Former UCLA guard Japreece Dean will begin her professional career in the Windy City.
The Chicago Sky selected Dean with the 30th overall pick in the third round of Friday’s 2020 WNBA draft, which was held remotely due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Dean, the seventh point guard selected in this year’s draft, will join a Chicago squad that had three All-Stars at the guard position last season – Diamond DeShields, Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot – and finished third in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago also selected power forwards Ruthy Hebard from Oregon and Kiah Gillespie from Florida State in this year’s draft, adding to a team entering its second season under coach James Wade’s leadership.
Due to the precautions surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, the start to Dean’s first professional season has been postponed, with preseason training camps moved to a date to be determined later.
In three seasons as a Bruin, Dean averaged 12.1 points and 4.4 assists per game, including 13.7 points per game in her final season – good for second on the team in scoring.
As a redshirt senior, she also dished out 5.5 assists per game, the second-most in the Pac-12 behind the draft’s No. 1 overall pick Sabrina Ionescu from Oregon, and Dean led UCLA in minutes with 33.8 per contest.
Dean recorded her first career triple-double this past season in a Nov. 26 victory against Yale as part of the Bruins’ program-best 16-0 start to the campaign. She helped UCLA finish 26-5, the best record in her tenure at Westwood.
The guard from Austin, Texas, shot just 30.3% from the field and 25% from 3-point range in Pac-12 competition, as the Bruins went 14-4 in conference play before their elimination at the hands of Stanford in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.
Dean’s final collegiate season was cut short – and her first as a professional may get off to a late start. What is certain, however, is that she can add WNBA draftee to her resume.
