French WNBA Draft Prospect Lou Lopez Sénéchal Expected to be in Top 12 Picks for 2023 Draft in New York City.

The 2023 WNBA draft will be held on Monday, April 10 in New York. The French Lou Lopez Sénéchal, who comes out of Connecticut, should find herself in the top 12.

Due to her atypical career (Ireland, Fairfield, then U-Conn just this year), Lou Lopez Sénéchal (1.85 m), born May 12, 1998 in Guadalajara, to a Mexican father and a mother Frenchwoman, settled in Grenoble at the age of five with a strong Spanish accent, is almost unknown in France, but not in the United States. A hell of a paradox.

It is to the point that ESPN has just devoted a long article to him where it is written that his French accent flows into his English words. It is that the Grenoble woman did very well at U-Conn for her senior year, turning 15.5 points (44% from three-pointers, 85.4% from free throws), thus demonstrating her qualities as a shooter. All in the most prestigious university in American women’s basketball, which has already given the France team Bria Hartley and Gabby Williams, and which only gave up against Ohio State (73-61) in the Sweet 16 with 25 points from the Frenchwoman, who nevertheless had a bruised knee and ankle due to a shock that occurred in the first half.

“How many times this season have I said she was the most mature person on our team? That she is always the same every day, every day, every day and every day. That she brings exactly the same thing every day, every day, every day,” her coach, the famous Geno Auriemma, told reporters after the game.

44% three-point success

The WNBA Mock Drafts are almost unanimous. ESPN and CBS see it chosen in 11th position, Sports Illustrated in 10th, and Lines imagines it even higher, in 7th position. It is good to remember that Iliana Rupert was drafted in 12th position in 2021 by the Las Vegas Aces, the last place of the last round.

“The transfer of the graduate from Fairfield was huge when UConn needed her most, as the team struggled with injuries throughout the season, writes Sports Illusrated to justify his choice. Averaging 15.5 points and 3.1 rebounds, Sénéchal gave the Huskies a reliable look on offense. She was 47.6 percent shooting from the field and 44 percent from beyond the arc, draining a total of 77 three-point shots during her year with UConn. That lineup will catch the eye of most teams, including Los Angeles, which was last in three-pointers made per game last season in the WNBA. With a 10th-range offense, the Sparks could use some size and firepower on the perimeter. At 6’1″ (1.85m), Sénéchal fits the bill. »

11-12th, an ideal place?

Geno Auriemma, who also won gold at the 2012 and 2016 Games with the United States, hopes that Lou will once again be…underappreciated.

“I always think the later you get into the draft, the better team you play on,” he said. “People all want to be choice #1 or choice #2 or choice #3. GOOD. You go to a team that can’t win and you are expected to do anything to help them win. For some people, that’s great. I like to think that for players like Lou, if she’s on a really good team, she’s going to make a difference, 100%. There’s always a need for teams to have people who shoot a lot and she does a lot. And it will give her the opportunity to show what she can do. »

“I’m ready for that next dream,” told ESPN Lou Lopez Sénéchal, who we can be sure will quickly make a name for herself in France after the United States. The coach of Les Bleues, Jean-Aimé Toupane visited her in March in the United States, she who, because of her late emergence, went under the radar of the young French teams.

Photo : U-Conn