The Indiana Fever selected Georgia Tech center Sasha Goodlett with the 11th pick (first round) in the 2012 WNBA Draft and Virginia Commonwealth forward Courtney Hurt with the 34th pick (third round).
Goodlett helped the Yellow Jackets to a record 26 wins last season, while leading Tech to its first appearance in the NCAA Sweet Sixteen. Hurt, meanwhile, entered the draft as the nation’s leading rebounder and ninth-leading scorer with 22.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game. She led the NCAA in rebounding in two straight seasons and led the country with 25 double-doubles as a junior.
Goodlett, a 6-5 native of Jackson, Miss., averaged 14.5 points and 7.7 rebounds as a senior. She finished her career at Georgia Tech ranked among career leaders in points scored (10th), rebounds (9th) and blocked shots (5th). During her final campaign, Goodlett earned All-ACC Second Team and ACC All-Tournament First Team accolades as she helped the Jackets to 12 ACC wins and a 26-9 mark overall. The Yellow Jackets played in the ACC Championship Game for only the second time in school history.
“She was the player that we had targeted,” said Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Kelly Krauskopf about Goodlett. “Rebounding and size, that is what we wanted to fill, offensively and defensively. She’s got good form on her mechanics and she’s already a good mid-range shooter. She is coming to an experienced team, but she is coming to the right team to continue her development.”
Goodlett is just the second Georgia Tech player ever chosen in the first round of the WNBA Draft, following Alex Montgomery’s No. 10 selection, last season, by the New York Liberty. She played at Tech under MaChelle Joseph whose career began as a player and assistant coach at Purdue under Lin Dunn.
On Hurt, a 6-1 combo forward from Conyers, Ga., Krauskopf said, “she’s a premier rebounder for a player her size. She’s an undersized ‘4,’ but there are some others who have made it in our league, namely Sophia Young. She’ll have a competitive camp ahead of her and she’s a little under the radar, but she’s a rebounder and that’s what we were after.”
Hurt recorded perhaps the greatest season in mid-major VCU’s women’s basketball history as a junior, averaging 23.2 points and 12.4 rebounds per game while setting seven program records and three conference marks. She virtually matched those numbers as a senior, finishing her four-year career as the Rams all-time leader in scoring (2,092), rebounding (1,243) and double-doubles (58), which are the most by any men’s or women’s player in school history. In her senior year alone, she broke her own single season VCU records in scoring (757), rebounding (430), rebounding average (13.1 rpg) and field goals (276).
WNBA training camps open Sunday, April 29.
