Newsstand: Laila Phelia named top-10 draft prospect for 2024
Michigan women’s basketball has made it a habit of late to send star players to the WNBA Draft and it could have another in 2024. According to a recent big board put out, soon-to-be-junior guard Laila Phelia is considered the No. 9 overall prospect in the 2024 WNBA Draft class as of April 20.
TheNextHoops.com writes:
The Laila Phelia we saw before a Jan. 29 left leg injury was basically the perfect off-ball guard: elite shooting, shot-creation in iso, easy rim pressure and, above all else, best-in-the-nation backcourt defense. The numbers jump off the page — 17 points per game, 41.1% from three on 3.3 attempts, 4.4 free-throws, 1.5 steals and a 90th-percentile block rate, per CBB Analytics — but Phelia was most impressive shutting down the nation’s best offensive guards. There’s really only three knocks against her: that she’s only been this good for one injury-affected season, that she flashes plus finishing but is inconsistent there and that she provides zero value-added passing. The first two are a lot more likely to resolve themselves than the third.
Michigan has had players drafted in each of the last two seasons in Naz Hillmon (2022) and Leigha Brown (2023), both going to the Atlanta Dream.
Tweets of the day
Michigan quote of the day
“Whereas in the first year, for me specifically, it was so much scheme driven and this is what they’ve done, this is what I think we can do. Now, to be able to feel really, really comfortable with the scheme and the system to really hone in on the technical pieces of the game that we can control. That’s been fun to see. Fun to see the players really buy into that. Our assistant coaches have done a tremendous job in those regards.”
– Michigan football defensive coordinator Jesse Minter on his second year with the program
Headlines of the day
Wolverine TV: Handicapping No. 2 CB battle, latest on hoops transfer portal
‘A lot of chess pieces’ on the Michigan defense for Jesse Minter, including one important one
An update on the progress of the Hail! Impact NIL initiative at Michigan
Blue Chips: Kirk Campbell set to see Bryce Underwood, the nation’s No. 1 QB
Blue Chips II: Top 100 DB locks in official visit with Michigan
