Rachel Banham was nervous. Her heart was beating as she sat in the Mohegan Sun Arena Thursday night.
"I really wanted 'em to say my name," Banham said. "I kind of said a prayer before she said it."
It was, apparently, answered.
Banham, the Gophers star guard who scored herself into the All-America team, was taken by the Connecticut Sun with the fourth pick in the WNBA draft. Noting the selection eerily echoed Gophers star Lindsay Whalen going to the Sun at No. 4 in 2004, Banham pledged to bring her scoring mentality with her from Minnesota to the WNBA.
"It's weird, in a sense," Banham said. "Everything worked out great for her, and I just hope that I can do the same and make an impact in this league.''
Last April Banham, the fourth Gophers player to be taken in the first round of the draft, got the OK to start running on her surgically repaired right knee. Months later she was setting the Big Ten Conference on fire. She finished second in the nation in scoring (28.3 points per game), was conference player of the year and had a season that included games of 60, 52 and 48 points. She finished her career with 3,093 points.
And now this. "I don't' want to think about it too long, it will make me kind of emotional," Banham said. "But it's been a real cool journey."
Banham's impression is that the Sun will look to use her outside scoring ability to spread the floor, likely most often at point guard.
"He said I'll be at the point, but he said there will be times I can be at the two as well," Banham said of Sun coach Curt Miller. "But he wants me to bring my scoring mentality to the league and just be fearless."
Banham was the first player not from the University of Connecticut to be drafted after Breanna Stewart went to Seattle, Moriah Jefferson to San Antonio and Morgan Tuck going to the Sun.
Banham's big games this season — especially the 60 points she scored in a double OT victory over Northwestern — caught the eye of just-retired Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant.
Banham said she needs to work on her strength, man-to-man defense and ball-handling skills.
Banham is such a fan of Bryant's that she adopted a version of his nickname. Bryant is the Black Mamba, Banham the Maroon Mamba. Now one has retired, and one is about to start her pro career.
"I gotta carry on the Mamba torch," she said.
