University of Arkansas-Fort Smith women’s basketball coach Louis Whorton built the foundation of his program’s rise to national prominence in the mid-1990s on players he plucked from the rich recruiting grounds of Chicago’s John Marshall High.
Most notably players like 6-foot-3 center Alisa Burras.
As a freshman, Burras helped lead the Lady Lions to a 35-0 record, the NJCAA Region II championship, and the program’s first national championship. Burras averaged 22.1 points, eight rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game as a sophomore and was named a Kodak All-American and the Region II MVP.
After her two seasons as a Lady Lion, she was the all-time leader in scoring (1,481 points), rebounds (534), and blocks (121). She helped guide the Lady Lions to a 64-3 record.
Burras played two seasons at Louisiana Tech University, leading the Lady Techsters to a 62-8 record and a national runner-up finish in 1998. She was a Second Team AP All-American, a U.S. Basketball Writers Association All-American and an Honorable Mention Kodak All-American as a senior, and was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team. She finished her college career at Louisiana Tech, which consisted of only 70 games, as the 22nd all-time leading scorer with 1,134 points.
Burras was drafted in the first round (fifth overall) of the 1998 ABL Draft by the Colorado Xplosion and averaged 6.8 points and four rebounds per game during a 13-game stretch before the league disbanded.
She was signed by the WNBA in May of 1999 and allocated to the Cleveland Rockers. She was then drafted in the first round (fourth overall) by the Portland Fire in December of 1999 in the WNBA Expansion Draft.
Burras played three seasons for Portland, which ceased operations following the 2002 season, and was drafted in the first round (ninth overall) of the 2003 WNBA Dispersal Draft by the Seattle Storm, where she finished her career following the 2003 season.
During her five seasons in the WNBA, Burras averaged 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.
