For one season, Edniesha Curry and former Oregon star Jenny Mowe shared the same bench.
Although Curry never stepped on the floor for the Ducks in an official game two seasons ago, the pair was part of a squad that earned Oregon its eighth straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
Now, chances are the two will bump into each other on a WNBA floor. But it most likely won’t be in the same uniform.
Asked what the two will say to each other when they first square off against each other, Curry responded with a smile highly recognizable, even over the phone.
“Knowing me and Jenny, we’ll probably look at each other and laugh,” she said.
The 41st selection (third round) in Friday’s WNBA Draft by the Charlotte Sting, Curry is excited to be able to get the chance to play professional basketball. And the team that drafted her, coached by Anne Donovan, is just as excited to have her.
“We were really pleased she was there in the third round,” Donovan said. “We are point guard-heavy right now, but she was the best player available on the board at that point.”
Curry joins a team that most recently finished 18-14 in the regular season, only to lose to Los Angeles in the WNBA Finals.
She also joins a team that is loaded with talent. That talent begins with Dawn Staley, whom Donovan calls “the best point guard in
the league.”
Then there is Sheila Lambert, the seventh overall selection in this year’s draft. The former Baylor guard is expected to come in and make a difference in the Sting lineup this season.
All of that creates a sense of uncertainty for Curry. Unlike her four collegiate seasons, she will no longer be the main focus on either the offense or defense. A role on the bench is most likely the case for the
Palmdale, Calif., native.
“You never know what kind of an effect that may have,” Oregon assistant coach Dan Muscatell said. “But she understood delayed gratification. She understood she had to work very hard in practice.”
Muscatell said that Curry is the type of person and player who will be able to overcome the harder times on the court.
Edniesha Curry, former Oregon point guard, was selected 41st overall by the Charlotte Sting in this year?s WNBA draft.
“She should be able to utilize her quickness,” he said. “She’s very competitive. She’s stepping up to the highest level. She will
be tested.”
Curry understands the need to work hard. She also understands her predicament, already being penciled in to sit behind Staley, should she make the team.
Nevertheless, she also plans to make the most out of her first season in the WNBA.
“I’m just going to go in there and work hard,” she said. “You go in there as a rookie on a new team, so you have to.”
As the third Oregon player ever to be drafted in the WNBA — joining Mowe and Angelina Wolvert (43rd overall, Cleveland), both chosen last season — Curry’s selection begins to center the focus on Oregon. With Shaquala Williams almost assured of a selection after next season, and junior-to-be Cathrine Kraayeveld on the right track, Curry could have some elite company soon.
“It just says a lot for our program,” Curry said of her selection. “We have WNBA-caliber players on our team. I just think it gives our younger players something to look forward to.”
Muscatell couldn’t have agreed more.
“I’d anticipate we’d have another (selection) next year,” he said. “We have people in the program who will be able to play at that level.”
E-mail sports reporter Hank Hager
at [email protected].