Who could forget Dre’una Edwards’ dramatic 3 with 4.2 seconds left to lift Kentucky past eventual national champion South Carolina in the 2022 SEC Tournament championship game?
The Wildcats weren’t even slated to make the NCAA Tournament before their improbable run through the conference tourney earned them a No. 6 seed in the Big Dance and the confidence that they could make a deep run.
But it wasn’t in the cards for Kentucky senior superstar and eventual No. 1 pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft Rhyne Howard,
as the Wildcats instead fell in the first round to No. 11-seed Princeton.
It was Howard’s last shot at a Sweet 16, and she came up short.
Like so many other women’s college basketball players during the COVID era, Howard missed out on the opportunity to compete for a trip to the Sweet 16 when the tournament was canceled in 2020.
Her other two seasons ended in the Round of 32. In 2019, Kentucky was a No. 6 seed. In 2021, they were a No. 4 seed, but were denied home court advantage, as the entire tournament was played in San Antonio because of COVID. Away from the friendly confines of Memorial Coliseum, the Wildcats fell to then-freshman Caitlin Clark and her 35 points, seven assists and seven rebounds for Iowa, despite 28 points, eight assists, six steals and five rebounds from Howard.
The great thing about college basketball is that a Final Four, Elite Eight or Sweet 16 is a true accomplishment, whereas in the pros it feels more like championship or bust. But Howard was denied even a taste of a Sweet 16, despite being a three-time All-America First Teamer and two-time SEC Player of the Year.
Before this season, Howard’s college curse had turned into a semifinal curse in the W; she had yet to advance past the first round, including losing at that stage three years in a row. Last year was the first year it truly felt like a curse, as Howard’s Atlanta Dream were expected to make it past an Indiana Fever team they had finished six games better than.
Howard actually dropped 36 points in her WNBA playoff debut in 2023. That performance came on the road in Dallas and on 8-for-15 shooting from beyond the arc. She averaged 16.7 points over her next six playoff games before achieving her second-highest postseason scoring output of 26 points last Sunday in Atlanta’s 92-77 Game 1 win over the Washington Mystics.
It all would have been another heartbreaking disappointment for Howard had the Mystics stormed back and taken the series, which seemed like a legitimate possibility given the scrappiness Washington had displayed throughout the season.
Instead, Howard prevailed, and her team is now, finally, going to be one of the last four standing.
Are Rhyne and the Dream ready for more postseason progress?
Howard notched 15 points, four helpers and two swipes, and was an efficient 2-for-3 from downtown on Wednesday night in DC, as the Dream defeated the Mystics 93-75 in Game 2 to sweep the series. She went 15-for-15 from the charity swipe across the two contests, as Atlanta didn’t just advance, but did so comfortably.
Howard has put it all on the line for her teams, from Kentucky to the Dream. It’s really cool to see her finally reap the reward.
The Chattanooga, TN native, who went to high school in Cleveland, TN, has repped Atlanta her entire professional career, and has done so with teammates who are also great friends of hers. One of them, Allisha Gray, is like Howard in that she went to high school about two hours away from Atlanta; in Gray’s case in Sandersville, GA.
Gray was not cursed in college, as she won the national championship with South Carolina in 2017. But she’s been in the W five years longer than Howard and is also making just her first trip to the semifinals. She spent six seasons with the Wings, who struggled their way to just one .500 or better season in her time there (18-18 in 2022). She was Rookie of the Year in 2017, but her greatest success has come in Atlanta, where she’s been an All-Star all four seasons.
Howard and Gray have been the Dream’s top two scorers in all of their four seasons together, with Howard leading the way the first two before Gray overtook her in 2025 and 2026. Both have ascended to superstar status the past two seasons, with Gray finishing fourth in MVP voting last year, and Howard finishing first in steals per game (2.3) and second in made 3s (134) this year.
Together, with the help of Angel Reese, Jordin Canada and Naz Hillmon, they have made Atlanta a championship contender.
Hillmon, like Howard, has been in the league and with the Dream since 2022, so she is also making a somewhat long-awaited trip to the semis, though, unlike Howard, she went to two Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight at Michigan. This is Reese’s first time even in the playoffs, but it’s only her third season in the W. She also was a national champion at LSU in 2023. Meanwhile, Canada won championships with the Seattle Storm in 2018 and 2020, her first and third years in the league, respectively.
So for besties Howard, Gray and Hillmon, eliminating the Mystics allows them to take a huge sigh of relief.
Now, they can set their sights on taking a couple steps further and winning a championship.
