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Teonni Key, right, says she had an “amazing” two years at Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo)<\/p>\n
Grateful is a word Kentucky senior Teonni Key used several times Tuesday when she talked about being the 22nd overall pick in Monday\u2019s WNBA Draft. The 6-foot-5 forward was picked in the second round by the Toronto Tempo, a new WNBA team<\/p>\n
Teonni Key, a 6-5 forward from Cary, North Carolina, was chosen in the second round as the 22nd overall pick to the Toronto Tempo. Key averaged a career-high 11.4 points per game last season and was in the top 10 in the SEC in blocked shots.<\/p>\n
Key\u2019s agent let her know where she was going in the draft before the pick was officially made.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is going to be a great year,\u201d Key said. \u201cI have just been soaking it all in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto made 5-foot-11 UCLA guard Kiki Rice its first pick. She averaged career-highs of 14.9 points on a .490 field goal percentage for the national champion Bruins. She can play on and off the ball and also initiate the offense. Rice can also be a lockdown defender.<\/p>\n
Key played against Rice when both were competing in the Nike EYBL.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe is a great player. I watched her in the championship game. Her career has been really good and I am super excited just to get started with her,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
Key played sparingly in an injury-filled three years before transferring to Kentucky and thriving in coach Kenny Brooks\u2019 system.<\/p>\n
\u201cKentucky was so amazing. It was such a great opportunity. I am forever grateful,\u201d Key said. \u201cThey gave me a chance,\u00a0loving me and showing me how good I can be. I am super grateful for my time at Kentucky. Outside of basketball, it has been amazing, too. Everybody was so welcoming. Just genuine people. It was better than I could have ever imagined it would have been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three other UK players were also drafted. Point guard Tonie Morgan was picked 32nd by Chicago, wing Amelia Hassett 35th by LA and guard\/forward Jordan Obi 44th by Las Vegas.\u00a0 The Wildcats\u2019 four selections are the most in a single draft in program history, breaking the previous record of two picks in 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was screaming at the TV. Like all four of us (got drafted),\u201d Key said. \u201cThat is a testament to coach Brooks and his staff. I think it just shows how much they really cared about us and poured into us. It was honestly surreal to see all the names (being drafted). I was more excited for them than myself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teonni Key, right, says she had an “amazing” two years at Kentucky. (Vicky Graff Photo) Grateful is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-586028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586028","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=586028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}