Fifth-year guard Celeste Taylor (12) points to thank fellow fifth-year guard Jacy Sheldon for a pass after Taylor scored to earn an and-one at the free throw line Wednesday in No. 2 Ohio State’s 67-51 win over Michigan at the Schottenstein Center. Credit: Caleb Blake | Photo Editor
Less than a month after their last game in scarlet and gray, Jacy Sheldon and Celeste Taylor will be right back to basketball, attending the anxiously awaited 2024 WNBA draft.
The draft, held in Brooklyn, New York, Monday, will have each of the league’s 12 teams select in all three rounds, bringing 36 new rookies into the fold. But there won’t be much time for the youngbloods to adjust, as the women’s professional season begins a few short weeks later, on May 14.
Both Sheldon and Taylor will attend the draft in person, an invitation extended to only 15 WNBA hopefuls. If both are selected, it will be just the third time in Ohio State history that a pair of players have been taken in the same draft (Kelsey Mitchell and Stephanie Mavunga, 2018; Jessica Davenport and Brandie Hoskins, 2007).
Sheldon, an Ohio native, was the Buckeye’s leading scorer this season, averaging 17.8 points and 34 minutes in the season’s 32 games. First-team Big Ten and second-team AP All-American, Sheldon amassed more than 2,000 career points during her time at Ohio State, helping to lead her team to the 2024 regular season Big Ten title.
Sheldon was also a Naismith Player of the Year Semi-Finalist and received the Nancy Lieberman Award as one of the top five point guards in women’s college basketball.
In the wake of her tremendous career, Sheldon is projected to go in the first round, with the most recent ESPN mock draft sending her to the Washington Mystics with the sixth overall pick. The Mystics finished the 2023 season in seventh place behind a 19-21 record, falling in the first round of the playoffs to the New York Liberty. If selected by Washington, Sheldon would join Elena Delle Donne and DiDi Richards.
The Athletic predicts Sheldon will be gone before the Mystics have a chance to pick her, going fifth overall to the Dallas Wings. The Wings rode a 22-18 record to a fourth-place finish last year but were swept in the second round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces. Dallas is home to Arike Ogunbowale and Crystal Dangerfield.
A force on the other side of the ball, Taylor was the Big Ten’s Defensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year with a team-leading 80 steals and 29 blocks. Taylor spent two seasons at Duke and two at Texas before transferring to Ohio State, making an immediate impact as part of the Buckeyes’ starting five.
Taylor will likely be selected early in the second round, potentially landing in Las Vegas with the 16th overall pick. There, she’d become part of the league’s dynasty. The Aces have won back-to-back titles with the help of A’ja Wilson, Candace Parker, and Kelsey Plum.
Though she won’t attend the draft in person, Ohio State’s Rebeka Mikulášiková may also join Sheldon and Taylor in the big leagues. ESPN predicts the New York Liberty will use its final pick, 35th overall, on the power forward. If Mikulášiková is selected, it will be the first time in Buckeye history that three players have been taken in one year.
Forward Taiyier Parks has also declared for the draft but has not been featured in any mock draft projections.
