While the Penn State Lady Lions are celebrating the conference title they won yesterday, senior point guard and Nancy Lieberman award finalist Alex Bentley recently hit a noteworthy individual milestone.
With her four steals in their loss to Minnesota on February 28, Bentley passed Helen Darling for second all-time on the program's all-time steals list and became just the eighth player in program history to cross the 100 steals mark in a season.
Yet looking ahead to the draft, what's most interesting about Bentley is her steal percentage: accumulating all those steals in 31 minutes per game, Bentley has a steal percentage of 6.3%, which is good for fifth in the nation just behind fallen Duke Blue Devils star Chelsea Gray.
It's not entirely clear how much steal percentage matters for point guard prospects - their efficiency as distributors tends to matter much more - but steals do tend to be a good sign that players are able to compete athletically and have good defensive instincts. Anybody who has watched her already probably knows about how disruptive her athleticism can be, but the statistic is noteworthy on its own as we look ahead.
For more on the 2013 WNBA draft, check out our draft prospects storystream.