UCLA guard Kiki Rice poses with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected sixth overall by the Toronto Tempo in the first round of the WNBA basketball draft on Monday in New York.Pamela Smith/The Associated Press
Point guard Kiki Rice, fresh off a national championship with UCLA, headlined the Toronto Tempo’s first-ever selections in the WNBA Draft.
Rice, chosen at No. 6 overall, was the earliest of four picks made by Toronto in Monday’s draft, the first in the expansion team’s history.
She is a 5-foot-11 guard who helped lead UCLA to the Final Four in 2025 and to the 2026 national title just a week ago.
The native of Bethesda, Md. was a semi-finalist for both the Naismith Trophy as the national player of the year and the Nancy Lieberman Award as the nation’s best point guard.
The Bruins senior ranked eighth in the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5) this year and averaged career-bests of 14.9 points and 5.9 rebounds.
Rice told ESPN in a live TV interview from the draft stage in New York that she’d never been to Toronto but couldn’t wait to get started. She said she has a Canadian uncle and some family living north of the border.
“Really excited to get out there, get to work, get to meet everyone on the team,” said Rice. “There’s some great people, really experienced people, in the organization.”
The Tempo did pre-draft interviews with Rice and were impressed with her maturity. They wanted a versatile, multi-faceted guard that plays both ends of the floor. A high-profile player in high school and college, Rice isn’t new to the spotlight.
“As we watched her throughout the course of her college career this last year, it was evident that she was pro ready and that she was someone that could really help us in the back court,” said Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers.
“She can handle the ball, she can guard the perimeter, she added her shooting late in her college career, which just really made her the perfect fit for us. I think just watching her diversity on the wing, watching her as a teammate, she’s a great fit for the locker room.”
The Tempo used its second draft pick to take Kentucky power forward Teonni Key at seventh in the second round, 22nd overall.Stacy Revere/Getty Images
Toronto used its second pick (seventh in the second round, 22nd overall) to take 6-5 forward Teonni Key from the University of Kentucky, adding to the team’s post depth. Wright Rogers has known her for years because she recruited Key as a high school player when she was a college coach.
The Tempo then drafted two Australian guards – 6-foot-2 Saffron Shiels at No. 26, and Charlise Dunn from Davidson College at No.36. Both were chosen for the future – they are stashes, so neither will report to camp this season.
Rice was one of three UCLA players drafted back-to-back-to back on Monday, with a record five players from the school going in the first round. The Washington Mystics and the Chicago Sky selected her teammates Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez fourth and fifth, respectively. The Mystics then took Angela Dugalic at No. 9 and the Connecticut Sun chose Gianna Kneepkens at No. 15.
The Dallas Wings had the first overall pick in the draft for the second straight year and took Azzi Fudd out of University of Connecticut. The Minnesota Lynx chose Texas Christian University’s Olivia Miles with the No. 2 pick, while the Seattle Storm selected Spanish teenager Awa Fam Thiam at No. 3.
The Portland Fire, the other expansion team entering the league this year, selected in the No. 7 spot and took Iyana Martín Carrión of Spain.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks at the WNBA basketball draft on Monday.Pamela Smith/The Associated Press
The entry draft was just one bit of essential business packed into a compressed and feverish WNBA off-season. Roster-building had been delayed for months while the league and players’ association were locked in negotiations on terms of a new collective bargaining agreement until late March.
Agreeing so late to a deal left a tight window to conduct an expansion draft for the two new franchises, plus free agency, the college draft and training camps. Teams are now preparing at a frenetic pace for the league’s 30th season tipoff on May 8.
The Tempo acquired their first 11 players in the expansion draft on April 3, before adding WNBA veterans Brittney Sykes and Isabelle Harrison in free agency.
While the recent timeframe to acquire players has been rushed, Wright Rogers has had abundant time since she was hired in January 2025 to research players and strategize about team building along with Tempo staff.
“We’ve done the work, we had the luxury of being an expansion team, and so the preparation was just exhaustive. We were overprepared,” said Wright Rogers. “We were okay making quick decisions and being gunslingers in certain situations, and it worked out for us exactly how we wanted.”
Toronto’s newest team will begin training camp on April 19.