Iowa basketball: Gustafson slighted again as she falls to 2nd round

Former Iowa basketball player Megan Gustafson was selected in the 2019 WNBA Draft this evening, but it was much later than expected.

The 2019 WNBA Draft took place this evening and former Iowa basketball player Megan Gustafson was in attendance in New York City to hear her named called.

As we detailed earlier this week, Gustafson was projected by most WNBA draft sites as a likely first-round pick with most sites projecting her to be picked by the WNBA champion Seattle Storm with the final selection of the first round.

The first round, aired on ESPN2, came and went, however, without Gustafson hearing her name called. Instead, it was Ezi Magbegor from Australia who went to the Storm with the final pick of the first round.

Then, four more women heard their names called in the second round before we finally heard the greatest player of all-time in Iowa basketball history’s name called.

All in all, 16 women were selected ahead of the 2019 Naismith Player of the Year who led the country in scoring and shooting percentage despite being targeted with double and triple-teams all season.

It’s honestly ridiculous.

While there were valid concerns from an athleticism standpoint considering Gustafson is a tad smaller than most centers in the league at 6’3” and doesn’t provide the ability to stretch the floor like some of the bigger forwards, all people need to do is look at her production. Against two women who were drafted ahead of her (Kalani Brown of Baylor and Jessica Shepard of Notre Dame), Gustafson put up 23 points with 9 rebounds and 26 points with 10 rebounds respectively.

Again, nothing against those ladies, but Gustafson outplayed both of them both in the eye test and on the stat sheet.

Although this is just a minor setback, the former Iowa basketball player will be joining the Dallas Wings who finished 5th out of 6 teams in the Western Conference. This Wings team though is likely going to lose their star center Liz Cambage (she requested a trade) and is without their star guard Skylar Diggins-Smith (pregnancy) for the season. This opens a door for the 6’3” Gustafson to get immediate playing time, which is a better situation than what she would have been walking in to with the Storm in terms of playing time.

Anybody who watched Iowa basketball this year knows what Megan Gustafson can do. She’s just going to have to prove herself again, which we all know she can and will.