WNBA Draft Sees Surprises -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New York Cardinals or Louisville Liberty?

The New York Liberty started off draft week by trading star center Tina Charles to the Washington Mystics. They ended the week by selecting 1/6 of the players drafted on Friday night, including five players in the first 15 picks. When all was said and done, they ended up with six players from the first 15 picks after trading Shatori Walker-Kimbrough to the Phoenix Mercury for the newly drafted Jocelyn Willoughby and trading their newly drafted Erika Ogwumike to the Minnesota Lynx for Stephanie Talbot. 

There was some late dissent about whether NY should take Sabrina Ionescu first overall as she may be exposed defensively in the W, but I think it was mostly people that would rather draft someone else for the surprise factor. Ionescu went first, followed by teammate Satou Sabally, Lauren Cox from Baylor, Chennedy Carter from A&M, and Bella Alarie from Princeton to round out the top-five. Alarie, as it happens, is Jay Bilas's god-daughter. She averaged 16-9-2 as a guard/forward for the Tigers this year.

So Asia Durr was joined in New York by Ionescu. It was expected, but that doesn't make it any less exciting. What may excite Asia even more is the what came next. A junior that left early was the next pick for NY, when they took Megan Walker, a forward out of UCONN with the ninth pick. Replacing Tina Charles will hardly be a simple task, but having talent in the front court will be quite useful. The Liberty would add more of that shortly.

While it was prognosticated by many that Jaz Jones would end up being a third-round pick, it did not come to pass. That's not because she went undrafted, of course; it's because she was drafted in the first round. With the 12th pick, the final of the first round, Jaz was selected by, you guessed it, the New York Liberty. A few minutes later, the Liberty made the first pick of the second round: Kylee Shook. Shook was also expected to go in the third, so this was a big leap for her as well. Two picks later, the Liberty added another forward to the mix when selecting Leaonna Odom out of Duke. 

After their big draft night, the Liberty roster now sits at 17. Assuming they don't add any more players via trade or free agency, that means they'll have to find five players to send back home prior to the final roster deadline, as the maximum roster limit in the WNBA is 12. It would be stunning to see Asia Durr exit New York at this stage, as she was a high pick and averaged 10 ppg in 26 minutes last season. However, I would say that none of the draft picks after Megan Walker are safe. Were this a more normal draft for a team and Jaz Jones was the Liberty's second pick at 12, I'd say she was in a good spot. However, the team added three players before her. It's a very crowded rookie class and there will be some tough decisions to be made.

Were either Jones or Shook to be cut prior to the season, I would not expect that to be the end of the road. Despite Jones already having a gig elsewhere, I'd say she would still pursue the W, as would Kylee Shook. We saw the same thing happen to Arica Carter last year when she was cut prior to the season but still managed to find her way back to a team before the season was out. Jeff Walz has a certain brand of player he likes to recruit, and it includes a certain tenacity. No player that comes through Louisville is going to just give up if they get cut once.

All that said, there is still a big question regarding the WNBA season. The MLB has floated random ideas of returning to action at some point but none of those have come to pass. The NBA has no schedule. MLS has pushed their return out to July. The Indy 500 on Memorial Day Weekend has been postponed, as has Derby, and the Madison Regatta (July 4th) and Forecastle Festival (July 17-19) have already been canceled. Any summer events are in jeopardy, so we'll see if this season even comes to pass. Here's hoping all of our Cardinals in the league get the opportunity to show their stuff this year or next if it comes to it. Links to the post game teleconferences below:

LINK:  JAZMINE JONES POST-DRAFT TELECONFERENCE

LINK:  KYLEE SHOOK POST-DRAFT TELECONFERENCE

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

It's Saturday, which means it's time for another episode of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. We've come to get fairly used to this version of the show, and hope that you all are enjoying it as well. The WNBA draft will probably give us a lot to keep on basketball this week, but we're sure to dabble in the other randomness that has come across our feeds this week. Be sure to tune in to our YouTube Live stream at 11AM or catch the rebroadcast any time. Also, subscribe to the Cardinal Couple YouTube channel so that you can keep up to date when new interviews are posted as well as when the show goes up.

Until next time, Go Cards! (and Liberty!)

-CH-