By Adeyinka Adedipe
Rice University guard Erica Ogwumike has become the fourth Owl to be taken in the WNBA Draft when she was selected 26th overall by the New York Liberty on Friday night.
She was immediately traded to the Minnesota Lynx where she would begin her professional career as soon as the Coronavirus pandemic is contained in the US.
The Nigerian-American had already shown her potential when she emerged The Owls’ all-time leader in scoring average. Apart from playing basketball, Ogwumike has also been accepted in nine medical schools across the US.
However, the youngest of the Ogwumike siblings will now have to wait before going to medical school as her WNBA career takes off.
Unlike her sisters, she took a different path to begin her professional career. She was not a highly-touted recruit nor did she make any NCAA Tournament Final Four appearances. She took a less conventional route, going from Pepperdine to Rice, where her career blossomed.
Ogwumike finished her collegiate career as the back-to-back Conference USA Player of the Year. She led her team to back-to-back regular season conference championships and an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2019. A truncated 2020 season prevented what could have been another postseason run.
The 5’9” Erica joins her sisters, Nneka and Chiney in the professional ranks. She is the third of four sisters to earn a WNBA Draft selection. Both Nneka and Chiney were chosen first overall, Nneka by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2012 and Chiney by the Connecticut Sun in 2014.
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