Chicago Sky High With #2 Draft Pick

By Jim Niendorff (Contributed)
Posted Monday, April 7, 2008

CHICAGO – An apt title for the story of the two teams who will pick #1 and #2 in this year’s Women’s National Basketball Association Draft to be held on April 9 could be A Tale of Two Cities.

The Los Angeles Sparks, which holds the #1 pick, hopes to again reach the loftiness it had in 2006 when it finished the season 25-9 and lost in the conference finals. The Chicago Sky, which holds the #2 pick, hopes to taste playoff competition for the first time in their three-year WNBA existence.

The Sparks, one of the original eight WNBA teams, are trying to rebound from a dismal 2007 season when they finished with a record of 10-24. That team was led by 6-2 center/forward Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who averaged a team-best 11.4 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.

The Chicago Sky finished its inaugural campaign of 2006 with a 5-29 record under the coaching of ex-Boston Celtics great Dave Cowens. After Cowens resigned to join the coaching ranks of the NBA, the Sky brought in women’s college coach Bo Overton to take over as head coach and general manager. Overton resigned in mid-March of 2008 for reasons still not really known, and the Sky has named assistant coach Steve Key as Head Coach and General Manager for the 2008 season.

Under Overton the team improved to 14-20 in 2007. The Sky lost nine of those games by six or fewer points that year. In almost tripling their win total from the prior year, the team was headed in the right direction, and they remained in the playoff hunt until the final week of the season.

The Sky were led last year by 6-2 forward Candice Dupree with 16.3 points per game and 7.7 rebounds per game, and 5-8guard Jia Perkins with 11.7 points per game.

The emergence of 2007 #3 draft pick, 5-9 guard Armintie Price from the University of Mississippi, also helped the Sky to their improved record. Price, the only Ole Miss player ever drafted into the WNBA, had a stellar 2007 campaign, averaging 7.9 points per ggame, 6.9 rebounds per game, and 2.9 assists per ggame in leading her to the WNBA’s 2007 Rookie of the Year award.

So what type of player does the Sky need in the draft to keep improving?

“We have to keep bringing talented players onto our roster," Overton said, before he resigned. "We need to keep making solid moves like bringing in Armintie Price and Candice Dupree and build on that. That’s how all the other successful teams in this league were formed and that’s how we’re planning on doing it. And it’s really important to our progress that we get another player like that in this year’s draft.”

With the emergence of Price and the play of Perkins at the guard spot, it would seem that the Sky would look for help in the middle to complement Dupree in the frontcourt.

So who ranks front and center in this year’s draft?

Two players seem to be head and shoulders above the rest of the centers this year : Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles.

Parker, a 6-4 guard/center/forward from the University of Tennessee, has averaged 21.3 points per game and 8.4 rebounds per game as a junior. She has completed her collegiate educational requirements and carries a 3.35 GPA. Parker’s collegiate resume is nothing short of outstanding, having won the John Wooden Award and the USBWA’s Player of the Year in 2007 – as well as the Wade Trophy and All-America honors -- while leading the Vols to the national championship.

“[Parker] can dunk, score, and defend. She has likeability. She’s pretty. She’s smart. I think Candace Parker really is the poster child for marketing women’s basketball in the future,” says Nancy Lieberman, a former WNBA player and coach who is now an ESPN analyst.

Fowles, the 6-6 center, has had an incredible career at LSU, averaging 17.3 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game her senior year. She has recorded 43 steals and 46 blocks during her time at LSU. She shoots 60 percent from the field. Fowles recently notched her 79th career double-double, breaking the previous SEC record held by Georgia’s Janet Harris. The University of Connecticut can attest to Fowles’ prowess on the court; she scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in helping LSU eliminate the Huskies in the 2007 NCAA tournament.

“No one in the country can guard Sylvia one-on-one,” states former Arkansas women’s head coach Susie Gardner.

So what is the next chapter?

Candace Parker, in providing the Sparks with on-the-floor skills and off-the-court marquee value in a city where professional basketball used to be known as “Showtime” would seem to be the logical pick for the Sparks.

That would seemingly leave Fowles as the #2 pick for the Sky. Fowles’ incredible work ethic should make her an immediate fan favorite in Chicago. And with the middle covered by Fowles, solid forward play by Dupree and Stacey Dales, and the continuing emergence of Price at the guard spot, the sky is certainly where the team will be looking in 2008.

And for those fans who are looking for a prelude to this tale, they need wait only until May 8 when the two teams tangle in a pre-season exhibition game at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, IL. If the future of these two stars resembles anything near that of their collective past, even that game should be an epic one.