The WNBA draft is upon is, and three LSU players have a shot at getting a phone call from of the league’s 12 teams Monday night.
Before we break down who’s in the pool and which players might go where, let’s start with one thing: South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston is almost sure to go No. 1 overall to the Indiana Fever.
A three-time All-American and 2022 AP Player of the Year, Boston has been the projected top pick all year, if not longer.
The one thing she didn’t get this season was a national championship. The Gamecocks failed in their attempt to repeat as champions, having bowed out to Iowa in the national semifinals.
Iowa, of course, lost in the title game to LSU, which claimed its long-awaited first championship in Kim Mulkey’s second year.
The WNBA draft is at 6 p.m. Monday on ESPN. It lasts three rounds, with 36 picks in all.
Here’s a look at the three LSU players who might celebrate a lifelong dream by the end of the night:
Alexis Morris, guard
As sensational as Angel Reese was all season — she did, after all, claim 34 double-doubles and a spot on the All-America team — Morris was the beating heart of the Tigers’ championship team.
A three-time transfer from Beaumont, Texas, who reunited with Kim Mulkey (who had kicked her off the team at Baylor in 2018) the 5-foot-6 Morris was LSU’s second-leading scorer at 15.4 points per game; she led the team in assists (4.1 per game).
More than that, she was a clutch player. In LSU’s tightest game of the tournament, Morris sank four free throws in the final 10 seconds of the Tigers’ 66-63 win over Utah in the Sweet 16.
Then, as Iowa attempted to mount a rally in the fourth quarter of the title game, Morris almost single-handedly shut it down. She was 6 of 6 shooting and sank two free throws, finishing with 21 points.
Morris is projected to go late in the first round or early in the second round of Monday’s draft.
LaDazhia Williams, forward
The 6-foot-4 graduate transfer — often overshadowed by Reese in the frontcourt, but an essential piece in the Tigers’ championship run — spent one year at South Carolina and three more at Missouri before she landed at LSU. She averaged 9.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game this season — but her two best games came in the clutch.
In LSU’s tightest game of the tournament, a 66-63 win over Utah in the Sweet 16, she scored a season-high 24 points.
In Sunday’s championship game against Iowa, she gave the Tigers a big boost in the first half with Reese in early foul trouble. Williams finished with 20 points, five rebounds and three steals.
ESPN projects Williams as a third-round pick.
Jasmine Carson, guard
A 5-foot-10 native of Memphis, Tennessee, Carson was yet another transfer who began at Georgia Tech, then transferred to West Virginia before landing at LSU as a graduate student. Carson started 30 of the Tigers’ first 31 games but took on a reserve role in their second-round win over Michigan. She hit three 3-pointers in that game but was 0 of 5 from the floor and averaged 9.8 minutes per game through the Tigers’ first four tournament games.
Carson made no beef about her benching, and she waited for another big chance. When she got it, she didn’t waste it. With the Tigers in early foul trouble, Carson came off the bench and played what she called “the game of my life,” hitting seven first-half 3-pointers and finishing with a team-high 22 points.
ESPN projects Carson as a free agent.
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