Nero goes on Comet ride to Houston

By Charlie Leffler

On Friday afternoon, Louisville center Lori Nero sat on the floor of a Sports Information Department office anxiously watching television as names were called off in this year’s WNBA Draft. Though she expected her name to eventually be called, she was still nervous.

The first round of selections ended without Nero’s name being called but she was not upset because did not expect to be chosen in that round. “I pretty much thought it should be somewhere around the second round,” said Nero, “not too much lower than that.”

Only the first round of selections were televised locally so the group of watchers had to switch to viewing the remaining rounds on a laptop. One by one the name were called out then with the 19th pick overall, the Houston Comets Announced they would be selecting Louisville’s Lori Nero. “I can’t believe it still,” said Nero, “I’m very elated.”

With the draft, Nero became only the second U of L women’s basketball player to be selected in the WNBA Draft and the highest ever for Louisville. Nero was also the first Conference USA player selected in the draft which also meant a lot to her. Despite the fact that the Cardinals did not perform well during the conference season, Nero’s performance was enough to gain her recognition. “That says a lot about what I did this season in the conference and that I got recognized for it,” she said.

Even though she has been chosen to play professionally, Nero believes it will be a while before the fact actually sinks in. “Until I actually am surrounded by the environment and until I am actually on the team then I will believe it.”

Nero, a native of Baton Rouge, La., becomes the second Louisville player to be drafted. Jill Morton was drafted in the third round with the 34th pick of the 2000 WNBA draft by the Charlotte Sting.

Nero spent one season at the University of Louisville after transferring from Auburn University. She made an impressive mark in just one season, leading the team in scoring and rebounding with 17.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. Nero also led the team in field goal percentage connecting on 53.3 percent and blocks with 37 on the season.

She scored a career-high 30 points and pulled down a career-high 22 rebounds against Houston. She was named to the Women’s College Hoops.com All-Tournament team and earned third team All-Conference USA honors.

While at Auburn she was named third team All-SEC by the Associated Press her junior season. In her final season at Auburn she averaged 12.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Nero is now looking forward to life as a professional athlete. “I’m excited to get to play with some experienced people, people who can help me and teach me along the way,” said Nero. “I’m nervous and it’s kind of intimidating a little bit. I know they’re going to be working hard and I’m going to be working hard I hopefully should fit in quite nicely.”