The former Buckeye isn’t one to make excuses, eyes first full season in the pros
Each spring, the best college basketball players head to New York City to hopefully hear their names called in the WNBA Draft. Surrounded by family, friends, and coaches, dreams come true. Draftees are handed a hat, and a jersey to hold up for a quick photo opp, as the in-building television crew talks about how the player fits into their new team’s system.
Although the draft takes place in a notoriously tough and hardworking city, it might as well be on a Hollywood sound stage because most of the players drafted will not make it onto a WNBA team.
In 2023, 15 of the 36 players selected didn’t land on an opening-day roster. It’s a tradition unlike any other, and not in a good way. The women’s basketball collegiate talent pool is Olympic-sized but there’s only room on WNBA rosters for enough water to fill a kiddie pool.
Realistically, the WNBA Draft is one part of a rigorous month that takes an athlete from the amateur ranks to the professional. Former Ohio State women’s basketball guard Taylor Mikesell went through it last season, has a second chance this year, and enters it with the advantage of a new perspective.
It’s A Gauntlet
This time last year, Mikesell went through what a lot of draft picks endure over the span of three weeks; a whirlwind that hopefully ends with a full-season contract.
“I would say the best way to describe it is it’s a gauntlet,” Mikesell told LGHL. “I mean, your whole environment changes in the snap of a finger.”
Less than two weeks after the Buckeyes’ Elite Eight exit from the NCAA Tournament, the Massillon, Ohio native was in New York City, seeing the sights, hanging out with other WNBA hopefuls, and waiting to hear her name called.
Mikesell knew that she wanted to be in the WNBA, so making that decision after her NCAA eligibility was up was an easy one, but that’s not always the case when the turnaround time of a life-changing decision is that fast.
For the 2024 draft, players had to declare by April 1, while the NCAA Tournament was still going on. If your team was still competing on April 1, each player got 48 hours after their team’s final game to weigh their options and decide if they wanted to throw their hat into the draft.
Compare that to the experience of a men’s NCAA player. The NCAA Tournament normally ends the day after the women’s final. Because the WNBA plays its season during the summer, they have an incredibly brief turnaround. Conversely, this year, men’s college players have until April 27 to declare for the NBA draft that takes place two months later on June 26 and 27, six weeks into the WNBA season.
A year ago, Mikesell chose to enter the gauntlet. It started an experience that ended sooner than she would have liked, and, to be honest, it didn’t start too great either.
Kind of Kept Getting Worse and Worse
In Mikesell’s first season with the Buckeyes during the 2021-22 campaign, the guard had offensive freedom. It ended with a share of the Big Ten regular season title, a Sweet 16 berth, and the best deep-shooting season of her career. Mikesell averaged 18.6 points and 3.6 three-pointers made per game. Those shots fell at a ridiculous 47.5% clip, ending second in the NCAA in efficiency. At one point halfway through the season, the guard led the NCAA with a 50% three-point percentage.
Following the rare game where the shots weren’t falling to Mikesell’s standard, she was inevitably asked about the dip. Mikesell’s response was that she wasn’t going to change a single thing and she’ll keep shooting. Shooters shoot and they would begin to fall, and it usually ended in the guard’s favor.
For the 2022-23 season, Mikesell started the year as she ended it seven months prior. Against the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers, Mikesell had a game-high 25 points; in the third quarter of the Buckeyes’ shocking 87-75 victory, Mikesell outscored Tennessee 15-13.
However, as Ohio State’s 19 straight wins pushed the Buckeyes up in the rankings, the team’s guard depth plummeted.
First, it was point guard Jacy Sheldon who sustained a foot injury that kept her out from November through the end of the regular season. Then, in December, guard Madison Greene sustained a second season-ending ACL tear requiring surgery.
Mikesell was the lone consistent starting backcourt presence all season, despite the guard being injured herself.
“It’s a tough one because, you know, you gotta win and you want to keep playing, you gotta kind of put your own issues and stuff to the side because you know it’s for the betterment of the team,” said Mikesell. “I had been dealing with a hamstring issue the entire year and just kind of kept getting worse and worse.”
So, when it came time for the Sweet 16 in Seattle, Mikesell was clearly not 100%. That was not simply because of the bumps and bruises from playing multiple games in a week, nor simply due to a dip in conditioning at the end of a season. Instead, Mikesell had been playing through an increasingly painful hamstring injury.
The clearest sign of the guard’s injury was in the third quarter against the UConn Huskies in the 2023 Sweet 16. Mikesell went to the bench with 5:17 remaining in the quarter, with Ohio State up double-digits. The shooting guard, who played the most minutes of anyone in the Big Ten during the season, was visibly emotional, with tears running down her face.
After the game, Sheldon heralded Mikesell as “tough as nails.” Head coach Kevin McGuff admitted that the team asked a lot from Mikesell during the season. Of her 33 starts, she played the entire game, without rest, 14 times. It wasn’t about pushing herself because she was asked to do it, Mikesell wanted to do it.
“We had a lot of people in and out of the lineup stepping into roles that they weren’t necessarily used to,” said Mikesell. “But they were doing it confidently and I felt like I needed to be out there for them as much as they needed to be out there for me.”
In the game, Ohio State upset the legendary Huskies for the first time in program history. Mikesell scored nine points on one-for-five shooting from deep. Even with a tough performance on an injured hamstring, the guard didn’t take herself out for the Elite Eight or change what she did on the court.
In the final game of the season, the Buckeyes fell to the Virginia Tech Hokies, but it wasn’t because of Mikesell. Not close to feeling her true self, Mikesell scored 25 points on 7-for-11 shooting from beyond the arc, leading the Scarlet and Gray in scoring. This led to another moment where Mikesell was overcome with emotion for the second straight game. Unfortunately, this time it was because her NCAA career was over.
“The only thing that really kept me going at that point was just playing for my teammates.”
I’ll Never Be Someone To Make That Excuse
Within two weeks, Mikesell landed with the Indiana Fever, as the first pick of the second round of the 2023 WNBA draft.
After draft night celebrations ended, Mikesell headed to Indiana to start training camp only 12 days later. Upon arrival in Indianapolis, Mikesell did what she always does and hit the gym. At 6 a.m., Mikesell was in the Fever’s practice facility, aiming to hit her routine of 1,000 shots per day. That was five days before the official start of training camp for the league.
The draft night high wore off quickly.
“Then, in a blink of an eye, you’re competing against seven-year veterans and people that are established like the Kelsey Mitchells of the league that are just unbelievably talented,” said Mikesell.
Watch Mikesell in any of her five NCAA seasons and it was clear why she falls in the “unbelievably talented” category herself. The guard is a fierce competitor who has a lightning-quick three-point release and hits them with high accuracy. Her success is the by-product of an uncountable amount of extra shooting that she’s done outside of formal team practices in her life, dating all the way back to her Jackson High School days.
For most draft picks, the margin for making a team and getting waived is razor-thin. Last year, the Indiana Fever had the No. 1 overall pick, a fairly safe position when it comes to making the final roster cut. The team selected South Carolina Gamecocks forward Aliyah Boston.
It was the Fever’s other first-round pick that Mikesell competed against for a spot; Indiana Hoosiers guard Grace Berger. An already tough hill to climb was marginally more difficult against a Hoosier drafted in the Hoosier State.
Mikesell played 14 minutes of a Fever preseason game and ultimately didn’t make the final cut. Instead, the guard landed with the Atlanta Dream on a short-term contract with guard Aari McDonald out with a torn labrum in her left shoulder. In six appearances with Atlanta, Mikesell averaged 2.8 points in 4.8 minutes before being waived on July 3.
It’s easy to use the injury as an excuse, but one thing to know about Mikesell is that she’s not one to lean on excuses.
“You never want to say that that health is the reason why, so I’ll never be someone to make that excuse,” said Mikesell. “I feel like I gave 100% of myself of what I could give in Indiana and then Atlanta.”
However, the WNBA wasn’t the only professional option out there for Mikesell. Many in the league play in Europe and Asia during the fall and winter months, to make money and stay in shape for the domestic season. There’s also the Athletes Unlimited Basketball season in the spring. However, Mikesell didn’t take part in any of those leagues, instead, she left the public sphere of professional basketball and headed home to rehabilitate at Ohio State.
You Just Don’t Get That Kind Of World Class Treatment Anywhere Else
Getting cut by Atlanta wasn’t the end of Mikesell’s story. At first, Mikesell was seen in the Schottenstein Center, at games watching the 2023-24 Buckeyes. When Ohio State lifted the Big Ten regular season title, on the floor of the Schottenstein Center, Mikesell was off to the side of the court, giving autographs and posing in photos with a line of young fans. Mikesell celebrated her former teammates and the new Buckeyes she didn’t get to play alongside.
Mikesell’s presence wasn’t only about being around the team as a fan and friend. The shooting guard was practicing with the team too.
“I’ve said it a few times in different interviews, but what coming back home has meant to me meant so much. And initially, it was all basketball,” said Mikesell. “I think having gone through the past eight, nine months of being in and out of rehab and physical therapy, having that extra resource and those connections has been huge. I mean, you just don’t get that kind of world-class treatment anywhere else.”
Mikesell received vital practice and conditioning time with McGuff but also had his full support to get coaching, training, and medical assistance. Obviously, the WNBA play is at a significantly higher level than the NCAA.
To Mikesell, who practiced with two WNBA teams, a McGuff practice is similar to what she experienced in the professional ranks. After all, Mikesell’s time as a rostered player with the Buckeyes was in a full-court pressing, run-and-gun style of basketball.
Getting back in with the Buckeyes and working day in and day out all went towards the hopes of earning another chance at her WNBA dream. Enter Curt Miller.
After Mikesell graduated from Ohio State, the Los Angeles Sparks head coach, and former Connecticut Sun coach, connected with the former Buckeye. McGuff’s relationship put the two together, and throughout last year’s gauntlet of rehabilitation and working to get back into professional basketball form, Mikesell and Miller were in regular contact.
On Feb. 2, Miller and the Sparks signed Mikesell to a training camp contract, putting Mikesell back into the fray for a spot on a WNBA roster. Miller’s message to Mikesell was clear.
“First and foremost was to be able to be healthy, and I think that that we’re crossing that off the list every single day,” said Mikesell. “Another thing was being able to move comfortably be able to guard and then go in and make shots was his big thing, and I feel confident doing that.”
Monday, two Buckeyes joined Mikesell in the hunt for those coveted WNBA roster spots. Mikesell’s two-year teammate Sheldon and graduate senior transfer Celeste Taylor went to the Dallas Wings and Indiana Fever, respectively.
With Mikesell around, there wasn’t much advice that needed to be given to the two fierce competitors. Mikesell and Sheldon’s relationship is strong, and Mikesell answered whatever questions she could, but Mikesell is certain in their abilities to navigate the gauntlet themselves.
It was hard work that made Sheldon and Mikesell gravitate towards each other on and off the court. Taylor showed in her lone year as a Buckeye that the guard has ability to overcome challenges. Now, all three are put up to the same test, in albeit different situations.
For Mikesell’s situation, earning a spot on the Sparks isn’t the culmination of all her hard work, but the beginning of applying her work ethic into a fruitful professional career. Without the gauntlet of an NCAA season, followed by a draft and then the fire of a first WNBA training camp, Mikesell has an advantage.
Also, the most important advantage is the health to give it her best. In Los Angeles, Mikesell has an opportunity at a Hollywood ending.
“I feel great going into this training camp,” said Mikesell. “I’m excited for the opportunity.”