Shameka Christon
This is
THE NEXT LEVEL
The Razorbacks have contributed to the WNBA ranks with four players who have made the rosters. A fifth was invited to try out but did not make the opening day roster. A sixth player, C’eira Ricketts, was the 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft but did not make the roster. Ricketts went on to play oversees for the Flying Foxes in Austria. Teammates Lyndsay Harris and Ashley Daniels also went oversees in 2012-13. Harris plays in Spain and Daniels in Portugal. The most notable player is Shameka Christon. Christon is the most successful Arkansas women’s basketball player in the WNBA. The former SEC Player of the Year and SEC Legend remains the highest drafted women’s basketball player in Arkansas history when she
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was taken fifth overall in the first round by the New York Liberty. Playing in 33 of 34 regular-season games as a contributor from the bench, Christon helped the Liberty to a second-place finish in the Eastern Division in 2004 and was selected to the All-Star team in 2009 when she led the Liberty with 16.1 ppg and 31.7 minutes-pergame. Christon was traded to the Chicago Sky for the 2010 season averaging 8.5 ppg and 2.4 rpg and apg. In the past seasons, Arkansas has sent 12 of its star players into the professional ranks, with four of the most notable standouts helping their teams reach the WNBA playoffs during their rookie seasons. Lauren Ervin joined her team in 2009. The Connecticut Sun drafted Ervin in the third
round of the 2008 WNBA Draft even though the double-double post threat could not play the 2008 season due to a college career ending ACL injury. Wendi Willits came home in 2001 with a World Championship ring as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks. Willits became the second Razorback to make a WNBA regular-season roster. Signed by the Sparks as a free agent, Willits survived the preseason games and graduation to make the opening day roster for L.A. It was ironic that Willits’ Sparks knocked off her former Arkansas’ teammate’s old WNBA team. In 1998, Christy Smith became the first Razorback women’s basketball player to go to the WNBA. She was the only WNBA player to go from the 1998 Women’s Final Four to the 1998 WNBA Playoffs.