TAMPA, Fla. _ Sabrina Ionescu has already accomplished a lot in her three seasons at Oregon.
Her 18 career triple-doubles are six more than any other player (male or female) in NCAA history. The 5-foot-11 All-America guard carried her Ducks to the first ever Women's Final Four and has a stat line (19.9 points, 7.5 rebounds, 8.2 assists per game) that hasn't been touched in four years. NBA superstar Steph Curry even called her "an unbelievable talent" Wednesday.
Which leads to one of the biggest questions hanging around Oregon heading into Friday's 7 p.m. semifinal against Baylor: Is she ready to leave school early to take that unbelievable talent to the WNBA?
"I'm not saying she should come out this year," ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said, "but if she did, I think she would go No. 1, and I think she would have an impact immediately."
Ionescu wouldn't be the first woman to do that. At least five female players have previously left early for the WNBA, including Candace Parker (the No. 1 overall pick in 2008) and Notre Dame's Jewell Loyd, who declared for the draft a day after losing to UConn in the 2015 championship at Amalie Arena.
Ionescu didn't even know leaving after her junior year was an option until she saw someone post about it on social media at the start of the season.
"I was like, oh, that's cool," Ionescu said.
Ionescu said she hasn't made up her mind, but she won't have much time to deliberate. The draft is Wednesday, two days after the championship at Amalie Arena.
Ionescu is in this rare position because of a rare blend of physical and mental skills.
She's a slick shooter who dropped 31 points on Mississippi State in the Elite Eight. Coach Kelly Graves compared her vision to that of Courtney Vandersloot, who set the NCAA Division I single-season assist record under Graves at Gonzaga.
And, perhaps most importantly, she's one of the fiercest competitors in the game.
"I definitely feel like that's her biggest talent," teammate Satou Sabally said. "Other people can jump higher than her, but she's getting the rebounds, right? Because she wants them."
So whenever and however Ionescu's season ends, she'll have a decision to make.
Does she want to keep getting them at this level?
