The Pitt women's basketball team earned its first NCAA tournament bid in 2007, reached the Sweet 16 for the first time in '08 and this year won 25 games in a season for the first time.

Today, Pitt coach Agnus Berenato is hoping the program achieves another first -- a Panthers player taken in the first round of the WNBA draft.

The draft will start at 3 p.m. at the NBA Entertainment Studios in Secaucus, N.J., and Pitt star Shavonte Zellous is one of 15 top prospects invited to the draft. It will be televised on ESPN2 for the first round and as ESPNU and NBA-TV for the second and third rounds.

Regardless of where Zellous is picked, she will be the first player from Pitt to be drafted, and Berenato said that is a big step forward for a program trying to gain ground on the top teams in the country.

"Certainly we hope and we believe she'll be a first-round pick, and that would be huge for her and for us," Berenato said. "She's earned it. She's worked so hard and she's done so much for this program. There is no doubt she will be one of the top players picked, and that is just another step forward for us.

"I think when you can start winning and getting to the NCAA tournament every year -- and we've done it three years in a row -- and add in the fact that you can get players to the WNBA, that's a sign that we're beginning to become a great program."

Zellous was projected to be one of the first 10 players selected in a number of mock drafts, and she was the only shooting guard to get invited to Secaucus.

There are 13 teams in the WNBA, and Zellous is receiving a lot of interest from the New York Liberty, which has the eighth pick, as well as the Seattle Storm at No. 12.

Berenato said the interest in Zellous, who averaged 22.6 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, grew over the past month as she helped carry the Panthers into the Sweet 16.

"They all say the same things about her that we've been saying for years," Berenato said. "They love her athleticism -- and that's a given -- and her ability to knock down shots, her mid-range jump-shooting ability, the fact that she is a scorer, both off the dribble and off the screen, and they love her charisma, competitiveness and personality on the court.

"She's just an exciting player and she is only going to get better, especially once she starts to play with professional players. It will elevate her game."

If Zellous is chosen in the first round, she would be only the fifth player with ties to Pittsburgh (either grew up here or played college basketball here) selected in the first round.

The others were Duquesne University's Korie Hlede (1998, 4th pick, Detroit Shock), Allderdice's Edna Campbell (1999, 10th pick, Phoenix Mercury), Mc­Keesport's Swin Cash (2002, 2nd pick, Detroit Shock) and West Mifflin's Tanisha Wright (2005, 12th pick, Seattle Storm).

Although Zellous is the only player with local ties likely to be a first-round pick, teammate Xenia Stewart, Penn State's Mashea Williams and Brianne O'Rourke (Oakland Catholic) and Robert Morris' Sade Logan also are possible draft prospects.