SPOKANE, Wash. — The 2022 WNBA draft begins at 4 PM PDT on Monday. It's a special one for Spokane as Central Valley alum Lexie Hull will likely have her name announced.
Hull decided to forgo her final year of eligibility at Stanford to chase her dream of playing professionally. She accomplished just about all she could in a Cardinal uniform winning a National Championship and earning All-Pac-12 honors three times in her four year career of college basketball.
The two-time Washington Gatorade Player of the Year while at Central Valley is coming off a standout senior year with Stanford where she averaged 12.5 points, 2 assists and 5.1 rebounds per game.
A key part of her skill set that scouts are in love with is her ability to shoot the three ball. She shot 41% from the field and 39% from three in 2021-22.
Hull has also been named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive team twice.
In other words, she can do it all.
What the analysts have to say about Hull heading into the draft:
SB Nation's Eric Nemchock - "Hull’s main appeal as a WNBA prospect will almost certainly be her outside shooting ability, as she shot 39.3 percent on 4.3 3-pointers per game as a senior. She’s also a stout pick-and-roll defender who navigates screens well; she averaged 2.2 steals per game as a senior and was selected to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team twice in her collegiate career. There aren’t many WNBA teams that Hull wouldn’t fit well on."
Just Women's Sports' Rachel Galligan - "At 6'1", Hull has the playmaking skills to go along with her high basketball IQ and impressive length at the guard spot. Hull is having the best shooting season of her collegiate career from beyond the arc, making 38.6 percent of her attempts. The senior is also an effective rebounder from the guard spot, pulling down 5.4 boards per game for the Cardinal. Hull is an appealing option as a tall, sharp-shooting guard, but she might struggle early on with the physicality of the WNBA. She’ll also need to adapt to the amount of ball screens at the next level since they’re not a big part of Stanford’s game plan."
Fitting that Hull is known for having a high basketball IQ as she earned the Elite 90 award given to the student-athlete at the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with the highest overall GPA.
Mock Draft projections for Hull:
Projections have Hull being taken in the mid-second to early-third round in the 12 team draft.
ESPN: 2nd Round, Pick 21, Seattle Storm
A landing spot locals would love to see. If this were to happen Hull would be teamed up with fellow Spokanite Briann January who signed with the Storm this offseason.
CBS Sports: Early-to-mid second round
CBS Sports did not release projected picks past the first round.
SB Nation: 3rd Round, Pick 25, Indiana Fever
The Fever are in a complete rebuild mode as they haven't made the playoffs since 2016.
The 2022 draft class is fairly guard heavy once the top post players go in the first round, so it is hard to predict where Hull will land. It's possible she could go as early as the late first to early second round.
That answer will come on Monday.