Wnba Has Clinesmith In Draft Sites

Stacy Clinesmith has to be feeling pretty good about today’s WNBA draft.

The 1996 Mead High School graduate is one of 14 women chosen by the WNBA to attend today’s draft in Secaucus, N.J.

Clinesmith, a 5-foot-5 senior point guard from UC Santa Barbara, left campus Monday afternoon and will be at the NBA Entertainment studio this morning, site of the four-round draft that begins at 8 a.m. (PDT). Sixty-four players will be selected by the 16 teams.

“Wow. This is a big, fuzzy dream,” Clinesmith told the News-Press of Santa Barbara.

Clinesmith, along with University of Idaho senior forward Alli Nieman, played at the league’s pre-draft camp earlier this month in Chicago. Apparently, the petite Clinesmith made a big impression.

According to Clinesmith’s father, Marvin, Detroit, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Seattle and Miami have shown interest in her. Sacramento coach Sonny Allen was at the Big West Tournament, where Clinesmith scored a career-high 36 points in the title game.

Clinesmith averaged 12.3 points and had 5.1 assists per game during her career at UCSB. She made 39.9 percent of her 3-point shots and had a 3-to-1 assists-to-turnover ratio.

Others invited to today’s draft are Maylana Martin of UCLA, Grace Daley of Tulane, Edwina Brown of Texas, Summer Erb of North Carolina State, Marla Brunfield of Rice, Tamicha Jackson and Betty Lennox of Louisiana Tech, Shawnetta Stewart and Usha Gilmore of Rutgers, Lynn Pride of Kansas, former ABL players Tausha Mills of Alabama and Naomi Mulitauopele of Stanford and foreign player Kamila Vodichkova.

Clinesmith was accompanied to New York/New Jersey by her UCSB coach, Mark French.

The draft can be seen live on NBA.com, the NBA’s 24-hour digital television network. For more information on today’s picks, log on to wnba.com. Former Moscow High star Andrea Lloyd-Curry, a forward on the WNBA Minnesota Lynx, is a regular columnist on the site.