Liberty draft UCLA’s Onyenwere at No. 6
Sabrina Ionescu has a new running mate with the Liberty … straight out of a classic Pac-12 rivalry.
The Liberty selected UCLA forward Michaela Onyenwere with the No. 6 pick in Thursday night’s WNBA draft.
Ionescu, the former Oregon point guard coming off an injury-interrupted rookie season, is the pillar of the new-look Liberty as they prepare to move into Brooklyn’s Barclays Center this season and try to climb out of the WNBA cellar.
“I’m just glad we’re on the same side now,” Onyenwere said of Ionescu on the ESPN broadcast. “I’m really excited to get started in New York.”
Onyenwere, a 21-year-old Colorado native, was a three-time first-team All-Pac-12 selection, and averaged 19.1 points and 7.2 rebounds per game as a senior. She is regarded as an explosive athlete and versatile defender for coach Walt Hopkins’ switch-heavy scheme. There were questions about her positional fit on offense: perhaps too small to play power forward, at 6-foot, and with a questionable perimeter shot (30.4 percent from 3-point range in four years with the Bruins) for a modern small forward.
“I know at this level, I’m definitely going to have to get better at the small forward position because that’s primarily going to be my position,” Onyenwere said.
With their second-round pick, No. 17 overall, the Liberty took Baylor guard DiDi Richards. The 2020 national defensive player of the year, Richards suffered a spinal injury last October that left her temporarily paralyzed, but recovered to help lead the Bears to the Elite Eight in this year’s tournament.
“From a defensive standpoint, those two were as good as anybody in the draft,” Hopkins said of Onyenwere and Richards. “We were shocked that we able to get both people. We were considering DiDi, she was in the mix for a long time for the sixth pick, so the fact we were able to get her at 17. ... We threw a pretty big celebration in there when it happened.”
In the third round, the Liberty selected a pair of guards. With the 25th- overall pick, they chose Valerie Higgins, a guard from Pacific, then they drafted Marine Fauthoux from French club Lyon Asvel Feminin with the 29th-overall pick, which was obtained from Washington.
The Liberty finished last season with a league-worst 2-20 record.