April 16, 2005

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - On Saturday, UC Santa Barbara's Kristen Mann was selected by the Minnesota Lynx in the first round the 2005 Women's National Basketball Association Draft, held in Secaucus, N.J.

As the 11th overall selection, Mann becomes the highest-ever draft pick from UCSB in the league's nine-year history. The 6'2" forward from Santa Ana, Calif., will join a Lynx squad that finished the 2004 season with an 18-16 overall record and placed fourth in the Western Conference. The 18 wins represented the most ever recorded by Minnesota, and it helped the team advance to the WNBA Playoffs. The Lynx were eliminated in the postseason by the eventual 2004 league champion Seattle Storm.

Mann finished her collegiate career ranked third in school with exactly 1,700 points, while her 820 rebounds as a Gaucho are seventh-most all-time. In 2004-05 she enjoyed one of the finest statistical seasons ever by a Santa Barbara player, pouring in 19.5 points per game to rank 17th nationally while also averaging 9.4 boards. Mann was named Big West Player of the Year and repeated as an honorable mention Associated Press and Kodak/WBCA All-American. Mann earned All-Big West acclaim in each of her four years as a Gaucho and gained international playing experience during the summer of 2003, helping Team USA win gold at the FIBA World Championships for Young Women in Croatia.

Mann is the fifth Gaucho in the past six years to be chosen in the WNBA Draft. She is the first UCSB player ever selected in the first round. In 2004 center Lindsay Taylor was selected in the second round - 26th overall - by the Houston Rockets and then traded to the Phoenix Mercury, where she was reunited with 2002 UCSB alumnus Kayte Christensen, the 40th overall selection that year. Christensen will enter her fourth season as a forward with the Mercury in 2005. Meanwhile the Minnesota Lynx made swing Player Erin Buescher their second round selection (23rd overall) in 2001 and former Gaucho point guard Stacy Clinesmith was taken in the second round (30th overall) of the 2000 draft by Sacramento.

In addition, 2004 alum and current assistant coach April McDivitt recently signed a free agent contract with Minnesota and will try to make the squad's 12-player active roster during next month's training camp. She and Mann could be reunited with the Lynx. The duo were teammates for one season at UCSB, 2003-04 when the Gauchos advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time in school history. Finally, former Santa Barbara standouts Erin Alexander (1993-97) and Erika Kienast (1988-92) also enjoyed careers in the WNBA,

The complete 2005 WNBA Draft board can be viewed at www.wnba.com.