If you feel like you’ve been busy this past month, the senior class from the UCLA women’s basketball team has you beat. After winning the NCAA championship on April 5th, six UCLA Bruins have been drafted and began WNBA training camp less than three weeks later.
That’s just the season for rookies entering the WNBA, as the start of the WNBA regular season is less than three weeks away. That gives the six champion Bruins just over a month between the historic championship run and the start of their professional careers.
For four of the Bruins, they won’t be having to do it alone. Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalic will be together with the Washington Mystics while Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker suiting up for the Connecticut Sun.
All six, Gabriela Jaquez and Kiki Rice included, began training camp on Sunday with their respective teams. We won’t have to wait long for the Bruins to go head-to-head on either, with Rice and the Toronto Tempo taking on Betts and Dugalic on May 8th for the season opener.
The Bruins have a couple players deserving of a break. Jaquez and Rice now sit in second and third in terms of games played in the program’s history at 145 and 143 games played. Not only did Rice and Jaquez have longevity with UCLA, Rice’s senior season was tied for the fifth-most minutes in a season in the program’s history. Jaquez wasn’t far behind her, finishing with the ninth-most minutes in a single-season this year.
The good news for the quick turnaround? The fans! UCLA fans won’t have to wait long before seeing the Bruin stars at the next level.
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: UCLA’s championship stars began WNBA training camp this past Sunday
Reporting by Dylan McNeill, UCLA Wire / UCLA Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
