For the first time in five years, an Ohio State women's basketball player has been drafted into the WNBA.
Monday night in New York, guard Taylor Mikesell was selected by the Indiana Fever with the 13th overall pick, the first pick of the second round. It made her the first Buckeye chosen since 2018, when the Fever selected Kelsey Mitchell at No. 2 and Stephanie Mavunga at No. 14.
Mitchell went on to become WNBA Rookie of the Year. She was the team's leading scorer last year and is entering her sixth professional season as one of the Fever's core players.
"Very excited to play with (Mitchell)," Mikesell said. "Just to get to pick her brain a little bit about the league and just her journey through the W. I got to talk to her a little bit earlier today, and she gave me some advice. Told me just to enjoy the moment and just keep being me."
South Carolina 's Aliyah Boston went to Indiana with the first overall pick to begin the 2023 draft. The Fever then took Indiana guard Grace Berger at No. 7 before Mikesell's selection.
Six total players from the Big Ten were drafted, including Mikesell's former teammate at Maryland , Diamond Miller , who was picked No. 2 overall by the Minnesota Lynx . Mikesell played her first two seasons with the Terrapins before transferring to Oregon for one season and ending her collegiate career with two years at Ohio State .
In her two years with the Buckeyes, Mikesell started all 68 games and cemented herself as one of the top perimeter shooters in the country. Her 230 made 3-pointers rank fourth in program history, and her 44.2% shooting percentage from beyond the arc is second all-time at Ohio State.
The 5-foot-11 guard was the Buckeyes' leading scorer this past season, as she led Ohio State to its first Elite Eight since 1993, with an average of 17.2 points per game. Normally a shooting guard, Mikesell also shouldered point guard responsibilities on numerous occasions while Jacy Sheldon was out with a lower leg injury .
Her ability as a sharpshooter was Mikesell's calling card in college, and it's what caught the attention of the Fever ahead of the draft.
"I don't know anybody that shoots the ball faster off the pass than Taylor Mikesell," Fever general manager Lin Dunn said. "She's going to be very challenging to defend. ... I know it looked like we got a little greedy taking both Berger and Mikesell, two top guards from the Big Ten, but they can both score. They also can make other people better on the court.
"You have to come out and guard Mikesell. You have to guard Berger. We just got better, I think, on both ends of the floor with the draft picks that we got."
Mikesell wasn't the only player with Columbus ties to hear her name called in New York. Tennessee guard Jordan Horston , who won three state titles in four years at Africentric, was drafted with the ninth overall pick by the Seattle Storm.
At Tennessee, Horston started 91 games and played in 114 total across four seasons. The 6-foot-2 guard averaged 27 minutes, 15.6 points, 7.1 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game as a senior while helping the Lady Vols to a 25-12 overall record. Their season ended in the Sweet 16 with a loss to eventual national runner-up Virginia Tech .
"I'm going to go in there like I go in there any other day," Horston said on the broadcast of the draft. "Try to take it one day at a time, pick everybody's brains and just be willing to learn and grow."
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: WNBA draft: Ohio State guard Taylor Mikesell picked by Indiana Fever
