There are plenty of things Alissa Pili knows will be an adjustment when it comes to starting her WNBA career.
One thing the 6-foot-2, multi-time All-American forward from Utah isn’t concerned about is the Minnesota weather.
Pili, who was selected by the Minnesota Lynx with the eighth overall pick in Monday night’s WNBA draft, grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. So, there’s nothing she might encounter in Minnesota that will phase her, meteorologically speaking.
“Growing up in Alaska was great,” said Pili, who averaged 21.4 points and 6.6 rebounds per game this past season. “I loved my childhood. It was so much fun — camping, fishing, doing a bunch of outdoors stuff. It was a beautiful state. The only problem, I think, was just the isolation it had from the rest of the world, and how much it lacked exposure in sports and things like that. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I love my state and carry that with a lot of pride.
“I know going to Minnesota, the cold probably won’t bother me because I’m used to that. I’m just excited to be in a new environment and place.”
The Lynx are excited to have her as well. After spending the first three seasons of her collegiate career at Southern California, where she earned Pac-12 freshman of the year honors in 2019-20, Pili — whose older brother Brandon is a defensive tackle with the Miami Dolphins and who played football herself growing up — transferred to Utah prior to the 2022-23 season.
She earned conference player of the year honors as a junior, and was again named to the all-conference first-team this past season.
“She’s not somebody who rides highs and lows,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “She’s a very consistent, steady player.
“You don’t see the blips of ups and downs. She’s just really steady. You can directly communicate with her. She’s engaged. She understands what needs to happen.”
Pili’s pick came as part of a historic draft, highlighted by the selection of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark by the Indiana Fever with the first overall pick.
“There’s Caitlin Clark and the phenom that she’s become,” Reeve said. “But it’s really beyond Caitlin. Caitlin’s sort of the leader of it. But we’ve got some tremendous personalities coming into the league that have worked really hard in college. They’ve built their brand, so to speak. You see the benefits of that and the momentum.
“That’s what we’re feeling. The things we’ve said about our sport and what it could be. The WNBA being around more than 25 years now, these are things that are natural to start happening. The timing of this draft class and the momentum around women’s sports made our WNBA draft a spectacle this evening.”
The Lynx had held the seventh pick in the first round, but struck a deal with the Sky over the weekend in which Minnesota received the Sky’s No. 8 pick on Monday, a second-round pick in 2025, the right to exchange first-round picks in 2026 and forward Sika Koné in exchange for the No. 7 pick and the rights to forward Nikolina Milić.
The 6-foot-3 Koné was selected by the New York Liberty in the third round of the 2022 draft but came to the Sky on waivers prior to last season and saw action in 20 games for Chicago. She is currently playing for Spanish club Perfumerías Avenida. Chicago took LSU forward Angel Reese with the seventh pick.
“We felt really good about which seven players would go (first) in some order,” Reeve said. “We discussed the merits and possibilities of what players would be there at (the seventh pick). Pili was not in anybody’s top seven and we knew that, at eight, we’d be the first team that would take her.”
The Lynx closed out the draft by selecting 6-foot-1 Louisville guard Kiki Jefferson in the third round with the 31st pick overall. She averaged a team-best 12.3 points per game for the Cardinals last season after playing four seasons at James Madison.
“Everybody who knows us knows that being a productive player is something that we really value,” Reeve said. “She’s a player who understands how to impact multiple columns in a box score.”
Pili, meanwhile, said she is excited to join the Lynx and begin soaking up lessons from her more veteran teammates.
“We think we’ve been playing for so long that we know a lot about the game, but there’s so much more to learn and I’m looking forward to that,” she said. “I think I bring versatility and physicality to the game of basketball so that’s what they’ll be seeing from me.”
