting from behind the arc as a starters in the final 10 regular-season games.
In her second season in Minnesota, Alanna Smith took on a big role in her first year with the Lynx in 2024, averaging 10.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals in 26.5 minutes per game, starting in all 39 of her regular-season appearances. She was awarded All-Defensive second team honors en route to a WNBA Finals appearance.
Karlie Samuelson joined the Lynx following a mid-April trade from Washington that netted the Mystics a first-round selection in the 2026 WNBA Draft. Last season in Washington, Samuelson posted a career-high 8.4 points per game while adding 2.6 rebounds and 2.1 assists per contest. She shot 39.8 percent from the three-point line (13th in the WNBA) and 92.3 percent from the line in 29 games.
Cameron Brink is expected to return to game action sometime in June following a midseason ACL tear last summer. Prior to the injury, she was averaging 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in 15 starts for the Los Angeles Sparks, and had been selected to the 2024 USA Basketball 3x3 Women’s National Team for the Olympic Games in Paris.
In the front office, Jamila Wideman, who was Stanford’s first-ever WNBA Draft pick, going No. 3 to the Sparks in 1997, is in her first season as the Washington Mystics’ general manager.
Since the WNBA's inaugural season, 34 former Stanford players have appeared in a regular-season game and seven players have won a combined eight WNBA championships.