Your Day in Women’s Basketball, October 12: Sabrina Ionescu is ready to ball
Liberty’s Ionescu ponders her sophomore season after a season-ending injury
It was a long non-season for Sabrina Ionescu, who played just two-and-a-half games before a season-ending ankle injury forced her out of the bubble. In her offseason, she’s avoided watching too much WNBA, still at odds with the way her season ended. But man, will we enjoy it when she comes back. For all the talent of this class, from Crystal Dangerfield to Chennedy Carter, Ionescu is still the biggest name, and along with Carter appears to have the highest ceiling.
Ionescu is considering playing abroad in the WNBA offseason, where she’d surely earn quite the financial bump, and have a chance to work her way back onto a basketball court. If not, she’ll stick around in the states and continue to train and rehab. We can’t wait to see what her future holds.
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There are plenty of famous sports families, from the Bonds’ and Griffy’s to the Curry’s and the Miller’s. But none are more fun than the McGees. So the Next’s Jenn Hatfield undertook a project few have dared to tackle. Who is the best player in the McGee family?
We have two lenses through which we can observe the family: collegiate and professional success.
Now, let’s be clear: it’s unfair to put Pam in the professional group since she was thrown into the WNBA 14 years after college. But if we’re trying to compare performances, each family member has their own claim to fame: Pam as the best NCAA player, a two-time champion, a Hall-of-Famer, and NCAA legend; Javale as an NBA veteran and a consummate professional who’s been an integral part of three championship squads; and Imani, the only family member to snag an award in the big leagues and perhaps the best defender of the siblings. But if we have to give a nod to one family member, Pam takes the cake.
It’ll be a long offseason for the Las Vegas Aces, who were swept by the Seattle Storm in the Finals last week. The Aces have several things to look forward to. This season, Vegas missed Kelsey Plum and Liz Cambage to injuries and medical exemptions and were without two-time Sixth Woman of the Year Dearica Hamby.
Head coach Bill Lambier will have some funky rotations to figure out, but the Aces are still one of the most talented teams in the league. Don’t be surprised if they make another deep postseason run in 2020.
The Indiana Fever’s GM Tamika Catchings and head coach Marianne Stanley also have quite a bit of reflecting and planning ahead of them. In her first season a GM, Catchings was proud of her team’s social justice fight. And in not so many words, she gave Fever fans two messages. Stay calm, and trust the process.
Stanley and Catchings agreed that defense will be a priority in the offseason, as Indiana finished as the worst defensive team in the league this year, which hampered the squad down the stretch. Thankfully, they’ll have plenty of versatility on the offensive end with Kelsey and Tiffany Mitchell leading the way.