The Las Vegas Aces selected Alabama women’s basketball guard Aaliyah Nye with the No. 13 pick in the WNBA draft on Monday.
Nye was selected with the first pick in the second round and was in the crowd supporting her former teammate Sarah Ashlee Barker who was picked by Los Angeles Sparks with the ninth overall pick.
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Nye averaged 15.2 points per game and did most of her damage from behind the arc, shooting 45.5% from 3-point range, making 111 treys to break her own Crimson Tide single-season record.
Nye is from Huntsville, Alabama, but played high school ball at East Lansing High School in Michigan. She spent the first two years of her career with Illinois before transferring to the Crimson Tide.
The 3-point shooting is the biggest difference maker for Nye, who can hit them in bunches and helped Alabama shoot itself back into games the past three seasons. She also plays solid defense with 52 steals in 2023-24 and 136 the past three years.
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Nye plays off-ball but did have 46 assists last season, improving her stock as an all-around guard. While she shoots 45.5% from 3-point range, she actually shot just 45.4% from the field, struggling from two-point range in going 62 of 137 inside the arc. She’ll need to improve her game around the basket and midrange if she wants to be more than just a 3-point ace.
Nye can contribute early on as 3-point shooter, something she did in her first season with Alabama in 2022-23, when 74 of her 98 made baskets came from behind the arc. She’s going to need some time to expand the rest of her game, but the shooting from deep will buy some time.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: 2025 WNBA Draft: Las Vegas Aces selects Aaliyah Nye
