Ex-UM basketball star Beatrice Mompremier signs with WNBA’s Connecticut Sun
Former University of Miami women’s basketball star Beatrice Mompremier signed a free agent contract with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun, the team announced Tuesday.
Mompremier, a Miami native and 6-4 forward, will join the reigning Eastern Conference champion Sun for the abbreviated 2020 WNBA season, which will take place at IMG Academy in Bradenton in late July.
“We are excited to add Beatrice to our Sun roster,” coach and general manager Curt Miller said in a statement. “She is a young and talented post player with a high ceiling. Beatrice is a proven collegiate rebounder and crafty scorer who will have the ability to contribute during her rookie season.”
The Sun’s star center Jonquel Jones announced she is opting out of the 2020 season, leaving an opening for Mompremier to get more playing time.
She was initially selected by the Los Angeles Sparks with the 20th pick of the WNBA Draft in April. At the time, assistant general manager Michael Fischer said getting Mompremier was “like a Christmas gift in April for us. I mean like, `Wow’. Everybody had Mompremier in the first-round mock draft, and I’m just mind-blown. We have a first-round talent on our team and we’re excited.”
But the Sparks wound up waiving her in late May in an effort to get their roster under the salary cap to comply with an agreement the league and players union made to ensure players could get paid during the pandemic.
Mompremier was a two-time Associated Press Honorable Mention at Miami and ended her two-year Hurricane career with 45 double-digit point performances and 34 double-doubles in just 51 games. She led the ACC in double-doubles as a junior and averaged 16.8 points and 9.8 rebounds in a senior, but was forced to miss 13 games with a foot injury.
The 2019-20 ACC Preseason Player of the Year, she holds the school record for career (11.4) and single-season (12.2) rebounding average.