2008 Washington Mystics season

The 2008 WNBA season was the 11th season for the Washington Mystics women's professional basketball team. Despite a 10–16 record before the WNBA break for the Beijing Olympics, Mystics officials said that attendance at Verizon Center had risen from nearly 1,200 fans a game over the previous season, with total ticket revenue up 17 percent, and season-ticket sales for the 2008 season were up 20 percent from last season, bringing the team's base to nearly 3,000.[1]

2008 Washington Mystics season
Coach	Tree Rollins (8-14) Jessie Kenlaw (2-10)
Arena	Verizon Center
Attendance	9,096 per game
Results
Record	10–24 (.294)
Place	6th (Eastern)
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
← 2007 season 2009 season →

Off-season

On October 2, 2007, the Mystics announced that Tree Rollins would be named the permanent head coach. Rollins had been the interim head coach since the resignation of Richie Adubato on June 1, 2007.

Expansion draft

Yelena Leuchanka was selected in the 2008 Expansion Draft for the Atlanta Dream.[2]

WNBA draft

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School or club team
1	6	Crystal Langhorne	United States	Maryland
2	20	Lindsey Pluimer	United States	UCLA
3	34	Krystal Vaughn	United States	Virginia Commonwealth

Transactions

Trades

April 22, 2008[3]	To Washington Mystics Taj McWilliams-Franklin and a first-round pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft	To Los Angeles Sparks DeLisha Milton-Jones
August 12, 2008[4]	To Washington Mystics Tasha Humphrey, Eshaya Murphy, and a second-round pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft	To Detroit Shock Taj McWilliams-Franklin

Free agents

Player Signed Former team Amber Jacobs March 17, 2008 Indiana Fever Kendra Wecker June 23, 2008 San Antonio Silver Stars

Player Left New team Nikki Teasley March 24, 2008 Atlanta Dream (August 15, 2008) Stacey Lovelace March 27, 2008 Atlanta Dream Amber Jacobs June 23, 2008 Los Angeles Sparks (July 7, 2008) Kendra Wecker August 12, 2008

Player Re-signed Nakia Sanford February 21, 2008 Alana Beard February 25, 2008 Laurie Koehn February 28, 2008 Coco Miller September 14, 2008

Regular season

• On July 19, 2008, Tree Rollins was fired by the team after an 8–14 start. Assistant coach Jessie Kenlaw was named as interim head coach.

Season standings

Eastern Conference	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Conf.
Detroit Shock ^x	22	12	.647	–	14–3	8–9	16–4
Connecticut Sun ^x	21	13	.618	1.0	13–4	8–9	13–7
New York Liberty ^x	19	15	.559	3.0	11–6	8–9	11–9
Indiana Fever ^x	17	17	.500	5.0	11–6	6–11	12–8
Chicago Sky ^o	12	22	.353	10.0	8–9	4–13	10–10
Washington Mystics ^o	10	24	.294	12.0	6–11	4–13	6–14
Atlanta Dream ^o	4	30	.118	18.0	1–16	3–14	2–18

Season schedule

Date	Opponent	Score	Leading scorer	Attendance	Record
May 17	@ Indiana	53-64	Nakia Sanford (14)	10,533	0-1
May 22	@ New York	60-79	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (26)	7,071	0-2
May 25	vs. Houston	69-66	Alana Beard (16)	10,441	1-2
May 27	vs. Atlanta	80-74	Alana Beard (25)	6,231	2-2
May 31	vs. Los Angeles	59-70	Monique Currie (15)	11,517	2-3
June 3	@ Phoenix	93-98	Alana Beard (33)	7,561	2-4
June 6	@ San Antonio	52-63	Alana Beard (13)	5,800	2-5
June 8	@ Connecticut	79-87	Monique Currie (28)	7,174	2-6
June 11	vs. Sacramento	76-79	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (23)	6,146	2-7
June 13	@ Chicago	64-57	Alana Beard (22)	2,600	3-7
June 18	@ Houston	67-63	Alana Beard (23)	7,054	4-7
June 20	vs. Atlanta	72-61	Alana Beard (18)	7,448	5-7
June 24	vs. Phoenix	90-98	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (31)	6,662	5-8
June 26	@ Los Angeles	77-74 (OT)	Monique Currie (24)	8,144	6-8
June 29	@ Seattle	49-64	Alana Beard (16)	7,965	6-9
July 1	@ Sacramento	81-87	Alana Beard (31)	5,705	6-10
July 6	vs. San Antonio	75-83	Alana Beard (20)	10,439	6-11
July 8	vs. Indiana	50-48	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (20)	7,587	7-11
July 11	@ Detroit	66-79	Coco Miller (15)	8,596	7-12
July 13	vs. Connecticut	69-64	Nikki Blue (13)	9,610	8-12
July 17	@ New York	56-77	Alana Beard (15)	8,344	8-13
July 18	vs. Detroit	62-99	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (13)	6,834	8-14
July 20	vs. Seattle	89-57	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (22)	8,543	9-14
July 23	vs. New York	73-80	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (19)	16,121	9-15
July 25	@ Atlanta	81-75	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (13)	8,279	10-15
July 27	vs. Connecticut	60-82	Taj McWilliams-Franklin (11)	9,357	10-16
August 29	vs. Chicago	75-79	Alana Beard (18)	10,043	10-17
August 30	@ Minnesota	78-92	Alana Beard (27)	6,980	10-18
September 2	vs. Indiana	68-79	Alana Beard (17)	7,244	10-19
September 6	vs. Detroit	69-84	Monique Currie (15)	9,976	10-20
September 9	@ Chicago	59-78	Tasha Humphrey (15)	3,087	10-21
September 11	@ Detroit	66-78	Alana Beard (16) Monique Currie (16)	8,145	10-22
September 13	@ Connecticut	81-87	Monique Currie (23)	8,652	10-23
September 14	vs. Minnesota	70-96	Alana Beard (17)	10,438	10-24

Player stats

Legend

GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Regular season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Alana Beard	33	33	33.1	.395	.354	.733	3.6	3.5	1.7	0.6	16.1
Taj McWilliams-Franklin	26	26	33.2	.525	.280	.730	7.3	1.6	1.7	1.0	13.3
Monique Currie	34	34	28.6	.401	.375	.826	4.1	2.5	0.9	0.4	11.9
Tasha Humphrey	8	7	26.5	.415	.379	.588	6.1	1.1	0.5	0.3	11.1
Nakia Sanford	34	28	23.4	.452	.000	.398	5.7	1.2	0.6	0.3	6.7
Coco Miller	34	6	20.9	.355	.283	.625	2.5	1.4	0.8	0.2	5.3
Crystal Langhorne	34	6	15.6	.624	.000	.549	4.0	0.4	0.4	0.2	4.8
Crystal Smith	28	4	14.0	.355	.368	.806	1.0	0.9	0.5	0.1	4.3
Nikki Blue	26	22	20.7	.324	.438	.760	1.6	2.8	0.7	0.1	3.8
Andrea Gardner	22	0	8.1	.379	.000	.542	2.3	0.3	0.1	0.0	2.6
Laurie Koehn	30	0	4.8	.393	.418	.000	0.4	0.1	0.0	0.0	2.4
Bernice Mosby	24	1	7.6	.392	.000	.667	2.2	0.1	0.1	0.3	2.0
Amber Jacobs	6	3	13.7	.250	.300	.500	1.2	1.8	0.5	0.0	1.7
Eshaya Murphy	2	0	5.5	.333	.000	.000	1.5	0.5	0.0	0.0	1.0
Krystal Vaughn	15	0	5.2	.158	.000	.600	1.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.8
Kendra Wecker	9	0	5.3	.118	.143	.000	1.2	0.8	0.3	0.0	0.6

Washington Mystics Regular Season Stats

Roster

Washington Mystics old roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From G/F 20 Beard, Alana 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 160 lb (73 kg) Duke PG 32 Blue, Nikki 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) 163 lb (74 kg) UCLA PF 25 Currie, Monique 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) 177 lb (80 kg) Duke PF 52 Gardner, Andrea 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 190 lb (86 kg) Howard University C 34 Humphrey, Tasha 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Georgia SG 12 Koehn, Laurie 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) 145 lb (66 kg) Kansas State C 1 Langhorne, Crystal 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 184 lb (83 kg) Maryland SG 9 Miller, Coco 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) 140 lb (64 kg) Georgia PF 33 Mosby, Bernice 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 172 lb (78 kg) Baylor SG 14 Murphy, Eshaya 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 164 lb (74 kg) Southern California C 43 Sanford, Nakia 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Kansas PG 15 Smith, Crystal 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) 121 lb (55 kg) Iowa PF 5 Vaughn, Krystal 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) 160 lb (73 kg) Virginia Commonwealth	Head coach Jessie Kenlaw (Savannah State University) Assistant coaches Crystal Robinson (Southeastern Oklahoma State University) Athletic trainer Navin Hettiarachchi (West Virginia) Legend (C) Team captain (FA) Free agent (IN) Inactive (S) Suspended Injured

References

1. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/123383
2. "WNBA.com: Atlanta Dream". Archived from the original on 2009-08-20. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
3. Mystics: Mystics Acquire Taj Mcwilliams-Franklin
4. Mystics: Mystics Acquire Tasha Humphrey

External links

• Tree Rollins replaced by Jessie Kenlaw as Head Coach
• Mystics trade McWilliams-Franklin to the Shock