Maddy Siegrist has been the good luck charm for the Wings and would love to be much more

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Maddy Siegrist would prefer to see her WNBA career blossom into something more than being a good luck charm.At the same time, her role in fortune twice smiling on the Dallas Wings puts the fourth-year player in her best position yet to win. And maybe that can be a springboard for the NCAA Division I scoring champion from the year before Caitlin Clark took that title.

“I think just realizing sometimes you feel like you’ve been here a long time, but realizing you’re 26 years old and the best basketball is ahead of you,” said Siegrist, the No. 3 overall pick out of Villanova in 2023. “So you've just got to lean on your preparation, when the opportunity comes.

Every time I step on the floor, just feeling confident in whatever my team needs me to do.”Going into each of the past two seasons, the Wings needed Siegrist to represent the team at the draft lottery.After winning the right to the No.

1 pick and selecting Paige Bueckers last year, the Wings told Siegrist she had to do it again coming off a 10-win season that matched the WNBA's worst.Sure enough, Dallas got that top pick again and drafted another UConn star — and former Bueckers teammate — in Azzi Fudd.“I don’t know why they keep picking me, but I told them this was it,” Siegrist said with the hint of a smile.

“I just was one of the younger players on the team. So that’s why I got picked for it. And then once we were going back, then people were like: ‘Oh, you’ve got to go again.

You've got to get it again.' I’m like, ‘All you do is stand there.’ I didn’t really do anything.”

Of course, the biggest reason Siegrist doesn't want to do it again is because she doesn't want her team to have one of the league's worst records again.The Wings are finally making progress there, solidly in the playoff picture at 14-8 and winning the first three games on a four-game road trip that is their longest of the season. The trip wraps up Friday night at Toronto.

The injury bug bitesSiegrist was a rookie when the