Ask Tony Bleill about Jenna Smith and Lacey Simpson's WNBA chances here.

CHAMPAIGN – Jenna Smith's first trip to Washington will be an important one.

The former Illini center on Thursday was selected in the second round (14th overall) in the WNBA draft by the Washington Mystics. The club is owned by Sheila Johnson, an Illinois alumnae and the ex-wife of another UI graduate, former Charlotte Bobcats owner Robert Johnson.

"I've heard a lot about Washington's team and how great they are," Smith said Thursday at the Ubben Basketball Complex. "I heard (Mystics guard and Ohio State product) Katie Smith is excited that another Big Ten player is coming, and I said, 'Well, we've got to represent the Big Ten.' It's just a good feeling to know now (where I'm going). I'm on cloud nine."

Smith watched the draft at Ubben with UI coaches and former teammates Lacey Simpson, Whitney Toone and Adrienne GodBold and various members of the athletic department. She said Illini coach Jolette Law – who was en route later Thursday to speak at the NAACP's Freedom Fund Dinner in her hometown of Florence, S.C. – had a feeling it would be Washington that selected Smith.

"Coach Law said 'I knew it!' and I was like, 'Then why did you make me stay here with my stomach in knots?' " Smith recalled. "She said, 'I just wanted to see you get surprised.' But I don't like surprises!"

Now the hard part begins. WNBA teams carry an 11-player active roster for the regular season. Nine of those spots seemingly are accounted for with holdovers and WNBA veterans Katie Smith, Alana Beard, Matee Ajavon, Marissa Coleman, Monique Currie, Lindsey Harding, Crystal Langhorne, Chasity Melvin and Nekia Sanford.

That likely leaves two spots. Langhorne, Melvin and Sanford are power forwards or centers. The Mystics' first-round pick Thursday was a center, Florida State's Jacinta Monroe, and the team picked another power forward, Louisiana Tech's Shanavia Dowdell, with its other second-round pick.

A year ago, four of the draft's second-round picks made active rosters. Should Smith stick, she'll be paid $36,400 under the league's collective bargaining agreement.

"I'll do anything to be a (good) teammate," Smith said. "Playing under Coach Law these past couple years, she has pushed me beyond limits to places I never thought I'd be. That's a tremendous advantage I have. I know it's going to be hard. They've just told me to come in and work hard. I'll just do what I can."

Training camp begins April 25. The preseason opener is May 5 against New York, and the Mystics' regular season begins at reigning Eastern Conference champ Indiana on May 15.

Smith is the highest draft pick in Illini history and was the first Big Ten player picked Thursday.

Simpson was not selected in the three-round draft but was fielding training camp invitations Thursday afternoon, including one from San Antonio.