{"id":2646,"date":"2024-04-17T19:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-17T19:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2024-04-18T19:57:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T19:57:49","slug":"washington-mystics-select-aaliyah-edwards-with-sixth-pick-in-wnba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/17\/washington-mystics-select-aaliyah-edwards-with-sixth-pick-in-wnba-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Mystics Select Aaliyah Edwards With Sixth Pick in WNBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/monumentalsports.com\/2024\/04\/washington-mystics-unveil-broadcast-schedule-for-2024-season\/\">Washington Mystics<\/a> selected forward&nbsp;Aaliyah Edwards&nbsp;from the University of Connecticut with the sixth overall pick in the <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/15\/get-to-know-the-top-2024-wnba-draft-prospects\/\">2024&nbsp;WNBA&nbsp;Draft<\/a>. The Mystics also selected&nbsp;Kaylynne Truong&nbsp;with the 21st pick and&nbsp;Nastja Claessens&nbsp;with the 30th pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are really excited to draft Aaliyah Edwards,\u201d said General Manager&nbsp;Mike Thibault. \u201cWe needed to select a player who complements Shakira Austin in our front court. Her competitiveness, high-end defensive motor and fast improving offensive game will fit well with what we are trying to build for our culture and future success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Mystics first round draft pick Aaliyah Edwards with a message for young kids that look up to her. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/WNBADraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#WNBADraft<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dbltakesports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@dbltakesports<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oZpeaMzFHi\">pic.twitter.com\/oZpeaMzFHi<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaritaCParks\/status\/1780032935279710545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 16, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Edwards (6-3) averaged 17.6 points, 9.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.7 steals per game with the Huskies while shooting .593 from the field in 37 games (all starts) as a senior this past season. She also totaled 18 double-doubles and was named Big East player of the week twice in 2023-24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Canada native scored 24 points in the NCAA Elite Eight on Apr. 1 vs. USC and had a career-high five steals in the Final Four vs. Iowa on Apr. 5. Edwards finished her collegiate career ranked 15<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;in school history with 1,861 career points, eighth in rebounds with 1,020, sixth in double-doubles with 35, and was the sixth player in program history with 1,800 career points and 1,000 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to earning multiple player of the week nods, Edwards was also named to the 2024 Big East First Team. Additionally, she earned multiple honors including: a 2024 AP All-America honorable mention, a 2024 USBWA Second Team nod, was a top-10 finalist for 2024 WBCA All-America as well as the 2024 Wooden Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During her junior season, she was named the 2023 Big East Most Improved Player, 2023 All-Big East First Team and was on the 2023 AP Third Team. As a freshman, Edwards was named the 2021 Big East Sixth Woman of the Year in addition to being on the 2021 Big East All-Freshman Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In international competition, Edwards has been a member of the Canadian senior national team since she was 16 years old and was the youngest member of the Canadian team during her Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While some fans wanted Angel Reese who was still on the board, Thibault noted that they chose Edwards because she complements their current roster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truong (5-8) appeared in 36 games (all starts) for Gonzaga as a fifth-year senior during the 2023-24 season, averaging 11.4 points, career-best 5.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game while shooting .422 from three-point range.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Houston, Texas, native led the Bulldogs in assists per game, and her 208 assists during the 2023-24 season are the fourth-most in a single season in Bulldogs women\u2019s basketball history. She ranked second on the team in total three-point field goals made (93) and three-point percentage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She leaves Gonzaga second in three-point field goals made (280) and assists (623).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Claessens (6-0) has appeared in eight games for the top-division of the Royal Castors Braine in the Belgian Women&#8217;s Basketball League. During the 2023-24 season, she has averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, and 1.3 steals per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In five Eurocup games for Castors Braine, she averaged 12.8 points 2.6 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.4 steals per game while shooting .526 from three-point range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 19-year-old has been a member of the Belgium National Team since 2019 and most recently competed with the national team in the 2024 FIBA Women\u2019s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Antwerp, Belgium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mystics selected Aaliyah Edwards from the University of Connecticut with the sixth overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. Here&#8217;s how they see her fitting in with the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mystics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/aaliyahedwards.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2654,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions\/2654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}