BATON ROUGE — Aiysha Smith, a senior on the LSU Lady Tigers basketball team, has been selected as one of a handful of players invited to New York City for the 2003 WNBA Draft which is tentatively schedule for Friday afternoon.
The draft is pending a collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA players the league, which, as of Thursday morning had not been reached.
Smith, a 6-2 post player from Detroit, Mich., helped lead the nationally ranked Lady Tigers to a SEC Tournament title and an NCAA Elite Eight appearance. She was second on the team in scoring averaging (13.2 ppg) and rebounds (5.6 rpg) and was named first-team All-Louisiana and third-team All-Southeastern Conference by the Associated Press.
ESPN analyst Doris Burke ranked Smith seventh in the top 10 list of prospects in this year draft.
“Aiysha Smith is one of the better athletes in the draft,” Burke said on WNBA.com. “She comes out of LSU, so in terms of preparation, having played in the best conference in college basketball in the SEC, she’s proven an ability to be successful.”
Smith’s teammates DeTrina White and Ke-Ke Tardy are also listed as draft prospects.
White, a 5-11 post player from Lafayette, La., is listed as one of the top prospects by WNBA.com and by ESPN analyst Ann Meyers. White averaged 8.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this past season, but missed eight games with a broken foot.
“I think DeTrina White is a good pick.” Meyers said on WNBA.com “She’s healthy, and with her being healthy, she’s a very strong rebounder. She has good footwork inside and is tough to stop on the low block. She’s quick defensively and strong.”
Tardy, a 6-1 post from Jackson, Miss., is listed by Burke as one of eight wild card players in the draft. She averaged 7.7 points and 2.5 rebounds per game and started 17 of the final 18 games of the season.
“Ke-Ke Tardy is long and athletic,” Burke said. “She’s a versatile post player who can run the floor.”
The WNBA draft consists of four rounds with each of the 14 teams making a selection in each round pending and trades prior to or during the draft.