\u201cWe were obviously looking for players that could really complement both Jaz and Shyla\u2019s game and felt Alissa would do just that,\u201d general manager Megan Moody told The Next. \u201cShe has great court awareness and will be a challenge for teams to have to guard\u00a0out of pick and roll actions. Alissa has a tremendous skill set on the court, but she is also a great person off the court, which is a key priority for us. We felt she would be a great role model in our Geelong Community and in the greater WNBL community too.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news of Holmes signing was accompanied by a media release where head coach Chris Lucas revealed, \u201cfrom a basketball standpoint, Mackenzie ticks every box. She has great hands, finishes exceptionally well around the basket, and plays with a calm presence that makes her such an efficient and reliable option inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two will provide potency to an already dynamic offence. The prospect of a backcourt of Shelley and Heal both creating, Pili\u2019s three-level scoring from the wing and Holmes as an inside presence sets the stage for a league-leading offense. This is a stark contrast to their first season in the league, where they ranked last across the board, aside from steals, oddly enough.<\/p>\n
As Pili shared in a separate media release, \u201cGeelong fans can expect someone who\u2019s steady, consistent and full of energy. I love getting excited for my teammates, I can stretch the floor, and I\u2019m really looking forward to getting to work, meeting the team and stacking up the wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had an up-and-down stint in college with USC before transferring to Pac-12 rival Utah for both of her senior years. She was dominant in her last two college seasons, averaging 21.1 points on an efficient 57% field goal, 41% three-point and 81% free throw shooting splits in 65 games among a suite of accolades, including the 2022-23 Player of the Year.<\/p>\n
This earned her an eighth overall pick by the Minnesota Lynx in the 2024 WNBA Draft, where she would amass 36 games over the course of two seasons, shooting 34% from three before being waived. She has recently signed a rest-of-season contract with the Los Angeles Sparks whose playoff hopes are still alive.<\/p>\n
Moody shared, \u201cChris has been across Pili for a few years now. He followed her college\u00a0career closely and then last year, we were actively recruiting her, but couldn\u2019t get everything to line up. When it was time to recruit for the 2025-26 season, Alissa was right at the top of Chris\u2019s list to see if we could make something happen and have Alissa in a Geelong Venom uniform for WNBL26.\u201d<\/p>\n
Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n
Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n 18 picks after Pili, the Seattle Storm selected Mackenzie Holmes who has only played 10 games in the WNBA after entering the league with a knee injury. She has shot 71.4% from the field in limited time with the Storm, but has still earned a glowing review from teammate Ezi Magbegor, as Chris Lucas retold:<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things that really stood out to us was the feedback from Australian Ezi Magbegor, who spoke so highly of Mackenzie as a teammate at Seattle. That kind of endorsement speaks volumes about the character she will bring into our locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes also acknowledged Magbegor\u2019s role in the signing, telling The Next, \u201cI talked to Ezi, just of her thoughts about it and the area. So yeah, I definitely didn\u2019t just wake up one morning and tell them. I talked to the people around me to try to find the best decision.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes spent all five of her college seasons at Indiana. She led the Big Ten in blocks three times and was recognised in the All-Defensive team in four of her seasons, with a Defensive Player of the Year nod in 2023. She also led her conference in field goal percentage for her final two years and in both years she was named as an AP All-American.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to play overseas and just evaluating all the options it felt like the best one for me,\u201d Holmes said. \u201cA lot of WNBA players have gone through the WNBL circuit currently and past. It\u2019s a very established league and I think just for my first stop overseas, I think it\u2019s going to be a really good spot for me.\u201d<\/p>\n She continued, \u201cobviously, you know, I don\u2019t play much here, so to actually get live gameplay will be really good for me. And I think I can take everything that I\u2019ve learned over this past season with me over to Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n The IX Basketball, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom powered by The Next The Venom have had an excellent finish to a strong free agency. They\u2019ve added great basketball players who want to enhance the culture of the team, as Pili said: \u201cI\u2019m super excited to be playing in Geelong this season. I\u2019ve heard incredible things about the team\u2019s culture and coaching staff, and I feel like I\u2019ll fit perfectly with their style of play. I lead by example, I push and encourage my teammates, and I\u2019ll do whatever it takes to win\u2014that\u2019s what I\u2019m bringing to the Venom.\u201d<\/p>\n Of Pili, Moody noted, \u201cShe is going\u00a0to\u00a0be a great addition not only to Geelong Venom but to the league in general.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Holmes, Lucas mentioned, \u201cMackenzie is the type of player who leads by example. Her professionalism, her work ethic, and the way she carries herself sets a standard for those around her. We\u2019re confident Mackenzie will not only strengthen us on the floor but also bring a sense of leadership and connection that will help to shape the culture of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n Following a name change from United to Venom and an inaugural campaign that saw them find their feet in the league, Geelong are ready to strike in WNBL26. They have drastically improved their starting lineup, complemented with proven depth pieces. There are five weeks until the season tips off, a new ownership group and a new CBA. At this stage, the questions surrounding the league outweigh the answers tenfold. As each team seeks to find their own clarity, the Venom have already addressed the question of roster improvement, as their team is better this season than it was last. Geelong could already be eyeing off its first postseason berth.<\/p>\n The Next\u2019s Bella Munson contributed reporting for this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe were obviously looking for players that could really complement both Jaz and Shyla\u2019s game and felt Alissa…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[91849,91850,56301,91851,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-148298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-alissa-pili","9":"tag-jaz-shelley","10":"tag-mackenzie-holmes","11":"tag-shyla-heal","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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