Latest ESPN WNBA Mock Draft Has Indianapolis Becoming Ohio State West

On the eve of the WNBA draft, some of you might be interested in knowing where one of the most prolific Big Ten and women’s college basketball players of all time will end up. Kelsey Mitchell will probably not go first, as 6’5 A’ja Wilson likely has a lock on that spot. In a way, that’s good news for Buckeye faithful. The second all time leader scorer will likely head to Indianapolis to play for the Fever, which is the closest team to CBus.

Here is where it gets interesting. According to the latest ESPN mock draft, they have Stephanie Mavunga going to the Fever in the second round.

For those of you that don’t follow the WNBA, Indianapolis is in full rebuild mode, which is why they will likely take Mitchell. She can run the point and dictate the action while making those around her better, while she is also capable of playing the 2 and scoring in bunches, and in a hurry. Mavunga is the solid, all around post player that can compliment a generational type of talent like Mitchell.

Because this is Off Tackle Empire, and you are all bitter dicks, though quite knowledgeable about sports, you already knew all this. We all know you are stretching the finger tips to hit the comments section to make a post about one of two things (probably both). One, “Why should I care about women’s basketball” which clearly you do, since you clicked the link. You also probably know that the WNBA is starting to make money and has better numbers than the NBA after 20 years in business. You are just trying to be argumentative. I get it, that’s what we do. That’s how this works. That’s how all of this works.

It’s the second batch of posts that I have a problem with. You muther truckers will say, “If they was so good, why didn’t they wins doody in the NCAAs and stuff” While your grammar might possibly be better, you would also be wrong. And let me explain. Basketball is a streaky game, that should never be decided by one game. Or should always be decided by one game.

Let me do a quick precursor. Since we are mostly old geezers, we’ll take 1989. Michigan won the national title, because they managed to beat Illinois in the NCAA tournament, even though the Illini beat them twice in the regular season, and by double digits each time. Was Michigan the best team that year? No. Champions? Yes. Michigan loses a 7 game series to Illinois that year 3-1. No doubt.

So now let’s take a look at the OSU women this season. They lost to Central Michigan this most recent tournament. Again, to explain it to you(us) older men, the Chippewas were basically the late 80s and early 90s Golden State Warriors. Were they ever going to win the NBA championship? Naw. Could Chris Mullen, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Tyrone Hill beat everyone, if the shooters were hot, in a one off game? Absolutely.

Stuff happens.

That’s why this particular draft scenario is appealing to me as a Buckeye fan, especially if the Fever can somehow manage to get Linnae Harper into the mix. These were special players that the chips just didn’t fall into place for as a team while at OSU. If they all end up in Indianapolis, and they win there, that will give me the opportunity to say, “I told you so!”, which is another OTE tradition.