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How Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor make WNBA team final rosters
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Melanie Fidler/NBAE via Getty Images
The odds aren’t normally in the favor of rookies making opening day rosters, but Taylor and Sheldon show they have a chance
Monday night, the dreams of 36 different NCAA and international prospects came to fruition in Brooklyn at the WNBA Draft. For Ohio State women’s basketball, two former scarlet and gray-clad stars heard their names called; guards Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor earned training camp spots with the Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever.
Now comes the hard part of making the roster.
Last season, only 15 of the 36 players drafted made a final WNBA team. This means that over half of the field doesn’t get a chance to have a WNBA experience after the rigorous training camp practice and scoring some team gear, before getting a proverbial pink slip at the end of a few weeks.
The WNBA restricts teams to 12 contracted players for the regular season. So, in a 12-team league, that’s only 144 roster spots available each season, leaving many new players on the outside looking in.
Here’s how Sheldon and Taylor can be on the right side of 2024’s draft statistics.
With the No. 5 pick, the career Buckeye went to the Dallas Wings, a team that realistically has room for one signee. When training camp starts in the coming weeks, Sheldon will be competing in a group of a handful of guards, all looking to become a depth piece behind the Wings’ established core.
The starting point and shooting guard roles go to Crystal Dangerfield and the free-shooting Arike Ogunbowale. Behind Dangerfield is a former opponent of Sheldon’s in Northwestern Wildcat alum Veronica Burton.
Sheldon’s chance at making the team comes in sliding behind Ogunbowale as a backup shooting guard.
For the last two and a half seasons at Ohio State, Sheldon played the point guard role, but that was based more on necessity than proper fit. With consecutive season-ending injuries for Madison Greene, and the benching of Kateri Poole in the 2021-22 season, Sheldon became head coach Kevin McGuff’s starting point guard. However, Sheldon’s college career started with her at a shooting guard, and that is where she established herself as a dangerous scorer.
Focusing on that skill is a piece of advice from league veterans Sheldon can lean into.
“I’ve gotten to spend some time with some vets the past couple days and they’ve been really helpful,” said Sheldon. “When you’re good at something, you can excel in that area, and really keying in on that and taking that with you to the next level is definitely something I’ll take from them.”
Sheldon has the best chance of sticking with Dallas if the guard is able to show her impressive shooting abilities at the next level. Last season, the Wings were the worst team in the league in three-point shooting efficiency, hitting only 31.7% of their shots from deep. Also, Dallas was tied for the fourth-lowest three-point shot-hitting team.
The former Buckeye has the ability to increase that efficiency and scoring. This past season, Sheldon had her best three-point shooting season in her five NCAA years. The guard led the Buckeyes with 1.9 three-point shots made per game, at a career-best 37.3%.
Conditioning-wise, Sheldon won’t have any trouble transitioning to a WNBA-level practice intensity. Defensively, if Sheldon does what she has always done at OSU and pressures opposing guards, finds space, and picks up steals by the handful, Dallas head coach Latricia Trammell will have an easy decision.
While being picked No. 5 overall certainly indicates that Sheldon has an inside track to the regular season roster, she isn’t guaranteed a spot by any means. The guard will face stiff competition from both a veteran and a rookie who missed the entire 2024 season. WNBA journeywoman Odyssey Sims excelled for the Wings in the playoffs and late regular season last year, but financially a Sheldon signing makes more sense for the team’s salary cap.
The other potential guard for the team is Lou Lopez Sénéchal. Drafted out of UConn last season, Lopez Sénéchal missed the entire year due to a knee injury and subsequent surgery. Lopez Sénéchal returned to European play during the NCAA season and will now compete against Sheldon, just as the two did in the 2023 Sweet Sixteen.
With the No. 15 overall pick, the third of the second round, the Indiana Fever added its second Big Ten guard of the night. After selecting Iowa Hawkeyes’ guard Caitlin Clark, in the worst kept secret in women’s basketball, with the No. 1 pick, the Fever repeated what they did in 2023.
Last draft, the Fever selected Indiana Hoosier Grace Berger and Buckeye Taylor Mikesell. While Mikesell didn’t make the final roster, Berger did and she’s one of a few guards competing against Taylor.
Of that group, Clark is not in the conversation. The chances of Indiana not retaining the services of Clark in the regular season are less than zero, with Clark’s on-court ability alone, she is essentially guaranteed a spot, but when you factor in her star power, she becomes indispensable to a team that has struggled with attendance over the years.
Indiana has 15 players on its roster heading into training camp, meaning that Taylor has to outplay three people to make the team. In the group of competitors are likely training camp invitee Maya Caldwell and veteran Kristy Wallace. What will set Taylor apart is her well-known defensive prowess, a skill honed early in her amateur career.
“Once I got to high school, my coach told me if you can guard multiple positions, you know you’re going to play,” said Taylor. “So I think I carried that with me all the time. As I got into college, I started to watch film. I started to watch my opponents and learn different defensive schemes.”
Taylor’s defensive strengths carried her to consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards in two different Power Five conferences, with the Duke Blue Devils in 2022-23 and with the Buckeyes this past season.
The guard’s defense isn’t in question, but in training camp, she will need to display her offensive abilities to set herself apart from the competition.
Wallace and Taylor play in very similar ways, but in two seasons in the WNBA, the Australian Wallace has established herself as a strong player off the bench for Indiana. For Berger, the former Hoosier is a fan favorite and averaged 14.6 minutes as a rookie in Indiana.
Realistically, Taylor has to beat Caldwell in training camp and then hope for cuts in other positions, which the Fever will likely have to do.
Taylor’s offense grew last season with the Buckeyes; as the guard learned the system and gelled more with her teammates, she became more comfortable shooting from deep. In the final 20 games of the season — all in conference and postseason play — Taylor hit a career-best 1.6 threes per game, at a career-high 35.2% efficiency.
That increased confidence offensively needs to show in Fever training camp while the defense needs to continue to shine.
The regular season starts May 14 and 15, but the spots for Sheldon and Taylor will be known ahead of time.
On May 13, all WNBA teams need to make final cuts, with training camp starting April 28. It’ll be a nervy two weeks for fans, but even more so for the pair of Buckeyes hoping to cement the jump from the amateur to professional level.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Melanie Fidler/NBAE via Getty Images
The odds aren’t normally in the favor of rookies making opening day rosters, but Taylor and Sheldon show they have a chance
Monday night, the dreams of 36 different NCAA and international prospects came to fruition in Brooklyn at the WNBA Draft. For Ohio State women’s basketball, two former scarlet and gray-clad stars heard their names called; guards Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor earned training camp spots with the Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever.
Now comes the hard part of making the roster.
Last season, only 15 of the 36 players drafted made a final WNBA team. This means that over half of the field doesn’t get a chance to have a WNBA experience after the rigorous training camp practice and scoring some team gear, before getting a proverbial pink slip at the end of a few weeks.
The WNBA restricts teams to 12 contracted players for the regular season. So, in a 12-team league, that’s only 144 roster spots available each season, leaving many new players on the outside looking in.
Here’s how Sheldon and Taylor can be on the right side of 2024’s draft statistics.
Jacy Sheldon
With the No. 5 pick, the career Buckeye went to the Dallas Wings, a team that realistically has room for one signee. When training camp starts in the coming weeks, Sheldon will be competing in a group of a handful of guards, all looking to become a depth piece behind the Wings’ established core.
The starting point and shooting guard roles go to Crystal Dangerfield and the free-shooting Arike Ogunbowale. Behind Dangerfield is a former opponent of Sheldon’s in Northwestern Wildcat alum Veronica Burton.
Sheldon’s chance at making the team comes in sliding behind Ogunbowale as a backup shooting guard.
For the last two and a half seasons at Ohio State, Sheldon played the point guard role, but that was based more on necessity than proper fit. With consecutive season-ending injuries for Madison Greene, and the benching of Kateri Poole in the 2021-22 season, Sheldon became head coach Kevin McGuff’s starting point guard. However, Sheldon’s college career started with her at a shooting guard, and that is where she established herself as a dangerous scorer.
Focusing on that skill is a piece of advice from league veterans Sheldon can lean into.
“I’ve gotten to spend some time with some vets the past couple days and they’ve been really helpful,” said Sheldon. “When you’re good at something, you can excel in that area, and really keying in on that and taking that with you to the next level is definitely something I’ll take from them.”
Sheldon has the best chance of sticking with Dallas if the guard is able to show her impressive shooting abilities at the next level. Last season, the Wings were the worst team in the league in three-point shooting efficiency, hitting only 31.7% of their shots from deep. Also, Dallas was tied for the fourth-lowest three-point shot-hitting team.
The former Buckeye has the ability to increase that efficiency and scoring. This past season, Sheldon had her best three-point shooting season in her five NCAA years. The guard led the Buckeyes with 1.9 three-point shots made per game, at a career-best 37.3%.
Conditioning-wise, Sheldon won’t have any trouble transitioning to a WNBA-level practice intensity. Defensively, if Sheldon does what she has always done at OSU and pressures opposing guards, finds space, and picks up steals by the handful, Dallas head coach Latricia Trammell will have an easy decision.
While being picked No. 5 overall certainly indicates that Sheldon has an inside track to the regular season roster, she isn’t guaranteed a spot by any means. The guard will face stiff competition from both a veteran and a rookie who missed the entire 2024 season. WNBA journeywoman Odyssey Sims excelled for the Wings in the playoffs and late regular season last year, but financially a Sheldon signing makes more sense for the team’s salary cap.
The other potential guard for the team is Lou Lopez Sénéchal. Drafted out of UConn last season, Lopez Sénéchal missed the entire year due to a knee injury and subsequent surgery. Lopez Sénéchal returned to European play during the NCAA season and will now compete against Sheldon, just as the two did in the 2023 Sweet Sixteen.
Celeste Taylor
With the No. 15 overall pick, the third of the second round, the Indiana Fever added its second Big Ten guard of the night. After selecting Iowa Hawkeyes’ guard Caitlin Clark, in the worst kept secret in women’s basketball, with the No. 1 pick, the Fever repeated what they did in 2023.
Last draft, the Fever selected Indiana Hoosier Grace Berger and Buckeye Taylor Mikesell. While Mikesell didn’t make the final roster, Berger did and she’s one of a few guards competing against Taylor.
Of that group, Clark is not in the conversation. The chances of Indiana not retaining the services of Clark in the regular season are less than zero, with Clark’s on-court ability alone, she is essentially guaranteed a spot, but when you factor in her star power, she becomes indispensable to a team that has struggled with attendance over the years.
Indiana has 15 players on its roster heading into training camp, meaning that Taylor has to outplay three people to make the team. In the group of competitors are likely training camp invitee Maya Caldwell and veteran Kristy Wallace. What will set Taylor apart is her well-known defensive prowess, a skill honed early in her amateur career.
“Once I got to high school, my coach told me if you can guard multiple positions, you know you’re going to play,” said Taylor. “So I think I carried that with me all the time. As I got into college, I started to watch film. I started to watch my opponents and learn different defensive schemes.”
Taylor’s defensive strengths carried her to consecutive Defensive Player of the Year awards in two different Power Five conferences, with the Duke Blue Devils in 2022-23 and with the Buckeyes this past season.
The guard’s defense isn’t in question, but in training camp, she will need to display her offensive abilities to set herself apart from the competition.
Wallace and Taylor play in very similar ways, but in two seasons in the WNBA, the Australian Wallace has established herself as a strong player off the bench for Indiana. For Berger, the former Hoosier is a fan favorite and averaged 14.6 minutes as a rookie in Indiana.
Realistically, Taylor has to beat Caldwell in training camp and then hope for cuts in other positions, which the Fever will likely have to do.
Taylor’s offense grew last season with the Buckeyes; as the guard learned the system and gelled more with her teammates, she became more comfortable shooting from deep. In the final 20 games of the season — all in conference and postseason play — Taylor hit a career-best 1.6 threes per game, at a career-high 35.2% efficiency.
That increased confidence offensively needs to show in Fever training camp while the defense needs to continue to shine.
The regular season starts May 14 and 15, but the spots for Sheldon and Taylor will be known ahead of time.
On May 13, all WNBA teams need to make final cuts, with training camp starting April 28. It’ll be a nervy two weeks for fans, but even more so for the pair of Buckeyes hoping to cement the jump from the amateur to professional level.
Continue reading...