On April 18, Alex Harden was inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame, a few days after she was the 18th overall pick by the Phoenix Mercury in this year’s WNBA draft – and a month, more or less, before graduating and joining the ranks of Wichita State alumni.
Harden is WSU’s all-time leading scorer and most decorated women’s basketball player in history. She is the first WSU women’s basketball player to be drafted immediately out of college, but the second overall as Tootie Shaw was drafted five years after her graduation as the 25th pick in the 2002 draft.
Harden, a Springfield, Ill., native, averaged 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists for Wichita State, which went 29-5 and advanced to the NCAA tournament, its third-straight, on the strength of an attacking defense that defined this season’s team. Heading into the first round of the NCAA tournament, Wichita State allowed opponents only 51 points, good for fourth in the nation. Harden was named Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year and to the All-Defense Team after being named the Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore and a junior.
She ended her Shocker career with 1,708 points as the top scorer in school history and was three times named the MVC Tournament Most Outstanding Player. She is the only Shocker with more than 1,440 points, 600 rebounds, 350 assists, 100 blocks, and 200 steals, and also owns the single-season steals record with 106 this season.
Wichita State had not made any NCAA appearances, or won an MVC regular-season or tournament title prior to Harden’s arrival. She is the first honorable mention All-America in women’s basketball at Wichita State.
In her final collegiate game as the 13th-seeded Shockers fell to fourth-seeded California 78-66 in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley, Calif., Harden scored 22 points. It wasn’t enough to net a win for the Shockers, who had won 12 straight coming into the tournament. The WSU program, despite making tournament appearances for three straight years, is yet to win a game on women’s basketball’s biggest stage.
After the game, Harden commented, “We’ve had three chances at it, and we haven’t won yet. We have to figure out how to do that. You come here to compete. You come here to win.”
