COLLEGE PARK, Maryland — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…March 25, 2017:
The best women’s basketball player ever to come out of Idaho, Mountain View’s Destiny Slocum, wraps up her stellar freshman year at Maryland with nine points and three assists in a 77-63 loss to Oregon in the NCAA Sweet 16. Slocum averaged 11.5 points and six assists and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year. She was still the buzz of the tournament after her stunning 70-foot swish to end the first half of the Terps’ win over West Virginia five days earlier. The crazy thing was, Slocum intended to make it all along. If you find it on YouTube, watch how she leaves her hand in the air and follows the flight of the ball.
Ten days later, however, Slocum would stun Terrapins fans when she announced her decision to transfer. Word at the time was that she thought Maryland was too far away from her family’s home in Meridian. Slocum wound up at Oregon State, where her sophomore year was arguably her best. She put up 15.4 points per game and led the Beavers to the Sweet 16 as a No. 4 seed. (OSU’s first round victory was an 80-75 overtime decision over No. 13 seed Boise State in Corvallis in a game the Broncos led by four with 17 seconds left to play.) Slocum played a second season at Oregon State before transferring again and finishing her college career at Arkansas.
In 2021, Slocum made history as the first Idahoan ever selected in the WNBA Draft, as she was taken by the Las Vegas Aces in the second round, 14th overall. Slocum played 21 games with the Aces her rookie season, averaging 1.0 points and 0.6 assists, but she was waived the following April. She was briefly under contract to the Atlanta Dream early in the 2022 season and appeared in three games, scoring 4.7 points per game, but she hasn’t appeared in the WNBA since. Slocum played in Hungary last season for UNI Gyor.
Slocum’s high school career won’t soon be forgotten. She led the Mavericks to the state 5A championship in both 2015 and 2016 and was named Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year each season. Slocum was one of the nation’s top five prep recruits before committing to Maryland, and after her senior season she got the start at guard for the West in the McDonalds Girls All-American Game in Chicago.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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