If You Build It, They Will Come

With the highly anticipated 2024 WNBA ready to start today, let's look at the Iowa Connections in the WNBA this season, including this Fever rookie named Caitlin.  Washington Mystics    Julie Vanloo - Signed letter of intent to play with Iowa State in 2011 but the Belgium was not granted international eligibility from the NCAA. This is her first season with the WNBA.   Dallas Wings   Stephanie Soares - The #4 pick in the 2023 draft out of Iowa State, Soares will be playing her first season in the WNBA after missing laster year with an ACL injury.   Las Vegas Aces   Kiah Stokes - From Cedar Rapids, Kiah will be in her 10th season in WNBA. She won 3 NCAA titles with UConn and the last 2 titles with Las Vegas.   Megan Gustafson - Megan was AP Player of the Year with Iowa in 2019 and has played previous season with Dallas, Washington and Phoenix. This offseason she was Finals MVP for the London Lions in the WBBL final....

 Unlike the Hawkeyes, the top of the list for the Cyclones makes sense.  #1 is Tyrese Haliburton, soon to be all-star dropped into this card era has three times as many cards as anyone else on the list.  Hornacek snuck past Jamal Tinsley for #2 this year, a gap that will probably grow as Hornacek is more likely to be in sets now.   Talen Horton-Tucker is #4, and graced this card count generation like Haliburton, but with less juice.  #5 is Wesley Johnson, who didn't end his college career in Ames but did start there. Marcus Fizer at #7 is probably correct, despite being the #2 draft pick, but his pro career didn't really explode. As for the collection, 74 new additions this year with Haliburton leading the way with 29 new cards and Hornacek with 14.  Monte Morris, Craig Brackins, Justin Hamilton, Bridget Carleton and Dedric Willoughby added their first cards to my collection this year. Player ICDB Rank Have Total ICDB 2022 Have...

  Here's my updated list for Iowa Connections on WNBA teams.  Connections are sparser than the NFL, so I will only list teams with connections. Iowa State Cyclones : 2 Iowa Hawkeyes : 1 1 - Indiana:        Kathleen Doyle (Iowa) 1 - Dallas :      Megan Gustafson (Iowa) 1 - Minnesota:      Bridget Carleton  (ISU)