August 25, 2024
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Revisiting the journey of Courtney Vandersloot
By The Next
'She is the definition of a point guard'
On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Hunter Cruse is joined by Em Adler and Lincoln Shafer to discuss the college career, draft, and subsequent WNBA journey of point guard Courtney Vandersloot. The episode, part of the WNBA retrospect series, takes listeners back to Vandersloot’s college days at Gonzaga, her experience in the 2011 draft, and more.
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Cruse, Adler, and Shafer start out the show by going through some of Vandersloot’s shocking college stats. Cruse informs listeners that, during her senior year, Vandersloot posted a 49% assist rate and a 16% turnover rate. “I’m pretty sure she had more assists than everyone else on Gonzaga’s team combined,” Cruse remarks. Shafer jumps in with some other remarkable Vandersloot statistics, like her average of 20 points per game.
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The hosts move onto discussing how Vandersloot shaped up leading up to the 2011 WNBA draft. Adler in particular reflects on the way Vandersloot instilled confidence in fans and viewers. “It’s rare that you run into a prospect like this,” she says, “where you’re so sure of the highest-level skills that you feel comfortable actually getting to miss the other things.”
Cruse agrees. “She’s not some insane vertical athlete,” he says, “but some of the way she would finish was … such a threat.”
To wrap up the show, the hosts bring Vandersloot’s performance to the current day and assess her skill set, grade-wise, in 2024. “It’s a hard six for me,” Adler says, “just given what I talk about in terms of adjusting for age. And the defensive questions are just so big for me.”
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