NEW YORK — Paige Bueckers is headed to Dallas as the first pick Monday night in the WNBA draft.
The versatile UConn star is the latest Huskies standout to go No. 1, joining former greats Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
“Dallas, I’m so excited, a new city, a new start,” Bueckers said. “A fresh start, so let’s get it.”
Bueckers has had a whirlwind week since helping UConn win its 12th national championship on April 6. She has split her time between New York and Connecticut doing morning and nighttime talk shows. On Sunday, she took part in the Huskies’ championship parade.
Her UConn teammates, who have meant so much to her, and Coach Geno Auriemma were in attendance at the draft, which was held at The Shed in New York with hundreds of fans in attendance. Bueckers choked up when talking about her former Huskies teammates.
“They mean everything to me. They helped me get through highs and lows,” Bueckers said.
The Sparks had the No. 9 pick in the draft after trading the No. 2 to Seattle in a three-team deal for Kelsey Plum. The Sparks took Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker, a 6-foot guard who averaged 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game as a fifth-year senior this winter.
She scored 45 points in a double-overtime loss to Maryland in the NCAA Tournament in her final game, but she says she knows being a success in the WNBA requires all-around contributions.
“I just love basketball so much, and so I just try to go out there every single night and just play as hard as I can and try to do the little things,” Barker said. “L.A. has such amazing players and I’m so lucky that I get to learn under all of them and just get there with the vets, understand how they do things. At the next level, it’s doing the little things. It’s the rebounding. It’s the assists. It’s how you can defend. That’s what all goes into it, not just a 45-point performance. It’s the other things, too.”
She was quick to praise some of her new teammates – Plum, Dearica Hamby and Rickea Jackson.
“All three of those players are just amazing players,” Barker said. “I played against Rickea when I was in the SEC for about four years, and so I know how hard she works. I know how great of a player she is, and she’s also just a great person. The other two, I’m just really excited to get to know them, be around them. I’m just so grateful and lucky that I have those people to learn from.”
Seattle quickly followed Dallas’ selection by taking 19-year-old French star Dominique Malonga with the No. 2 pick. The 6-6 Malonga was part of the silver medal-winning French Olympic basketball team. She’s the first French player to be drafted this high since 1997, when Isabelle Fijalkowski went second.
“I was so proud to achieve that goal,” Malonga said. “It showed that French basketball has evolved as we’ve seen the past few years on the NBA side. We see Wemby (Victor Wembanyama) and Zaccharie (Risacher) show that French basketball is great.”
The Washington Mystics, with a new coach and general manager, then took Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron with the third pick, and USC forward Kiki Iriafen with the No. 4 pick.
Iriafen raised her game after National Player of the Year JuJu Watkins went down with an ACL tear and helped get the Trojans to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, losing to Bueckers and the eventual champs. Iriafen, who averaged 18.2 points and 8.3 rebounds this season, is the first USC player selected in the Top 10 since Ebony Hoffman went ninth in 2004 and the Trojans’ highest pick since 1997 when Tina Thompson went No. 1 and Pam McGee was No. 2.
“I truly have no words. My heart is still beating super fast,” said Iriafen, a Harvard-Westlake product. “I told myself I wasn’t going to get emotional, that I was going to be a big girl, but once your name is called, truly everything that you worked hard for, it just flashes through your mind. I feel, one, super blessed and grateful that the Mystics chose me.”
The Mystics also took Kentucky guard Georgia Amoore with the sixth pick. Amoore was dressed on the WNBA’s orange carpet by NBA star Russell Westbrook, who has a clothing brand called Honor The Gift. Amoore said Westbrook designed her outfit and was amazing to work with since they first got together on a Zoom session last November.
The expansion Golden State Valkyries made Juste Jocyte of Lithuania with the first draft choice in franchise history.
Connecticut had consecutive picks and took LSU’s Aneesah Morrow seventh and North Carolina State’s Saniya Rivers eighth.
Chicago drafted Ajsa Sivka from Slovenia 10th, and then TCU’s Hailey Van Lith next.
Dallas closed out the first round drafting Aziah James of N.C. State.
Six teams didn’t have picks in the opening round as New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Phoenix and Atlanta traded away their picks. Las Vegas forfeited its pick following an investigation by the league in 2023 that found the franchise violated league rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies.
USC post player Rayah Marshall was a second-round pick (25th overall) by Connecticut.
Also Monday, Minnesota acquired forward Karlie Samuelson, a former Mater Dei standout, in a trade with the Washington Mystics for its 2026 first-round draft pick.
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