Stanford WBB seniors Haley Jones and Ashten Prechtel drafted into WNBA
On Monday, Stanford women’s basketball had two players drafted into the WNBA: Haley Jones went #6 overall to the Atlanta Dream in the first round while Ashten Prechtel went #34 overall to the Connecticut Sun in round three. Both Jones and Prechtel won a national championship together as well as reach another Final Four. They are part of the “Funky Four” along with Fran Belibi (who will be doing graduate work at Harvard) and Hannah Jump, who is coming back to The Farm for a fifth season. As the only two Funky Four in the WNBA, Jones and Prechtel will have a torch to carry.
Starting with Jones, she is coming off a senior year in which she averaged 13.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game. She’s got good size for a guard at 6’1” and is a terrific playmaker. She rebounds well, creates for others, and is very crafty around the rim. Her perimeter shooting needs work, but she’s just so gifted that she’s a really good pick for the Dream at #6. She’s got the personality and mindset to be a franchise player for sure. It’s just a matter of her backing it up with her game at the next level.
As for Prechtel, she’s coming off a senior year in which she played in just 7.5 minutes per game. In those 7.5 minutes, she averaged 2.4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. The reason why she got drafted despite those numbers is she has good size at 6’5” and has the ability to score from the perimeter, shooting 32.5% from 3-point range for her career. While the odds are stacked against Prechtel to make a WNBA roster being picked as late as she was, the Sun obviously feel like there’s something to work with here. It’ll be interesting to see how training camp goes for her and whether or not she’ll be able to make the final roster.
Jones and Prechtel join Lexie Hull (Indiana Fever), Chiney Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks), Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks), and Alanna Smith (Chicago Sky) as former Cardinal standouts that are currently on WNBA rosters/set for training camp invites. Hull being the most recent of the bunch to join the WNBA, getting drafted #6 overall by the Fever last year.
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