College to pros: Trojans take on the WNBA
Two former Trojans carve out huge roles for new teams while another plays overseas.
By ETHAN INMAN
The WNBA season is in full swing, and this year, the league is more popular than ever. Here are three former Trojans who are making their mark.
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Temi Fagbenle
This past women’s college basketball season, the Trojans had three graduate transfers from Ivy League schools who became integral to their Elite Eight run. Those players were McKenzie Forbes (Harvard University), Kayla Padilla (University of Pennsylvania) and Kaitlyn Davis (Columbia University). Affectionately called “the nerds,” these three former Ivy greats took their game to another level in Los Angeles.
Temi Fagbenle was the original “nerd.” Fagbenle transferred to USC for the 2015-16 season after graduating from Harvard. During that season, she served as a captain for the Trojans, averaged 13.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and was named to the All-Pac-12 Team and was an Pac-12 All-Defensive Honorable Mention.
Her outstanding year in L.A. caught the attention of the Minnesota Lynx, who drafted her in the third round (35th overall) in the 2016 WNBA draft.
Fagbenle won a WNBA title with the Lynx in 2017, but she never really carved out a consistent role with the team. She ultimately was out of the league by 2019 and went to play overseas.
Fagbenle, though, was better suited for overseas play than most. She grew up in London and played youth basketball there, even playing for Great Britain’s basketball team in the 2012 Summer Olympics. She had a very successful overseas career, culminating in a EuroCup championship with the London Lions in early 2024. Her role with the Lions impressed the Indiana Fever, who offered her a training camp contract.
Eight years after being drafted and five years since her last WNBA appearance, Fagbenle has been superb for the Fever. Her ability to run the floor, cut to the basket, rebound and score in the paint plays well with Fever star Caitlin Clark. Clark is used to playing with players like Kate Martin and Monika Czinano at Iowa — bigs with similar play styles to Fagbenle.
In her first eight regular season games, Fagbenle averaged 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and earned a spot in the starting lineup. The highlight of her season thus far was back on May 24, when she returned to L.A. to face the Los Angeles Sparks. She scored a season-high 17 points and grabbed six rebounds to help the Fever to their first victory of the season, one day after returning to Galen Center for the Fever’s team practice.
Unfortunately, Fagbenle suffered a foot injury back on May 29 and hasn’t appeared in a game since.
But, when she returns, she shouldn’t miss a step and will be a key contributor for a Fever team that is looking like a playoff team as of late.
Alissa Pili
Before JuJu Watkins, before Destiny Littleton and Kadi Sissoko, Alissa Pili was the headlining star for the Trojans.
Pili played three seasons at USC, from 2019-2022. She exploded on the scene in 2019-20, winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year after leading every freshman in the conference in scoring with 16.3 points per game, rebounding with eight rebounds per game and double-doubles with 11. She struggled with injuries in 2020-21 before the coronavirus pandemic shortened the season, but still earned All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention.
In her final season for USC in 2021-22, she saw her production take a hit, averaging only 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. Ultimately, she would transfer to Pac-12 rival Utah.
In her two seasons at Utah, she became the player it was looking like she was on track to become back in her freshman season at USC. This past season in 2023-24, she averaged 21.4 points per game on 55% shooting from the field and 40% from three.
Ironically, she was especially good against the Trojans. In the two teams’ meeting in Salt Lake City, she exploded for 37 points, and in her return to Galen a month later, she scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The Utes won both games, making them the only team to beat the Trojans twice this past season.
Her superstar play for the Utes earned her All-Pac-12 First Team honors and inspired the Minnesota Lynx to draft her eighth overall in the first round of the 2024 WNBA draft.
Her role with the Lynx has been mostly very limited, but on May 31 against the Phoenix Mercury, she exploded for 20 points in only 15 minutes, making all four of her 3-point attempts in Minnesota’s big 95-71 win over Phoenix. That kind of performance showed the WNBA world that Pili is capable of elite offense.
It also came on the Lynx Native American Heritage Night game. Pili — who is of Inupiaq and also Samoan descent — was recently signed as a Nike N7 ambassador. N7 is Nike’s initiative designed to bring equity to the court for Native American and Indigenous communities across the country.
As Pili gets more opportunities, she is sure to have more explosive performances, like that one against the Mercury and more opportunities with Nike.
Kaitlyn Davis
USC fans are very familiar with Davis, one of the aforementioned “nerds” who averaged 6 points and 5.8 rebounds per game for the Trojans’ Elite Eight squad. They all celebrated when she was drafted in the third round, 35th overall by the New York Liberty.
But then, she never appeared at training camp, in the preseason or on the Liberty’s opening-day roster. There was never any news that she was cut, either. Some news outlets even falsely reported that she was on the 2024 roster. So many USC fans were left confused and wondered, what gives?
Well, the Liberty weren’t considering Davis for their roster this season. WNBA teams can draft players and then retain their rights if they don’t report to training camp and instead send them to play overseas.
Davis has been playing in Mexico while still technically a member of the Liberty, who plans to have her report to training camp in 2025. She’s suiting up for the Rojos of the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional Femenil and averaging 9.5 points and 6.4 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game in 12 contests.
Her WNBA dreams are alive and well. Keep an eye out for her to report back to New York beginning in January 2025.
