She went across the room, taking selfies with the teammates, coaches and followers. Arkansas, the place she transferred after spending her freshman yr at Oklahoma, was the place she discovered her id — a relentless shooter whose offensive creativity made her the main scorer within the Southeastern Conference within the 2020-21 season, averaging 22.three factors per sport. Then there’s her razor-sharp crossover, the transfer that she hopes will develop into her W.N.B.A. signature.
“I think this system has absolutely been great for me,” Dungee stated of Neighbors’ program. “It’s fast paced, there’s a lot of pick-and-rolls, a lot of screening actions, and you see that a lot in the W.N.B.A.”
The draft night time occasion served as a extra becoming conclusion to her time with the Razorbacks than their final sport, through which Arkansas grew to become the seventh No. four seed ever to be upset by a No. 13 seed within the first spherical of the N.C.A.A. girls’s event. “It was disappointing,” Dungee stated. “I had to come to terms with that, let it go and move on.”
The teaching she acquired at Arkansas, and the neighborhood that was as prepared to encourage her to shoot her shot because it was supportive of her on draft night time, could have helped increase her draft inventory. Before the draft, Chicago Sky Coach James Wade stated that each she and her Arkansas teammate Destiny Slocum had “progressed a lot in their maturity and the way they approach the game, playing for a coach that gives them a lot of freedom and that plays a W.N.B.A. style.” Slocum was drafted within the second spherical by the Las Vegas Aces.
After seemingly infinite rounds of interviews on Thursday, Dungee lastly had time to digest her wild 24 hours. “My dream actually just came true,” Dungee stated. “I’m still in shock.” She pledged that she can be again within the fitness center the subsequent day, preparing for coaching camp on April 25, and hopefully her first W.N.B.A. season on May 15.
“This is a celebration,” she added, not ruling out the opportunity of having a bit extra champagne. “Afterwards, I’ll have my mind right and be ready to work.”
