After going 26-10 during the regular season, the defending champion Chicago Sky will head into the WNBA playoffs as the No. 2 overall seed. They will take on the No. 7 seeded New York Liberty in the first round, setting up a showdown between former Gonzaga star Courtney Vandersloot and Oregon Ducks legend Sabrina Ionescu.
The pair of point guards are the only players in D1 college basketball to post 2,000 points and 1,000 assists, and they both did it under the tutelage of head coach Kelly Graves.
Vandersloot finished the 2022 season, her 11th in the league, averaging 11.8 points, 6.5 assists, and 3.9 rebounds while shooting 36.5% from the field. She started 32 games, missing four games with a concussion earlier in the year.
She also passed Lindsay Whalen for third place in WNBA history in assists, while making her fourth All-Star Game.
Meanwhile, Ionescu continues her ascent into one of the best WNBA players in the league. She averaged 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 6.3 assists for the Liberty this season, making her first All-Star Game and twice being named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month.
The Sky will look to become back-to-back WNBA champions, while the Liberty will look to ride their recent momentum into a big upset in the first round of the playoffs, which are set to begin on Wednesday, August 17.
Andy hosts the Locked on Zags and Locked on College Basketball podcasts, and serves Locked On in a marketing/digital content creator role as well. He lives just outside Portland with his wife Jenna and dog, Tillie.