By Okon Ekpenyong, with Sportzketz

There are several quality sharpshooters in the 2023 WNBA Draft class with defensive mindsets, as well as guards who had to score, rebound, distribute the ball, and do everything in their power to help their team succeed.

WNBA draft prospects Taylor Mikeshell, an Ohio native who played her final two collegiate seasons at Ohio State after starting her basketball career at Maryland and Oregon, is one of the players in the 2023 Draft class on ESPN tonight at 7 p.m. in New York City.

During the past two years, Mikesell has played an essential role in helping the Buckeyes achieve so much, including becoming the Co-Big Ten regular season champions in her first season with the team, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2022, and reaching the Elite Eight in 2023 for the first time since 1993. In both seasons, the 5-11 guard from Massillon, Ohio, averaged 17.2 points per game this past season and ranked in the top five in three-point field goals made.

The 5-11 guard explained in an interview with Eleven Warriors that transferring to Ohio State was one of the best decisions she ever made, as the team allowed her to play to her strengths and helped prepare her to play professionally.

During her final collegiate game against Virginia Tech, in the elite eight match-ups, she scored 25 points and hit seven three-pointers, an NCAA tournament record for the Buckeyes.

When Mikeshell gets up to a hot start, she typically stays on that roll since her quick release can frustrate her opponent’s defensive strategies. In tonight’s draft, she will be the first Ohio State player to be in the draft since 2018, and according to Eleven Warriors, former Buckeye Dorka Juhász, who played three seasons with Ohio State from 2018-21 before transferring to UConn, is also part of the draft and projected to be selected late in the first or early in the second round.

Any WNBA team can expect a sharpshooter capable of frustrating the opponent’s defense with a triple with a nice floater.

A live broadcast of the WNBA draft, which includes 36 picks across three rounds, will begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Updates:

In the second round, the Indiana Fever selected Mikesell with the 13th pick. The team also selected South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston as the overall pick, Indiana’s Grace Berger as the 7th pick, and LSU’s LaDazhia Williams as the 17th pick.

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