Ukari Figgs Explained

Ukari Figgs
Position:Guard
Height In:5
Weight Lb:9
Birth Date: March 31, 1977
Birth Place:Georgetown, Kentucky, U.S.
High School:Scott County
(Georgetown, Kentucky)
College:Purdue (1995–1999
Draft Year:1999
Draft Round:3
Draft Pick:28
Draft Team:Los Angeles Sparks
Draft League:WNBA
Years1:
Team1:Los Angeles Sparks
Team2:Portland Fire
Team3:Houston Comets
Highlights:

Ukari Okien Figgs (born March 31, 1977) is an American former collegiate and professional women's basketball player.

High School and College years

Born in Georgetown, Kentucky, Figgs led the Scott County girls' basketball team to a state title in 1995, and she was named Kentucky's Miss Basketball.[1]

Figgs then went to school on a scholarship, starring on the women's basketball team at Purdue University, averaging 11.6 points and 3.3 assists in her four-year career. In her senior season, Figgs averaged 16.3 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists. Purdue handily won the NCAA Championship that year (winning all of its tournament games by a margin of at least 10 points) and Figgs was named Most Outstanding Player of the 1999 NCAA Final Four.[2] Figgs' other accomplishments while at Purdue included making the 1999 All-Big Ten team and the 1998 and 1999 NCAA Regional All-Tournament Teams and winning the 1997 Best Defensive Player award. Figgs graduated from Purdue in 1999 with a degree in mechanical engineering, taking full advantage of her scholarship.

Purdue statistics

Source[3]

YearTeamGPPointsFG%3P%FT%RPGAPGSPGBPGPPG
1995–96Purdue3011737.0%29.8%80.0%2.31.90.80.23.9
1996–97Purdue2725833.9%34.4%76.1%3.53.11.00.19.6
1997–98Purdue3351043.5%36.4%85.9%5.13.71.80.415.5
1998–99Purdue3557039.7%34.2%86.3%4.54.21.70.216.3
CareerPurdue125145539.4%34.4%84.1%3.93.31.40.211.6

WNBA career

Figgs was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks in the third round (28th overall) of the 1999 WNBA draft,[4] and played for the Sparks for three seasons, which included a WNBA Championship in 2001.[5] Figgs then played one season each for the Portland Fire and Houston Comets.[6]

Prior to the start of the 2004 season, Figgs retired from the WNBA; she had averaged 6.5 points, 3.1 assists, 2.3 rebounds, and had played in 15 games on three different teams.

WNBA career statistics

Regular season

|-| align="left" | 1999| align="left" | Los Angeles|22||10||15.0||36.6||29.8||87.5||1.6||1.5||0.7||0.0||1.4||4.3 |-| align="left" | 2000| align="left" | Los Angeles|32||32||25.1||43.1||35.4||83.1||1.7||4.0||0.7||0.1||1.3||6.7 |-| align="left" | 2001| align="left" | Los Angeles|32||29||29.1||42.5||46.2||81.0||3.1||3.9||1.3||0.1||1.7||8.0 |-| align="left" | 2002| align="left" | Portland|31||31||27.9||35.8||32.5||90.8||2.6||3.4||0.8||0.1||1.4||8.5 |-| align="left" | 2003| align="left" | Houston|34||30||28.0||41.9||37.7||86.4||2.4||2.4||0.8||0.0||1.7||4.4 |-| align="left" | Career| align="left" | 5 years, 3 teams|151||132||25.7||39.9||37.2||85.4||2.3||3.1||0.9||0.1||1.5||6.5

Playoffs

|-| align="left" | 1999| align="left" | Los Angeles|1||0||4.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||1.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0||0.0 |-| align="left" | 2000| align="left" | Los Angeles|4||4||26.5||30.4||36.4||100.0||4.0||4.8||0.5||0.0||2.8||6.0|-| align="left" | 2001| align="left" | Los Angeles|7||7||34.1||34.0||27.8||75.0||2.1||5.9||0.6||0.6||0.9||8.3|-| align="left" | 2003| align="left" | Houston|3||3||27.0||40.0||71.4||0.0||2.0||2.3||0.3||0.0||1.0||5.7 |-| align="left" | Career| align="left" | 4 years, 2 teams|15||14||28.7||33.7||34.5||81.8||2.5||4.5||0.5||0.3||1.3||6.6

Life after the WNBA

Figgs worked as a production engineer at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in her hometown of Georgetown, Kentucky,[7] and as an assistant coach with the boys' varsity basketball team at Scott County High School. Figgs was appointed as an assistant coach to Purdue University's women's basketball team on April 13, 2009.[8] On June 6, 2011, it was announced Figgs would become an assistant athletics director for women's basketball at the University of Kentucky.[9]

On November 1, 2013, Figgs announced that she was leaving UK to return to Toyota in Georgetown as an engineer. She cited the need to spend more time with her family as the reason for this move.[10]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 2018-02-08 . Ukari Figgs . 2022-04-14 . Kentucky High School Basketball Hall Of Fame . en-US.
  2. Web site: Nixon. Rick. Official 2022 NCAA Women's Final Four Records Book. NCAA. 14 April 2022.
  3. Web site: Purdue Media Guide. 2017-09-05.
  4. Web site: SPARKS: Where Are They Now: Ukari Figgs . 2022-04-14 . www.wnba.com.
  5. Web site: Ukari Figgs – Women’s Basketball . https://web.archive.org/web/20230508114639/https://bigten.org/news/2021/2/4/general-ukari-figgs-womens-basketball.aspx . dead . May 8, 2023 . 2022-04-14 . . en.
  6. Web site: 2004-04-26 . Ukari Figgs Announces Her Retirement . 2022-04-14 . OurSports Central . en.
  7. Web site: Ukari Figgs: Basketball Champion and Mechanical Engineer . 2022-04-14 . Mechanical Engineering - Purdue University . en.
  8. Web site: Former Boilermaker Ukari Figgs Named Assistant Coach. April 13, 2009. Purdue University. 1 November 2013.
  9. Web site: Figgs Named Assistant AD for UK Hoops . 2022-04-14 . University of Kentucky Athletics . en.
  10. Web site: Figgs Accepts Engineering Position at Toyota. 1 November 2013. University of Kentucky. 1 November 2013. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20141228182909/http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/110113aaa.html. 28 December 2014.