The WNBA draft is coming up on Saturday, but you won't find any UNM women's basketball players in it.
Graduating seniors Lindsey Arndt and Mandi Moore are eligible for the draft, but neither of them will participate in it, UNM women's basketball head coach Don Flanagan said.
"I think they were both realistic about their future in basketball," he said. "Both of them feel like they're ready to pursue other things. Mandi's majoring in business and will work with us as a graduate assistant or in some other form, and I think Lindsey is happy to be done with basketball for now."
Arndt was a two-time Mountain West Conference first-team selection her junior and senior seasons.
She averaged 12.6 points per game and 6.6 rebounds, good enough for 10th and seventh respectively, in the conference.
Moore snagged a second-team MWC selection for the second year in a row.
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She averaged 7.3 points per game, 5.2 rebounds and was second in the conference in assists per game with 5.2.
Flanagan said going pro was never an option for Arndt or Moore.
"These players didn't feel like it was something they wanted to do," he said. "College was their goal for basketball, and that was it."
Flanagan has had players in the past play in the WNBA or overseas.
Jordan Adams, a 2003 UNM graduate, was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx with the 18th overall pick in the 2003 draft.
Adams' fellow teammate and 2003 graduate, Chelsea Grear, played two preseason games in her tryout with the Sacramento Monarchs.
Grear didn't make the Monarchs' roster, but went on to play for the Perik Jumpers, a professional team in the Netherlands.
Flanagan said most of his players don't consider playing professionally because of the time and effort it takes.
That's not stopping the Lobos from possibly having a player in the WNBA a couple years from now, Flanagan said.
"For our junior class, I don't think anyone is interested," he said. "But maybe after that there might be a player. We'll see what happens."
Neither Moore nor Arndt could be reached for comment.
