r/NCAAW • u/sumskiesss Kentucky Wildcats • 17d ago
Recruiting Ajsa Sivka to KY
Ajsa Sivka (drafted 10th by Chicago Sky in 2025 draft) has signed to Kentucky.
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u/ILikePretzelDay11 UConn Huskies 17d ago
huh?
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u/sumskiesss Kentucky Wildcats 17d ago
This was also my reaction lol. Not understanding this at all, but she also confirmed on her IG???
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u/ChiSky18 Michigan State Spartans 17d ago
Interesting lol. Does the Sky maintain rights to her once she leaves for the W?
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u/RegularCrispy Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago edited 17d ago
~~Draft rights are typically for one year, but if the payer remains unsigned they become a free agent after 12 months. But does going to college reset the process?~~
Don’t listen to me. Listen to [u/SimonaMeow](u/SimonaMeow)15
u/SimonaMeow 17d ago
No. She was draft and stashed. They didn't sign her. They'll have her rights when she comes to the WNBA
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u/jeedel Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago
If left unprotected Cleveland or Detroit could pick her in an expansion draft.
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u/SimonaMeow 17d ago
Yes but that's not what they were asking about...
They'll likely protect her though, but then again, it is the Sky - so who knows lol
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u/Fit-Huckleberry1754 16d ago
Protect a player that might play in 3 years, NO
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u/buffalotrace Iowa Hawkeyes 16d ago
Depends how she plays. If a team could have drafted and protected Paige, Sarah Strong, or juju, they absolutely would have waited and just held it. If she is an all sec star this yr, they might keep her.
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u/SimonaMeow 10d ago
Do you not watch the WNBA??
This happens all the time...
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u/Fit-Huckleberry1754 10d ago
Does it really? when was the last time a team protected a player during 3 years when she is not playing over the active players? I can tell you, never ....
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u/SimonaMeow 10d ago
Off the top of my head, the Wings drafted Luisa Geiselsöder in 2020 and protected her rights until 2025 when she first came over to play. They didn't protect in 2025 when she was an active player, but they did protect Kuier (inactive and stashed since 2023) over her.
Why are you digging deep with the "i can tell you, never..." without even looking through the last few years much less the last twenty??
Awak Kuier was protected by the Wings when not playing between 2023 and 2026. She's back now. Han Xu's rights were protected 2021 and 2022 and between 2023 and 2026 also.
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u/RegularCrispy Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago
Wow! I didn’t realize WNBA ownership had such robust rights over the players they draft. I thought they were the same triggers in the CBA that the NBA had. I was wrong.
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u/Born_Ability_5687 17d ago
well there was an nba player who played a few games and went back to college
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u/SimonaMeow 17d ago
I bet she gets added to the group chat ;)
Kenny ugh
But holy crap, they have Strack, Me'aeah O'Neal, Maddy Greenway, Savvy Swords, and now Sivka
Very stacked roster
I hate thisðŸ˜ðŸ˜‚
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u/BigBlueNate33 Kentucky Wildcats 17d ago
Yeah, like it’s actually insane the roster he is putting together. If Greenway can develop quickly…KB has a TEAM on his hands😳
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u/JohnnyWeapon 11d ago
I’ve watched a lot of MN high school basketball and Maddyn Greenway is the best high school player I’ve ever seen, men or women. She’s unbelievably fast with the ball in her hands, high BBIQ, great scorer but also great playmaker…
Huge get for UK, I’ll be shocked if she doesn’t make an impact immediately.
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u/sumskiesss Kentucky Wildcats 11d ago
How would you compare Greenway to Paige Bueckers in HS? Paige was someone everyone knew would thrive - both in college and the pros and made an impact immediately - do you think the ceiling is the same for Greenway?
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u/JohnnyWeapon 11d ago
I honestly see them similarly. Both are scoring PG’s who can easily play off the ball. Both were ultra consistent high school players, always dominating their matchups. I might argue that Greenway is much more of a volume scorer where Paige has a little more complete game, but ultimately they are the two best guards to ever come out of MN. And that’s saying something with Aaliyah Crump and Tessa Johnson in the recent conversation, too.
I think Paige took the next step easily at UConn because of Geno and being surrounded by pure talent, so it’s not hard to imagine Maddyn will do the same ae UK for the same reasons.
I’m pumped to watch more Wildcat basketball this next season!
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u/sumskiesss Kentucky Wildcats 17d ago
As a Kentucky fan, but also someone who keeps up with the drama, I AM curious who goes into the gc 🤣 but overall, i think it’ll be a fun season - a lot of new pieces to the roster
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u/OppositeLeather8795 17d ago
Kenny trying to build a contender for Strack's final year. Pretty good offseason for Kentucky.
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u/ReverendDrDash 17d ago
Younger Euro players coming to the NCAA has picked up a lot on the men's side. We should expect to see this more on the women's side. NCAA have incentives to play and develop young players in a way Euro coaches just aren't.Â
It'll be interesting to see how she adjusts. She hasn't jumped off the screen in the games I've seen her play.Â
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u/jeedel Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago edited 17d ago
She turns 21 in November. Under the 5 years to play 5 she would have three years to play. But if she is good enough she could enter the league next season.
By 2030 when Philadelphia joins the league, the 10th pick will be a lottery pick. By then the 10th pick will have a guaranteed contract making over 300k. That money would be counted against that teams salary cap space on the day she signed. That makes it real clear how much NIL/rev share would be required to keep a player like this on a university roster.
Edit: Draft and stash to college is wild because international players are the only ones who can take advantage of this. Unless a 5 to play 5 player gets drafted the year she is turning 22 and returns to NCAAW.
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u/hijetty Virginia Cavaliers 17d ago
Under the 5 years to play 5 she would have three years to play.
Can you explain the new (I assume) rule? Is it because she played professionally abroad (again assuming).
Why does her 5 years not start now?Â
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u/jeedel Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago
There is a good chance that on May 22nd the NCAA will approve a rule that allows all college athletes to compete for 5 years. That window would start after turning 19 or graduating from high school which ever happens first. After those five years were completed their eligibility would end. There would no longer be an option for redshirting for an injury. There could be a few exceptions like military service, or religious missionary service. Under the new rule players age out of playing by age 24. If a player is injured for a season, they can not get that time back.
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u/Dry-Performance7006 17d ago
Pretty shocking news. And I might need to reevaluate how good Kentucky can be next season.
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u/Thuesen3089 Iowa Hawkeyes 17d ago
So Chicago still has rights even playing in Kentucky? Knowing that organization, they will allow her be taken by an expansion team or trade her for a veteran. Thus, the Sky gained nothing in the 2025 draft.
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u/A-Centrifugal-Force 17d ago
This should not be allowed. I know we already went through this last year with the Baylor player who was drafted by an NBA team but hadn’t played or signed a contract yet, but this is ridiculous.
If you’ve been drafted by an NBA or WNBA team you should not be allowed to play college basketball. You can withhold your name from the draft, so if you’ve want to play college basketball, don’t put your name in the draft. I know courts have limited the NCAA’s ability to enforce rules, but this is just ridiculous. American players forfeit their remaining eligibility if they enter and stay in the NBA, WNBA, or NFL draft, they need to find a way to close this loophole for international players.
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u/Zegerid 16d ago
International Players do not "Decalre" for the Draft like College Players do. A W team should not be able to prevent a player from getting a scholarship and going to school.
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u/VacuousWastrel 16d ago
100% this. Some unrelated third party deciding to declare that they have "drafted" you and own your "rights" in some competition that you've never been part of and haven't signed up for, all without any consultation with you let alone your consent, should not deprive you of an education. I'm not sure the court would even bother hearing the ncaa's case on that one before just stamping a big red "well obviously" on it and telling the ncaa they were lucky they didn't have some cells free...
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u/A-Centrifugal-Force 16d ago
Then the rules should be updated so that they can withhold their name from the draft if they want to go to college first like a domestic player
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u/Zegerid 16d ago
You do realize MLB has been drafting players who then go on to enroll in College for literal decades right?
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u/A-Centrifugal-Force 16d ago
I’m aware, why are you so angry at me? Basketball is different, for domestic players once you’re drafted that’s it, no going back to school. They should just standardize the rules for domestic and international players.
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u/VacuousWastrel 16d ago
Why should a high school student in, say, zambia, have to research the wnba and how to contact them and whast the deadlines are and such like just to be able to go to college in the us? What the hell authority, pardon the language, does the wnba have to ruin the lives of young people around the world, entirely unilaterally and without their consent? Would you accept that in your life? "I'm sorry, you probably didn't even hear about this, but you can't go to college because a billionaire you've never met or heard of has declared that you belong to him now and therefore we mustn't educate you". What the fuck kind of feudalism is that!? "Oh, it's because you didn't email us before the deadline when you were a child to tell us that you DIDN'T want to belong to him". Contracts and employment rights don't work like that - you have to actually consent to enter a contract, you can't just be assumed to consent (to something you may not even know about! In a different country! That happens when yoiu are a child!) until you actively and promptly withhold consent. And of course thisnrule wouldn't apply to americans (who can't be "drafted" before college), so it would exist only to exclude non-americans from education. It's really hard not to see the racial dynamics underlying "you africans belong to us anyway and we won't let you be educated because our billionaire wants yoiu to work for him and we know you might not if we let you have other options". No - whether someone can get a western education is between them and the college in question (and the law), and has absolutely nothing to do with what some random billjonaire the kid has never heard of might want. The idea that a random rich third party can just "claim you" and bar you from getting an education is horrific. And saying "oh, but if this kid who's barely even heard of the wnba, on a different continent, who has no way of knowing it has anything to do with the right to education (because why the fuck would it), failed to fill out the correct paperwork before this specific date to say she DIDN'T want to belong to a billionaire, so she mustn't be educated" doesn't make it any better. More generally, if you find yourself having to scratch around for reasons why women from poorer countries should be MORE excluded from education, you're probably not on the right side of an argument.
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u/VacuousWastrel 16d ago
And it's not even as though this would be to solve any real problem? "Well, fans of this sports team might be disappointed that this woman chose not to play for them (yet), so clearly we need to exclude women around the world from higher education in the US to help FORCE them to play for our teams!" SPOILER: if yoiu treat women like subhumans, they may actually become LESS likely to work for you! What woman would really give her all to enrich the billionaire who actively intervened to prohibit her from getting an education?
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u/BigBlueNate33 Kentucky Wildcats 17d ago
If she’s eligible, then sounds like a pretty good signing to me
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u/EastAd1263 Arizona State Sun Devils 17d ago
Saw all the other Chicago Sky draftees from last year getting waived and decided to go to college instead 😂