Where do Ashley Joens and Stephanie Soares fit in the WNBA? Both Cyclones could be first-round picks

AMES — ESPN women’s basketball analyst LaChina Robinson made a heady comparison without being prompted.

When asked how former Iowa State and Iowa City High star Ashley Joens helped herself by coming back for one more season with the Cyclones, Robinson brought up a big name to help describe Joens’ game: Three-time WNBA champion Penny Taylor.

“(It’s) because she can play inside and outside, and you know she’s going to hit the trail 3,” Robinson said Thursday during an ESPN conference call centered on Monday's WNBA Draft. “You know all the things she does well in scoring the ball, but to me, her quickness improved. She looked faster. Her ball handing improved.

“And all of those things are going to help her in the WNBA because positionally it won’t be about here ability to play inside, but moreso what she can do from the perimeter.”

Joens — ISU’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder — is projected to be drafted anywhere from the middle of the first round to early in the second round. Once her name is called, she’ll likely be the second Cyclone drafted on Monday, joining 6-foot-6 post Stephanie Soares, who ESPN women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo considers a “top-five or top-six pick” because of her size and wide-ranging set of skills.

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“She spent most of the season injured, but wow, what a player,” Lobo said of Soares, who is rehabilitating after suffering an ACL tear early in Big 12 play. “I had not seen her play before she transferred to Iowa State, but the first time I saw here I was blown away.”

Soares — who sought an NCAA waiver to play one more season with the Cyclones, but it was denied — averaged 14.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and three blocked shots in 13 games. Lobo said a good possible landing spot for her would be with the Washington Mystics, who hold the No. 4 pick.

“That would seem like a logical place for her to go because they don’t have any need,” Lobo said. “And if you can draft a player who isn’t immediately available, that seems like it may be the right fit.”

That phrase — “the right fit” — is crucial for a player such as Joens and reigns as the chief reason when she's likely to be selected is difficult to pinpoint precisely.

Joens, one of 14 NCAA Division I women’s players to breach the 3,000-point barrier, averaged 21.6 points and 9.7 rebounds as a senior, while also shooting 35.3 percent from 3-point range.

“People really like her size and ability to shoot the basketball and her toughness, and how much of a competitor she is, and her desire to improve, and her work ethic,” Lobo said. “She already has a pro work ethic.”

Joens displayed that throughout her celebrated Cyclone career, during which head coach Bill Fennelly said she missed just two practices. She loves to compete. She lives for a challenge. She’s ready for the next step — whenever she’s called to make it, and wherever it ultimately lands.

“She’ll be a great representative of that league,” Fennelly said after the Big 12 tournament. “Whoever takes her is gonna be very, very happy that they took her.”

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