April 17, 2002
TEMPE, Ariz. -
Seniors Melody Johnson and Amanda Levens await selection in the 2002 WNBA Draft, which is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, April 19.
The Seattle Storm owns the first pick of the draft, which consists of four rounds, followed by the Detroit Shock and the Washington Mystics.
Johnson and Levens, who both attended last week's WNBA Pre-Draft Camp in Chicago, look to become the first Sun Devils selected in the WNBA Draft directly out of college. ASU has had two players drafted previously, both in the inaugural WNBA Draft in 1997. Kym Hampton, ASU's career leading scorer and a two-time All-American (1981-84), was drafted as the fourth pick in the 1997 Elite Draft, while Monique Ambers (1990-93) was taken in the fourth round of that first draft.
Johnson and Levens each earned All-Pac-10 honors in their two seasons in Tempe, leading ASU in two of its most successful seasons in school history. The Sun Devil duo helped ASU to a share its first ever Pac-10 Championship in 2001 and the inaugural Pac-10 Tournament Championship in 2002 as well as the school's first back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back 20-win seasons in 19 years.
Johnson, a 6-2 center out of Colorado Springs, Colo., came to ASU after two years at the University of Colorado. In her two years in Tempe, she became ASU's career leader in field goal percentage, knocking down 56.2 percent of her attempts. She led the team in rebounding and was second in scoring in each of the last two seasons. A two-time All-Pac-10 selection (first team in 2001 and honorable mention in 2002), Johnson averaged 12.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in 2002 and finished second in the Pac-10 in field goal percentage at 55.2 percent.
Levens, a 5-9 guard from Belvidere, Ill., transferred to Tempe after helping Old Dominion University to a pair of NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearances. At Arizona State, she led the team in scoring in each of her two seasons and became just the third Sun Devil in school history to score 1,000 points in just two seasons. A 2002 honorable-mention Associated Press All-American and a two-time first-team All-Pac-10 selection, Levens finished her career as the second-best three-point shooter in school history, knocking down 117 three-pointers in just two years. She holds the top two single-season three-point marks in school history and also set the ASU single-season records for free throws and free throws made. In 2002, she led the team in scoring (16.7 ppg), three-pointers made (57), free throw shooting (77.3 percent) and assists (4.4 apg).
Training camps for the 16 WNBA teams begin on Monday, April 29.