PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The WNBA Draft is Friday, April 17th and Oregon and Oregon State could have as many as four first-round picks: Oregon’s ‘Big 3’ of Sabrina Ionescu, Satou Sabally and Ruthy Hebard, as well as Oregon State’s Mikayla Pivec.
Ahead of the draft, I sat down with ESPN reporter and former Georgia basketball player Maria Taylor to get her take on the four prospects, and what she thinks they’ll bring to the league.
Q: Let’s starts with Sabrina Ionescu, expected to go No. 1 overall, and to the New York Liberty. How ready do you think she is for the weight of the No. 1 pick and being in New York City to start her professional career?
Maria: One thing she’s proven at each stage of her career is that she’s ready to take that step. And she’s also proven it when she’s gotten into NCAA Tournament games and every single time when the stage is a little bit brighter she shines even brighter. And I think too she’s one of those players that we’re going to look back and remember when the NY Knicks draft Patrick Ewing, and it was like ‘oh, that made a difference, that changed the game.’ I think we’re going to look back at the Liberty getting Sabrina and we’re going to be thinking the same thing. She’s been writing down on a notepad since she was 12 that she was going to play in the WNBA, that she wanted to be great in this game and she’s taken every step to get her there and now that dream is coming true. I guarantee you she doesn’t stop working just as hard as she has in the past and she still feels like she’s got plenty to prove especially now that the tournament was taken away from her, she never got a chance at the National Championship so something tells me she’s going to take the WNBA by storm.
Q: And how perfect is it, that it is New York, the center of it all?
Maria: I think she’s the perfect person to handle it because obviously there’s more media that comes with it, there’s more scrutiny that comes with it as well but she’s been living that her entire collegiate career because she’s been pinned as the future of women’s college basketball since going into her sophomore year. And the great thing is there’s already so many men and women’s basketball players that respect her game and appreciate her game. The fact that it’s all gonna come together in such a big city where we could see attendance rise and we could see, the television game, the news market, like it’s all going to come together perfectly where you have a superstar and a superstar market and a person who knows how to handle, can be confident, obviously, she’s mature, she’s not going to get out there and go crazy. Although Eugene’s a little different from New York, I don’t expect her to go crazy and she’ll just be able to handle that city the way that you would want a superstar and number one overall draft pick too.
Q: So let’s go down the list here because Satou Sabally is expected to go second overall to the Dallas Wings. When you look at Satou’s game, what do you think the Wings, or whoever takes her, what do you think someone is getting in her game?
Maria: I think her game translates very well into the pros. She’s super versatile, obviously a big strong body, she’s proven that if she needed to play defense on the post or post, she can handle that. But also she’s got the three, I mean obviously Oregon’s offense revolved around a four out, one in situation most times. And obviously she was that super stretched for, she can play the three, she can attack off the dribble, which is something that she continued to add and became more and more aggressive. I remember watching that Stanford game and thinking that Satou was so much an unsung hero in that game because of her offensive skill set. If Sabrina were to miss a game or Ruthy were to have an off-game, Satou could score enough points to get Oregon a victory. And that’s something that obviously all three of those players have to balance one another out and it couldn’t be everyone’s game at the same time. But you definitely saw the instant flashes of just how great she’s become, how much she’s matured as a player. And again, I just think the ability to shoot the three and the physicality to attack off the dribble, she can get to the free-throw line and knock down those free throws. It’s something that, you know, the Dallas Wings if they take her, number two, they’re going to love having on their sideline, on their bench or in starting role where she could easily take over as soon as she arrives.
Q: You mentioned that ‘Big Three,’ we’ll talk about Ruthy in a second, but specifically that ‘Big Three’ of Oregon has been in the limelight, since Sabrina and Ruthy’s sophomore year, Satou’s freshman year. And so what do you think having three players like that who have lived that limelight and who also played such an exciting brand of basketball, coming into the WNBA at the same time, what do you think that’s going to do for the league as a whole?
Maria: I think too, what they bring with them obviously is the Pacific Northwest. Don’t forget that there’s a whole region of individuals that have fallen in love with the Oregon Ducks and they’re going to be WNBA fans and they’re going to come over with them. Then you’re going to add in New York City when Sabrina goes there, and then if Satou goes to Dallas, the excitement that you bring there, and I just think they’re going to tie in so many loose ends for the WNBA and not only that, but they have this expectation because they come from a culture where Matthew Knight Arena is getting sold out, where senior night matters, where their games are important. Where if you play in the final four, it’s a sold-out arena and you see buzzer-beaters. And so they come from a space of this game is big and they’re going to fight to make sure that the game stays big at the next level. So I think it’s important that the three of them come out together and experience the same thing. They experience the same adversities and be able to lean on each other and it’s going to be cool to see what they bring to their locations while still being able to hopefully rely on each other even though they’re not teammates anymore for some of that support.
Q: Obviously the last one of the ‘Big Three’ is Ruthy Hebard. Ruthy and Sabrina have been the deadliest one-two punch in women’s college basketball. So Ruthy being separated from Sabrina, obviously she’s going to shine on her own, but what do you think is, is the reason she’s going to be able to shine on her own?
Maria: I think that she is one of those players that compliments whatever system she’s being put into. And you have to be able to do that, obviously when you go to the pros, but she is such a complimentary piece. She’s going to do all the dirty work. She’s going to rebound then box out. She’s going to play great defense, but she’s also going to know exactly how to get you the ball to be successful. She’s going to score every basket that you expect her to score that looks like a high percentage shot. She makes it and it matters and she does it. And when the moments are big, she doesn’t mind. The moments are small, nothing in her game changes. It’s completely consistent. I think Ruthy is so interesting in general just being this young woman who comes from Alaska and comes to Oregon and we’ve seen her get better every single season and her confidence grow and the smile and the joy that she brings to the game, like whoever gets her is going to be so happy that they have her on a team. Then I’m hearing projections that she could end up in Seattle and I’m like perfect. Like that would be the dream that you would get Sabrina in New York, you would get Satou in Dallas and then you would get Ruthy in Seattle where obviously there’s so much hunger and need for, you know, the Ducks basketball brand to stick around. If you have a piece of that staying in Ruthy, then that would mean so much. It’s been a dream of hers to play to WNBA and I’m so proud of what she’s been able to do. Obviously, they’re all super close and she’s close to Sabrina, but I believe obviously that team, she’s like the glue. I feel like she’s a glue player. That’s what Ruthy always reminds me of.
Q: The other one that I wanted to ask you about is Mikayla Pivec. When you look at Mikayla, what do you think she brings to the league and why do you think she’s going to stand out in the pros?
Maria: Well it’s interesting because I’ve done the women’s basketball tournament for the last four years and every time we get to Oregon State games we would be glued to the TV because they’re just making these plays in this system make sense and Scott Rueck, he’s this little coach that comes out of nowhere and he’s drawing up plays and everyone’s gathered around him and it’s like perfect execution afterward. And what you’ve come to realize is Mikayla Pivec is the cog that makes that engine really go and work. 5’10” bigger guard, 1500 points over 1000 rebounds, 500 assists, like think about how much of an all-around game that is that I just described that she was able to do over the course of her career. Most people can’t get to a thousand points, let alone over 1500 points and a thousand rebounds, and then, Oh, by the way, here, those 500 assists.
People are always going to question, you know, can she shoot the three, whatever, whatever. But she can shoot period. So she’s going to mature and continue to be able to do that. But I think she’s a great pro player. She’s proven it at Oregon State. The only reason may be that we hadn’t heard about her even more before is because Oregon has been like this beacon, you know, and they’ve been rocking and rolling in the Pac-12 but she’s an all-defensive player in the Pac-12. And if you put that, that’s all-around stats that I’ve just given you, that she can play defense, she can score, great view of the basketball court, great basketball IQ, make sure that she’s putting her teammates in great situations, so I think Mikayla Pivec has a very high ceiling and I’m not going to be surprised that she does very well in the WNBA.
Q: So you’ve seen a lot of people transition from college to the pros. You’ve covered the games, you’ve spoken to these athletes, what is the biggest aspect of the learning curve for these women as they make the jump to the pros? In the NBA we hear the pace of the game, we hear physicality a lot, what is it in the WNBA?
Maria: I think a lot of it lies off the court where so much of your life is completely planned out. And then when you become pro, it’s like, ‘Nope.’ You’ve got to figure out where your food’s going to be, there’s no training table, there might be only one practice a day and that means your strength and conditioning isn’t planned out for you and you might need to add a trainer into your game and trying to figure out what really works for you. It’s interesting cause I think there’s more time, but there’s also more responsibility on the player themselves to be a pro. And I think that’s when the switch happens. When you’re a student-athlete, things are planned for you, given to you, shown to you when you’re a pro, it’s expected of you. And I think that that’s the biggest transition that certainly has to be made.
Then also just the responsibility of you are your own brand now. You don’t have to sit there and hide behind the ‘O’ or the Beaver or anything else. It’s just like it is you and who you want to be with your game. What do you want to represent? What part of the women’s game do you want to make sure that you’re helping people understand? There’s a lot of questions that they’ll be asking themselves and searching up themselves but that’s the biggest transition I think, especially for women athletes as they enter into the pros.
Q: Is there anything else you want to add about the draft in general or any of these players?
Maria: I just think that we’re coming to almost like a new fun chapter maybe of the WNBA. Cathy Engelbert, just having new leadership there, you can see there’s a renewed spirit, a lot more advertising dollars going into the WNBA and obviously the star power will be there. No doubt in my mind we’re going to see Sabrina’s signature shoes sooner than later. There’s a lot of excitement right now in the game and I’m glad even though it’s going to be a virtual draft and obviously, we couldn’t all be together celebrating it, but these young women are being celebrated and this could still be a great big moment for them, especially those who didn’t have the chance to finish their career with the NCAA Tournament.