Final Four provides boost to WNBA

BOSTON – The NCAA’s thrilling 25th women’s championship game set the stage for the WNBA’s 10th season.

“How was that game last night?” the pro league’s president Donna Orender marveled Wednesday. “Could you ask for more?”

The WNBA did.

Less than 24 hours after Maryland overcame a 13-point deficit and beat Duke 78-75 in overtime, the league turned its draft into more of a spectacle by staging it for the first time away from the NBA’s television studio in Secaucus, N.J. That enabled more fans and reporters from the Final Four to attend.

“I think we had 22 credentials for press last year and we had 78 today,” Orender said before the draft at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

The league announced that the All-Star game, set for July 12, will be held at Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Liberty and site of the first All-Star game in 1999. The Liberty’s Becky Hammon and Orender unveiled the logo for this year’s game.

Twenty-two college players were on hand for the draft compared with 15 last year. Orender said discussions will be held on whether to hold the draft at next year’s Final Four in Cleveland, but she was upbeat about the possibility.

Other changes are on tap for the WNBA’s 10th season, which begins May 20. The expansion Chicago Sky will start play as the league’s 14th team, a 10-member All-Decade team will be chosen and a vote will be taken to determine the WNBA’s 10 greatest moments.

The WNBA predraft camp was held Saturday in Boston before Sunday night’s NCAA semifinals. Past predraft camps were held in the New York metropolitan area and, for a time, in Chicago.

“The fact that we’re able to actually get a jump on our predraft camp and getting our players assigned to their teams so that markets can market behind those players” benefits the league, Orender said. “It’s a great way for us to entertain clients, interact with city and fan, collegiate and media base here.”

Last year, the draft was held 11 days after the Final Four, which was in Indianapolis.

“When the idea was first raised, there was almost an unanimity on the concept” of moving the draft to the Final Four city, Orender said. “People said, ‘Wow, that would make a lot of sense.’ … I can’t speak enough to the relationship that we have with the NCAA. It’s positive. It’s progressive.”

Orender said she was optimistic that two teams could be added “in the next several years” and, with a deep college pool this year, “we have more than enough talent to populate multiple (new) teams.”

For the sixth straight season, the number of countries that get WNBA games increased, reaching 193 last year after reaching 78 in 1999, she said.

“We’ve never been better positioned,” Orender said. “Our business has grown substantially in 2005.”

Two players from the NCAA Final Four were among the top three draft picks – No. 1 Seimone Augustus of LSU went to Minnesota and No. 3 Monique Currie of Duke went to Charlotte.

“The Final Four was a terrific showcase for women’s basketball,” Orender said, “but now, today, the very best in the college game will have the opportunity to consider their basketball careers in the WNBA, which is the destination for the greatest female players in the world.”