The Wolfpacker

20 ■ THE WOLFPACKER TRACKING THE PACK It had been six years since an NC State women's basketball player had heard her name called during the WNBA Draft. And you'd have to go back even further — 14 years — to find the last time a Wolfpack player had gone in the first round of the draft. But both those milestones were eclipsed April 14 in Uncasville, Conn., when the Pack's most successful season in the last two decades concluded with two of the prime architects of that success realizing their dream of playing professional basketball. Markeisha Gatling, NC State's most dominant post player in seven years, became the first Pack alumna since Sharon Manning in 1997 to be drafted in the first round. The Raleigh native was the 10th pick overall, and the first pick by the Chicago Sky. "Playing pro basketball has been a dream ever since I first picked up a basketball, when I was 8 or 9 — so about 13 years," Gatling said. "I just remember hearing my name and walking up on stage — everything else is a blank." Within the next hour, teammate Kody Burke became the second Pack player from the class of 2010 to realize her own childhood dream. Burke was the 32nd overall pick, and the eighth selection of the third round, taken by the Washington Mystics. "It's every girl's dream [to play professionally] when you first step on the court," the Northridge, Calif., native admitted. "But I just didn't know how real that dream was, so I didn't try to focus on it too much this year." After Gatling's season, in which she earned first-team All-ACC honors, selection to the Wade and Naismith award watch lists and honorable mention Associated Press All-America recognition, her chances for WNBA selection were pretty much a foregone conclu- sion even before she received an invitation to attend the proceed- ings in Connecticut. Only 12 players are invited to attend the draft live, and all are projected first-round picks. First-year NC State head coach Wes Moore accompanied Gatling and her family — marking a milestone for his career, as well. "The closest I'd ever come to having a player drafted in the first round was when [Tennessee-Chattanooga star] Alex Anderson was drafted by San Antonio in the second round in 2009, and Laura Hall went as a free agent to the Connecticut Sun," Moore said. "I had a buddy who also coaches Division I call me and said his wife saw me on TV and said that was the happiest she'd ever seen me." "Coach Moore told me beforehand I'd probably go anywhere between seventh and 10th," Gatling said. "Then, after each pick came and I wasn't taken [UConn's Brie Hartley, Louisville's Shoni Schimmel and Notre Dame's Natalie Achonwa were the seventh- ninth picks], Coach kept saying: 'You're next.' I was real nervous until then." Chicago notched its first winning season in 2013, earning the Eastern Conference regular-season title with a 20-14 mark, but lost to Indiana in the conference semifinals. "When you watch Markeisha play, you can see her ability to post and seal, and really be a physical presence in the paint," Sky head coach Pokey Chapman told CSN.Chicago.com. "She can help us set some screens and get rebounds, which is definitely something we need to add to the arsenal." "Other than Chicago being so cold, I'm really looking forward to playing there," Gatling said. "I'm especially looking forward to playing with [Delaware All-American and 2013 WNBA Rookie of the Year] Elena Delle Donne." Unlike her teammate, Burke was unsure of her draft status de- spite second-team All-ACC selection and a 43-percent shooting accuracy from the floor this season, including 32.8 percent from three-point range. "I watched [the draft] in the clubhouse at the College Inn, basi- cally by myself," she said. "I was just watching to see Keisha and some of the other girls I'd played against get drafted. When they announced my name, I just froze. I stepped outside, and then all these texts started coming in — Coach Moore called to congratulate me. Then I realized it was real." The Mystics (third in the Eastern Conference last year with a 17-17 mark and losers to Atlanta in the conference semifinals) feature five ACC alumnae, including former UNC star point guard and 2013-14 assistant coach Ivory Latta, Duke's Monique Currie and Maryland's Tianna Hawkins. Both players reported April 26 to their respective teams — but they won't have long to wait to have a reunion. The first game of the 2014 WNBA season pairs the Sky and Mystics May 13. Burke, who will graduate this month, said the Sky will fly her back to Raleigh so she can attend the ceremony. The first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American and this year's NC State Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year already had a job lined up "but it will have to wait a little longer," she said. Gatling will finish up her degree after the WNBA season and expects to graduate after the fall semester. Gatling and Burke are the 14th and 15th Wolfpack players se- lected to play in the WNBA, and will be the first active players on a WNBA roster since Kadijah Whittington played for Indiana in 2009. Burke is the third Pack player to play for Washington, fol- lowing Kaayla Chones (2004) and Gillian Goring (2007). Gatling is the first NC State player to play for Chicago. — Brian Rapp TWO PACK SENIORS ARE CHOSEN IN WNBA DRAFT Markeisha Gatling was chosen by the Chicago Sky with the 10th pick overall in the first round of this year's WNBA Draft. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN 14,16,18,20,22,24.TTP.indd 20 4/29/14 3:45 PM

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