Monika Czinano came to Iowa with little in the way of Power 5 interest. She leaves with one of the most decorated resumes in Hawkeye history, and now has one more honor to add to the list: WNBA Draft pick.
Czinano was drafted by the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks with the 26th pick of the draft, early in the third and final round. Czinano is the 15th Hawkeye drafted in program history, and the ninth under head coach Lisa Bluder.
Czinano, a 6'3" center from Watertown, Minnesota, was a four-time first-team All-Big Ten selection, and she graduated as Iowa's third-leading career scorer, with 2,224 points. Czinano's extensive repertoire of post moves helped her record a career shooting percentage of 67%, fifth-best in NCAA history.
Czinano's career has been defined by production and consistency, but her postseason performance this season was one of the best stretches of her career.
In Iowa's nine games of the 2023 Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments, Czinano averaged 16.9 points, 6.3 rebounds on 70.7% shooting from the field, usually against some of the best competition college ball had to offer. That run included an 18-point performance against South Carolina where Czinano confounded the Gamecocks' deep, tall frontcourt (including 2023 first-overall pick Aliyah Boston) working pick-and-rolls alongside Caitlin Clark.
The odds of a third-round pick making a WNBA roster are not stellar, and Czinano will find her limitations as a rebounder and defender tested virtually every time she's on the court against WNBA-level competition. There's just an inescapable degree of difficulty for 6'3" post players at the sport's highest level of play.
And yet, Czinano's predecessor in the Iowa post — former AP and Naismith Player of the Year winner Megan Gustafson — brought similar limitations to the WNBA, lasted until the 17th pick of the 2019 Draft... and remains a member of the Phoenix Mercury this season, playing nearly 10 minutes a game in 33 appearances last season as she develops her accuracy as a perimeter shooter.
Gustafson's pro story includes several waivers and 7-day contracts, "offseasons" spent playing in Europe and all the uncertainty that comes with being a fringe rotation piece. Czinano's path through the WNBA may look similar, and it may not even approach Gustafson's longevity.
But Monika Czinano is a WNBA Draft Pick, defying every doubt that accompanied her this far, and her name is permanently etched in history now.
