At the start of the school year, Kelsey Griffin's post-graduate plans included applying to medical schools and taking entrance exams. In the back of her mind was the thought of maybe catching on with a pro team in Europe.
"I was going to try to keep playing basketball, but I didn't know if people would want me, because my body had been a wreck," Griffin said Thursday. "So really, I was thinking I was going to be applying to medical schools and maybe playing overseas."
Turns out people wanted her.
The Minnesota Lynx made the Eagle River woman the third pick in Thursday's
WNBA pro basketball draft, and less than an hour later the Connecticut Sun made a deal with the Lynx to get Griffin in exchange for first- and second-round picks next season.
Instead of going to graduate school, Griffin is going pro, becoming the fourth Alaskan to play in the WNBA and one of two who will be playing when the season tips off next month.
"It's been a little bit of a whirlwind," she said of both the high draft position and the quick trade. "I was excited to be able to play in front of my grandparents (in Minnesota), but on the other hand, Connecticut's fans are awesome."
Griffin, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, emerged as a first-round prospect with a star-making season at the University of Nebraska.
After missing all of last season with a foot injury that required two surgeries and two orthoscopic procedures, Griffin came back with her best season ever. She averaged 20.1 points and 10.4 rebounds a game while leading the Cornhuskers to a 32-2 season and a spot in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division I basketball tournament.
Last week Griffin became the first Alaskan to earn first-team Division I All-American honors; on Saturday she was named the women's basketball winner of the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award for senior student-athletes; and before Thursday's draft USA Basketball announced that she is one of 12 players on the U.S. women's select team, putting her on a track that could land her on the national team for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
And around this time next year, when she files her taxes with the IRS, she will list her occupation as pro basketball player.
"That's unreal to think about," she said in a telephone interview. "If you had interviewed me in high school and had asked me this would happen, I would have said you were crazy."
A 2005 graduate of Chugiak High School, Griffin led the Mustangs to a state basketball championship as a sophomore. She missed six weeks of her junior season with a knee injury and bounced back as a senior to earn all-state honors and help Chugiak to third place at the state tournament.
At Nebraska, she was plagued at various times by respiratory problems, mononucleosis and a cracked rib that required her to wear a protective vest her entire junior season. Then while playing in a pickup game just before the start of the 2008-09 season, Griffin badly injured her foot.
She sat out the season as a redshirt and endured months of pain. Her first surgery, in December 2008, was a reconstructive procedure that fixed damaged ligaments. Then came two orthoscopic procedures. Then, in May of last year, came a second surgery to repair a stress fracture of the talus.
"After the second surgery my body started feeling a lot better and so did my foot," Griffin said. "There's still a little numbness, but it feels great."
Then she started feeling great mentally too. Long before the first game of the season, Griffin sensed something special about the Cornhuskers.
"I had more fun than I ever have playing basketball, and I've played on some fun teams," she said. "You're never excited to show up for conditioning workouts, and I was just stoked to be there. We weren't dribbling or shooting — we were just running — but I was just so excited to feel that chemistry and to feel what that team could be."
With a repaired and rejuvenated Griffin leading the way, the Huskers turned out to be the best team in school and Big 12 history — they were the first to post a 16-0 conference record and the first to win 30 games in a row.
"My team was so awesome. I thought, there's no way I can give this up. By October or November I was thinking, if the WNBA will have me, I will so be there," Griffin said.
She said she prayed before every game that she wouldn't get injured again, and she said she played without fear, believing that playing scared or timid is a good way to get hurt. Almost as soon as she was back on the court, she elevated her game — and in the process, she raised her draft prospects .
"I rebounded better this year and I also played with a lot more aggressiveness," Griffin said. "I worked on my mid-range game, and not just my shot. I worked on my ability to post up at the mid-post, and that made me a lot harder to guard — and people did respect my jump shot."
She developed a reputation as a tough, versatile and smart player.
"She is brains on the floor," analyst Carolyn Peck said during television coverage of Thursday's draft.
"Tough as nails," analyst Rebecca Lobo said.
Nebraska ranked as high as third in the country at one point this season and was a top seed in the NCAA tournament, although the Huskers were bounced by Kentucky in the Sweet 16.
As a nominee for the Wade Trophy and just about every other individual award in Division I women's basketball, Griffin went to the Final Four even though her team didn't make it that far. That same weekend, the MCATs for aspiring medical-school students were administered.
"I was so happy I was at the Final Four," Griffin said. "I'd much rather be there than in that (examination) room."
A medical career remains a possibility, but now it's on hold.
"I made the decision to give this year to basketball and see if it's something I can make a career of. If I can, I'll do it. You only get an opportunity like this once in a lifetime, if you're lucky," Griffin said. "I'm blessed to have so many options."
As one of the top four picks in the draft, Griffin will be at the top of the pay scale for WNBA rookies — but nowhere near what NBA rookies will earn. Her first-season salary will be $45,827 plus per diem.
Griffin was one of 14 players invited to attend Thursday's draft in Secaucus, N.J. The first round was aired lived on ESPN2, and when Griffin's name was called as the No. 3 pick, she stood up and hugged her uncle Bob Griffin and her cousin Joe Griffin, both of New York, and Connie Yori, her coach at Nebraska.
Absent from the scene were parents of Jim and Jan Griffin of Eagle River.
"I specifically asked my mom and dad not to come," Griffin said. "They've missed a lot of work this year with the tournament, and I'd much rather have them at our end-of-year banquet and my first WNBA game."
The Cornhuskers' team banquet is Sunday. Graduation is May 8 — Griffin is an academic All-American whose major is biological sciences — and the WNBA season opens a week later.
"I was very, very hungry to play this year and I'm very hungry to play in the WNBA," Griffins said. "I just want to embrace it. And I want to give back. I owe a lot of people for where I am today, and they know who they are. If I named them all, I would fill up your whole column."
By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com