Courtesy of NBA Entertainment

Khadijah Whittington at the WNBA pre-draft camp last weekend.

This is a time of mixed emotions for Khadijah Whittington.

The former William Fleming standout is sad that her North Carolina State basketball career has come to an end. She is proud that she will soon graduate.

And she can't stop thinking about today's WNBA draft.

"I just got me a dress," Whittington said with a laugh in a phone interview Monday. "I'm ready to be a grown-up.

"All my dreams are coming true. ... I'm really excited."

The 6-foot-1 power forward is one of 20 prospects who have been invited to attend the draft, which will be held at a Palm

There will be 14 picks in each of the first two rounds and 15 picks in the third and final round.

Chicago Sky coach/general manager Steven Key predicted Whittington will be picked late in the first round or early in the second. Washington Mystics general manager Linda Hargrove, Atlanta Dream coach/GM Marynell Meadors and Indiana Fever GM Kelly Krauskopf expect her to be taken in the second round.

"She's somewhat relentless in going after the ball, and you don't find that very often," Key said. "Playing the position at her height is a little bit difficult because the best players in our league are at the spot, but I anticipate she'll make the adjustment."

Whittington ranked fourth in Division I this year with an average of 11.7 rebounds, and wound up the seventh-leading rebounder in ACC history with 1,164 career boards.

"She's a special player," said Meadors, a former coach at Florida State and the now-defunct Charlotte Sting. "She's undersized for the position that she plays, but ... she plays with reckless abandon. ... She works probably harder than anybody I have ever seen."

The All-ACC pick is four inches shorter than 6-5 power forward/center Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm. Candace Parker, who will also play power forward in the WNBA, is 6-4. Mystics power forward DeLisha Milton-Jones, on the other hand, is only 6-1 but has very long arms.

Whittington isn't fretting.

"I've played against a lot of tall people," she said. "Most of the power forwards in the league, they may be taller than me, but I have quickness. It really doesn't intimidate me."

Whittington is one of three players in ACC history with at least 1,000 points, 1,000 rebounds, 200 steals and 100 blocks.

"I don't know whether she can rebound as effectively in the WNBA, because the people inside are so much larger, but ... she has a knack for knowing where the ball is going to come off the board," Meadors said. "She really hustles to get her positioning."

Whittington was one of 42 players who showed their wares at the WNBA pre-draft camp Friday and Saturday at the University of Tampa.

"The fact that she's undersized and she plays a lot inside is going to hurt her a little bit" once she gets to the WNBA, Hargrove said.

"But ... she plays extremely hard on both ends of the floor, and that's definitely going to help her."

Whittington has a good fadeaway jumper, but executives said she will have to develop an outside shot because of the bigger players who will be trying to stop her when she drives to the basket. She did not attempt a 3-pointer this year.

"She needs to pull the big players out that will be defending her," Meadors said. "If she can work really hard and try to get her shot somewhere around the free-throw line or a little bit deeper than that, she's going to be pretty tough to stop."

Whittington averaged 16.8 points this year for coach Kay Yow's Wolfpack, who lost in the WNIT semifinals last week.

"It's been ... kind of depressing, just knowing that I'm done with the collegiate experience," she said. "I'm sad. I don't want to leave Coach Yow. That's my heart."

Several family members from Roanoke will be at the draft with Whittington, including Juanita Whittington, the aunt who raised her; one of her brothers; her mother; and an uncle.

Whittington's father, Mansoor Mohammed, has Lou Gehrig's disease and is in a Hampton hospital's extended-care unit.

Next month, Whittington will become the first member of her family to graduate from college. She is "very emotional" about graduating.

"I'll be able to show my dad my degree," said Whittington, a sports management major. "School wasn't always the first thing on my list, you know? And now I have something to show for it."

Zoll, the ACC's career assists leader, also was at the pre-draft camp. Hargrove and Krauskopf expect Zoll (8.5 ppg) to be taken in the second round.

"She's a terrific passer," Krauskopf said. "She knows how to run a team. ... Her next challenge will be ... to really lift her offensive game in terms of just scoring and ... fine-tuning her perimeter shooting."