Adebola Adeyeye, Robyn Benton declare for 2023 WNBA Draft

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A pair of former Wildcats will look to continue their basketball careers in the WNBA.

Kentucky women’s basketball players Adebola Adeyeye and Robyn Benton have both declared for the 2023 WNBA Draft, which is set for April 10 at 7:00 p.m. EST in New York on ESPN, it was officially announced on Tuesday. Adeyeye and Benton were both graduate students with the Wildcats in 2022-23 and have exhausted their college eligibility with the completion of this past season.

A total of 64 players have declared for the draft so far, but the list could grow, as it does not include those currently set to participate in the Final Four.

From the WNBA: The list of college players who have declared for the 2023 WNBA Draft. Does not include those still playing in the Final Four pic.twitter.com/P6LgmiPV5O
— Alexa Philippou (@alexaphilippou) March 28, 2023

Starting with Adeyeye, the 6-foot-2 forward was a new face on the Wildcats this season after spending her first four years with Buffalo. She appeared in 116 games with the Bulls, helping lead Buffalo to the 2022 MAC Championship and a trip to the NCAA Tournament during her senior season after putting up averages of 6.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Adeyeye then transferred to Kentucky in the offseason where she played in 29 games under head coach Kyra Elzy, including 11 starts. She averaged 4.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game during her lone season in Lexington while shooting 52.4 percent from the field.

As for Benton, she spent the last three seasons of her college career at Kentucky after the first two came at Auburn. Eventually known as “Primetime” during her time as a Wildcat, Benton was an immediate impact player during her first season in 2020-21. She averaged 18.0 minutes per game as a junior, 24.4 per game as a senior, then took a massive leap as a graduate student. Having to replace the production lost by last year’s No. 1 WNBA Draft pick Rhyne Howard, Benton stepped up to the challenge, averaging 16.6 points in 30.1 minutes per game this past season for Elzy’s bunch.

Unlike the NBA, which has 30 teams, the WNBA has just 12 franchises, meaning the draft is much shorter and tougher to sneak into. The WNBA Draft is three rounds long instead of the NBA’s two, but only 36 total players at most can be selected during any given draft.

As of right now, neither Adeyeye nor Benton is projected to be taken during next month’s WNBA Draft, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be able to contend for a roster spot later on, or even snag a late-round draft spot. Back in 2019, former Wildcat Maci Morris was part of the Washington Mystics training camp after not getting selected in that year’s WNBA Draft.