Unmatched has introduced Participant No. 35, and it’s Indiana Fever guard Katie Lue Samuelson.
Samuelson, a five-year WNBA veteran, has averaged 5.9 factors and three.5 rebounds per recreation since being drafted 4th total by the Chicago Sky in 2019. She was a standout participant on the College of Connecticut, the place she averaged 16.7 factors throughout 4 seasons and shot 41.5% from three.
The three-on-3 skilled girls’s basketball league, which has been rolling out names of taking part WNBA gamers for months, is ready to formally tip-off on January seventeenth in Miami, with video games going down on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays for 9 weeks. A number of of Samuelson’s Fever teammates, together with Lexie Hull and Aliyah Boston, will take part within the league. In faculty, Samuelson was additionally teammates with Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, the league’s co-founders.
Samuelson had a troublesome 2024 marketing campaign after lacking the 2023 season as a result of being pregnant. She averaged simply 4.3 factors in 18.2 minutes per night time for Indiana after averaging 9.7 factors in 29.5 minutes per night time on the Sparks in 2022. Nonetheless, at her finest, she’s an elite ahead who can stretch the ground and do some little bit of every thing.
Why Unmatched?
Unmatched has the potential to rework girls’s basketball in some ways. For one, the league’s whole wage pool is $8 million, so on common, gamers will earn $222,222. (In distinction, the common WNBA wage is lower than $148,000, regardless of the season being greater than twice as lengthy).
Moreover, the league is centered round participant improvement, with all six head coaches — Nola Henry, Adam Harrington, DJ Sackmann, Andrew Wade, Teresa Weatherspoon, and Phil Useful — boasting a robust background in participant improvement.
“I’ve been part of girls’s basketball for a very long time,” Useful stated. “However, as soon as me and my crew had an opportunity to essentially dive into Unmatched and actually pull again the layers of what they had been attempting to perform, I used to be actually fascinated by the entire idea.”
Initially, the league was solely going to incorporate 30 gamers, however after surpassing preliminary monetary projections, Unmatched added extra spots. These went to Alyssa Thomas (Connecticut Solar), Stef Dolson (Washington Mystics), Jordin Canada (Atlanta Dream), Cameron Brink (Los Angeles Sparks), Rae Burrell (Los Angeles Sparks), and ____.
“I feel it simply reveals the extent of pleasure and the way a lot girls’s sports activities is on the rise —that we had been in a position to broaden in 12 months one, that we’re having these wonderful partnerships,” Napheesa Collier advised SB Nation.
One remaining spot shall be revealed between now and tip-off.
The complete checklist of confirmed Unmatched gamers:
Each WNBA crew has a minimum of one participant taking part in Unmatched.
- Aaliyah Edwards (Mystics)
- Alyssa Thomas (Solar)
- Aliyah Boston (Fever)
- Allisha Grey (Dream)
- Angel Reese (Sky)
- Arike Ogunbowale (Wings)
- Azura Stevens (Sparks)
- Breanna Stewart (Liberty)
- Brittney Sykes (Mystics)
- Brittney Griner (Mercury)
- Cameron Brink (Sparks)
- Chelsea Grey (Aces)
- Courtney Vandersloot (Liberty)
- Courtney Williams (Lynx)
- Dearica Hamby (Sparks)
- DiJonai Carrington (Solar)
- Jackie Younger (Aces)
- Jewell Loyd (Storm)
- Jordin Canada (Dream)
- Kahleah Copper (Mercury)
- Kate Martin (Valkyries)
- Katie Lue Samuelson (Fever)
- Kayla McBride (Lynx)
- Lexie Hull (Fever)
- Marina Mabrey (Solar)
- Napheesa Collier (Lynx)
- Natasha Cloud (Mercury)
- Rae Burrell (Sparks)
- Rhyne Howard (Dream)
- Rickea Jackson (Sparks)
- Satou Sabally (Wings)
- Skylar Diggins-Smith (Storm)
- Shakira Austin (Mystics)
- Stefanie Dolson (Mystics)
- Tiffany Hayes (Aces)
