Former Utah women's basketball star Megan Huff seemed to have landed in a good spot in the WNBA last month, being drafted early in the the third round by a struggling team.
But the All-Pac-12 forward failed to impress the New York Liberty coaching staff and didn't make the roster for the team's season-opening game Friday vs. Indiana. In another surprise, former Ute guard Leilani Mitchell was waived by the Phoenix Mercury. The team may try to re-sign the 10-year veteran to a reworked contract, according to High Post Hoops.
The Liberty took Huff with the second pick of the third round, No. 26 overall, after she averaged 19.6 points and 9.9 rebounds as a Utah senior. General manager Jonathan Kolb said the team liked how Huff’s skills didn’t duplicate those of other players on the roster. But she never got much traction in training camp, even on a team that lost its last 13 games of the 2018 season to finish 7-27.
Huff played 15 minutes in the Liberty’s preseason opener, posting four points and three rebounds in a win over the Chinese national team. Her playing time dropped off in three games against WNBA teams and Huff finished with averages of 1.7 points and 1.0 rebounds in the preseason.
Huff likely will sign with a European team for the winter season. “She’ll be a pro for a long time,” Ute coach Lynne Roberts predicted during Huff’s senior year.
Mitchell, who will turn 35 in June, has played in 313 games over 10 seasons in the WNBA and competed for Australia in the 2016 Olympics. Phoenix kept four draft picks. “We’ve gone we’ve gone from being a pretty old team to a much younger team and more balanced. It still doesn’t take away some of the hurt losing [Mitchell],” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman told The Arizona Republic.
