For the Washington Mystics coaching staff, yesterday’s WNBA Draft was as simple as one-two.
Plagued by disappointing first-round selections in recent years, the Mystics took Duke shooting guard Alana Beard with the second pick after the Phoenix Mercury tabbed Connecticut guard Diana Taurasi with the first.
“You evaluate all the players that are coming out, and Taurasi and Beard are the two best players in the country,” Mystics coach Michael Adams said. “We didn’t have the first pick, so Phoenix made our job easier. They were going to take one, and we were going to take the other.”
Beard won the first Wooden Award for women as the top player in college basketball and every other national player of the year accolade this year except the Naismith, which went to Taurasi. Beard, a native of Shreveport, La., excelled on both ends of the court throughout her career, averaging 19.7 points and earning All-ACC Defensive Team honors the past three years.
“It’s a great feeling — one that I’ve been waiting for a long time,” Beard said. “I can’t wait to meet my new teammates and just have fun.”
With Taurasi as the consensus first choice entering the draft, the Mystics faced a choice between Beard and Stanford swing player Nicole Powell, the Pac-10 Player of the Year. According to Pat Summitt, legendary Tennessee coach and the Mystics’ player personnel consultant, the clear edge went to Beard.
“You’re looking at a player who can play all three positions on the perimeter,” Summitt said. “I love what she brings other than her basketball skills. I love her attitude and her competitiveness and her leadership. I just thought the total package was going to be a great fit for our team.”
Beard, Duke’s all-time leading scorer for both men and women (2,687 points), finished her career shooting 53 percent from the field. She struggled from behind the 3-point arc, however, making 30 percent (95 of 317) for her career.
Beard acknowledged that outside shooting is her weakness but said she will spend time working on it before making her pro debut.
“[Three-point shooting] is the only weakness in my game,” she said. “You’ve just got to go out and play the game. My 3-point shooting will improve.”
Beard’s ability to score, however, far outweighs that shortcoming, Adams said.
“First things first, she can put the ball in the basket,” he said. “She’s going to improve her 3-point shot, but that’s not all her game right now. If she can do the things she did in college on the pro level, she’ll be fine.”
With their second-round selection (15th pick), the Mystics stayed in the ACC and selected center Kaayla Chones from N.C. State in a somewhat surprising move.
“It wasn’t until we started to rank players that she really came up on the radar screen,” Summitt said. “To have a player to complement [forward Chasity] Melvin and be able to come in on the block, I think we obviously need that.”
Chones, who is the daughter of Jim Chones, a first-round draft pick by the New York Nets in 1972, will add the physical inside presence the Mystics have lacked in recent years. An All-ACC first-team selection this season, she averaged 13 points and 7.6 rebounds for her career.
The Mystics further reinforced their post play with their third-round pick, selecting forward Evan Unrau from Missouri. Unrau was the leading rebounder in the Big 12 this season with 8.9 a game and averaged 17 points.
“We knew that coming into this draft, we wanted to secure up our post position and get a little stronger at the point position, and I think we’ve done both of them,” said Judy Holland Burton, the Mystics’ senior vice president of business and basketball operations.
After the Mystics drafted Beard, the Charlotte Sting took Powell off the board with the third pick. The Connecticut Sun followed at No.4 by drafting Kodak All-American guard Lindsay Whalen from Minnesota. Rounding out the top five, the New York Liberty selected Arkansas swing player Shameka Christon, last season’s SEC Player of the Year.
With the 10th overall pick, the Sacramento Monarchs chose Georgetown forward Rebekkah Brunson, the Big East Defensive Player of the Year who also averaged a career-high 19.1 points. The all-time leading rebounder in Hoyas history (1,093), Brunson set a single-season record last year with 336.
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