UCLA Women's Basketball: Former Bruins Forward Excited For WNBA Audience Growth
Former three-time All-Pac-12 and two-time Associated Press All-American UCLA Bruins small forward Michaela Onyenwere is enjoying a career-best season with a struggling Phoenix Mercury squad.
The six-footer recently took a broader assessment of the WNBA at large, looking beyond Phoenix's 9-24 start to the 2023 season, which ranks them dead-last in the W.
Per Josh Sim of Sports Pro Media last month, viewership across major broadcast partners ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 has increased by 67% year-over-year during a season with two active super teams in the 30-4 Las Vegas Aces and the 26-7 New York Liberty.
"I think it's amazing," Onyenwere reflected. "I think that, even when I was not on this team, when we came to Arizona, we'd always be like, 'Dang.' We know there's going to be a lot of fans. And so the X-factor does a great job of packing the house and we do appreciate that, but even bigger than that for women's basketball, it's amazing. We know that we can count on our fans and as the game continues to grow, so will the viewership, so will the visibility of our game."
"We've seen it time and time again: when women's sports is put on the platform, people come and watch. It's important and it's exciting," Onyenwere continued. "It's something that puts people in their seats. So it's really great for women's basketball."
Across 33 games with Phoenix this year (20 starts), Onyenwere is averaging 8.9 points on .415/.337/.723 shooting splits, 3.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.7 steals and 0.5 blocks a night.