{"id":731876,"date":"2026-06-12T11:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731876\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T11:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T11:48:08","slug":"citron-iriafen-remain-among-the-best-sophomore-wnba-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/731876\/","title":{"rendered":"Citron &#038; Iriafen remain among the best sophomore WNBA players"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">It\u2019s one thing for a team like the Washington Mystics to \u201cgo young.\u201d Or even \u201cgo young by any means necessary.\u201d Since Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger took an active role handling the front office in 2025, he seemed pretty clear about the first part. The second part has to be because there is promise with at least some of the youth showing promise early one.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">The Mystics were fortunate \u2014 and quite savvy \u2014 to select both Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen No. 3 and No. 4 respectively in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Both were All-Stars in a season where the Mystics had a realistic chance of making the playoffs until the very end of the season. The Mystics are building around the two with a roster made nearly entirely of rookies. There were some games where the Mystics showed their potential. Others, not so much. So is there a sophomore slump in terms of where the two rank?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sbnation.com\/womens-sports\/1118031\/wnba-second-year-players-paige-bueckers-sonia-citron\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SB Nation\u2019s Noa Dalzell<\/a> had a ranking of the top sophomore players in the WNBA, where Citron is ranked No. 2, just behind Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers. Here is the blurb on Citron:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Citron was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year last year, and she\u2019s picked up right where she left off. While former Notre Dame teammate Olivia Miles is making headlines for her high-caliber play with the Minnesota Lynx, Citron is quietly having a strong sophomore campaign of her own. She\u2019s averaging 17.1 points (second-most among second-year players), alongside 3.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.3 steals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Iriafen was ranked No. 5. Here is the blurb from Dalzell:<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1bij9g78 _1mt21p01\">Kiki Iriafen earned the first Rookie of the Month selection in the class, and she\u2019s continued her strong play into her sophomore season. Iriafen, a former Stanford and UCLA standout, is averaging 14.6 points (fourth-most among sophomores) and 8.9 rebounds (second among sophomores), while also showing her extended range (she\u2019s shooting 35.7% from three this season).<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">I\u2019m happy that national writers are pleased with the Mystics\u2019 young stars, who also include Shakira Austin. However, individual player rankings also need to translate into wins. The Mystics haven\u2019t started the 2026 season off poorly all things considered. However, when we get toward the All-Star Break, we may need to start wondering whether Washington can bring Citron and Iriafen back to the All-Star Game if Washington is not in the playoff mix as this season continues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s one thing for a team like the Washington Mystics to \u201cgo young.\u201d Or even \u201cgo young by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,737,141733,630],"class_list":["post-731876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-washington-mystics","tag-washington-mystics-team-analysis","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}