Nearly a year ago, Shaylee Gonzales had a lot on her mind. As a 22-year-old who was in college during the COVID-19 pandemic, she had the luxury of an extra year of basketball … the only question was deciding what exactly she wanted to do with it.
Gonzales was blessed; she was already generating WNBA buzz and could have potentially finished school and entered the draft last season if she’d really wanted to. But everyone — her family, her trainers, her coaches and herself — knew the time wasn’t right. Now, as the end of the NCAA season looms and those all-important four letters keep popping up everywhere, Gonzales is yet again at a crossroads.
But wait: we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Gonzales is in her fifth year of school and is spending it at the University of Texas-Austin, where she transferred after enjoying plenty of success at Brigham Young University. While she loved her time at BYU, Gonzales was hungry for something new and Texas has more than delivered. She’s quick to point out that she had to learn a lot — and learn it quickly — nearly as soon as she arrived, especially after teammate Rori Harmon injured her foot and left a hole in the team’s lineup.
Gonzales has amassed an impressive online following via social media, a group that really…
