{"id":916537,"date":"2026-07-06T14:59:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T14:59:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T14:59:46","slug":"cotie-mcmahon-is-settling-in-and-the-mystics-are-feeding-off-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916537\/","title":{"rendered":"Cotie McMahon is settling in, and the Mystics are feeding off her"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 When Cotie McMahon<\/a> got to Ohio State as a freshman, a lot about her routine changed from high school. One of the things she added in was watching the film of every game later that night, no matter how late the team got home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of my way of relaxing myself after a game because I definitely don\u2019t go right to sleep,\u201d McMahon told reporters at the Mystics\u2019 preseason media day. \u201cSo I just thought, \u2018Well, since I\u2019m up, I might as well just watch film.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The film study helped McMahon calm her mind and eventually fall asleep. But it also helped her learn from her mistakes and adjust to new systems and roles<\/a>. In part because of what she learned from those late-night sessions, McMahon became a four-time all-conference player<\/a> at Ohio State and Mississippi, an honorable mention AP All-American as a senior, and the No. 11 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now as a rookie with the Washington Mystics, McMahon has kept up her film routine, and it\u2019s helped her settle in at the professional level.<\/p>\n

So far this season, the 6\u2019 McMahon is averaging 6.6 points<\/a>, 2.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 20.6 minutes per game. She has started four games and is shooting 37.8% from 3-point range on 2.2 attempts per game. And beyond the box score, she\u2019s brought a toughness and a relentlessness that have rubbed off on her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s got some swagger on the floor, but some humility in terms of learning the [WNBA] game \u2026 that is really, really impressive,\u201d Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson told reporters after a win over the Minnesota Lynx on June 21.<\/p>\n

When McMahon was drafted to Washington, she knew there would be an opportunity to play immediately on a team that was rebuilding around its young players. The Mystics are the youngest team in the WNBA<\/a> this season and the second-youngest in league history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in preseason, McMahon admitted that the transition to the pro level was challenging. \u201cI\u2019m an overthinker and I\u2019m kind of a perfectionist and I\u2019m really hard on myself,\u201d she told The IX Basketball on April 25, after the team\u2019s first preseason game. \u201cBut talking to the coaches, they\u2019re just instilling confidence in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMahon missed the first two games of the season with an elbow injury but made a splash in her WNBA debut, putting up 13 points, five rebounds and two assists in 30 minutes in an overtime win over the Indiana Fever. From there, her production and minutes fluctuated, including playing just four minutes and 36 seconds against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 29. Yet Johnson insisted after that game that McMahon was doing exactly what the coaches wanted and pointed to her as a prime example of how the Mystics are developing players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe few minutes that she played today, you have no idea how good those minutes were in terms of areas that we\u2019ve asked her to address,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we can go to the next game \u2026 [and] she has a better feel for how she can be successful in this league. \u2026 So really happy with her minutes, really happy with how she\u2019s showing up and holding herself accountable and taking the challenge, and there\u2019s a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Part of the development process for McMahon has been continuing to grow as a perimeter player. At both Ohio State and Mississippi, she was listed as a forward, though she began to add perimeter skills to complement her ability to get to the rim and score. As a junior, her 3-point percentage and volume<\/a> both jumped, and she also improved her midrange game. After she transferred to Mississippi for her senior season, her assist rate doubled, as head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin had her play point guard at times<\/a>. That got the ball in her hands more and allowed her teammates to follow her lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just knew I had to unlock something else in my bag,\u201d McMahon said at media day. \u201cObviously, my downhill game is something that will forever be strong, but I just knew that in order for me to kind of be successful throughout my whole career, I would need to be a versatile player.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mystics see McMahon as a perimeter player and list her exclusively as a guard. But the team\u2019s offensive philosophy discourages most midrange shots, so that\u2019s been another adjustment for McMahon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s either in the paint [for] a two or a three, so there\u2019s kind of no in-between here,\u201d McMahon told The IX Basketball on June 24. \u201cSo [I\u2019m] just really taking a step away from my midrange game and really focusing on my 3-point and then my inside game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TwoWashington Mystics guard Cotie McMahon attacks the basket (left) and shoots a 3-pointer (right) during a game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on June 21, 2026. (Photo credits: John McClellan | The IX Basketball)<\/p>\n

McMahon is a strong, physical player in the mold of Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas<\/a>, Fever forward Myisha Hines-Allen<\/a> or Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud<\/a>. She has used her strength, combined with her quickness and agility, especially well to attack the basket in transition. She\u2019s scoring 16.8% of her points on fast breaks<\/a>, which puts her in the top 20% of WNBA players who have played at least 12 games this season. When she grabs a defensive rebound with space in front of her, there\u2019s sometimes a different look in her eye as she turns upcourt. That\u2019s something the Mystics noticed about her in college and are encouraging her to continue doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe does have a unique ability where she can corral that rebound and bust out, and that\u2019s much of what we saw at Ohio State and Ole Miss,\u201d Johnson said on June 26. \u201cI just saw a player that could switch end to end in a really unique way that not a ton of players in our league can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn transition, she\u2019s just full speed to the rim, and she\u2019s going to dare you to get in front of her,\u201d Atlanta Dream head coach Karl Smesko told reporters before facing the Mystics on Thursday. \u201cShe\u2019s been really good like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WashingtonWashington Mystics guard Cotie McMahon (23) dribbles the ball over midcourt in transition during a game against the Connecticut Sun at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., on June 17, 2026. (Photo credit: Chris Poss | The IX Basketball)<\/p>\n

Since mid-June, McMahon has seemingly found another gear. Over her past nine games<\/a>, she is averaging 7.1 points and 2.2 assists per game, up from 6.1 points and 1.6 assists in her first eight games. That\u2019s partly because she\u2019s averaging 5.5 more minutes in the past nine games, but it\u2019s also because she\u2019s shooting 41.7% from 3-point range on 2.7 attempts per game, compared with 30.8% on 1.6 attempts in her first eight games.<\/p>\n

McMahon has also managed to reduce her fouling significantly while still being physical on both ends of the court. She began the season averaging 6.0 fouls per 40 minutes, but over her last nine games, she\u2019s committing just 2.5 fouls per 40 minutes. That helps her stay on the court longer, and it can also help create transition opportunities, if she\u2019s forcing misses or turnovers rather than stoppages in play.<\/p>\n

McMahon\u2019s best game of the season arguably came in the win over the Lynx, when she scored a career-high 15 points on 4-for-4 3-point shooting and added five assists. She was just the sixth Mystic<\/a> ever \u2014 and the first rookie \u2014 to have 15 points and five assists in a game off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s building game by game,\u201d guard Georgia Amoore<\/a> told The IX Basketball on June 28. \u201cShe\u2019s adding more stuff to her to her bag. And I think that Minnesota game at Minny was amazing. \u2026 It wasn\u2019t easy threes [she hit]; it was like side steps. And she\u2019s built for the moment, and she keeps rising to the occasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see how well she\u2019s playing,\u201d guard Lucy Olsen<\/a> told The IX Basketball on June 24. \u201cKnocking down the three, that\u2019s awesome because we really need to space the floor<\/a>. And I think \u2026 in the beginning, everyone [around the league] knows her game is get downhill, get downhill, so I think she really adjusted well to being like, \u2018I have more than that.\u2019 We all knew she had more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On June 28, McMahon had just 5 points in a quadruple overtime win over the Portland Fire<\/a>, but 2 of them helped seal the game. She checked in with 1:37 to go in the fourth overtime, not having played since the fourth quarter and not having scored since the first quarter. But on her first offensive possession, she drove to the rim and made a layup to tie the game at 120.<\/p>\n

\u201cCotie comes in, and immediate impact,\u201d veteran forward Michaela Onyenwere<\/a> told reporters postgame about that moment. \u201c\u2026 She\u2019s somebody who people can\u2019t stop. \u2026 She had sat for like 20 minutes at that point, but it didn\u2019t even matter. She stayed ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Despite the strides McMahon has made in recent weeks, though, she didn\u2019t talk about any of that when she was asked what she\u2019d learned from watching extra film at night. Instead, she said she\u2019d noticed how connected her team was and seen \u201cit translate on the court in tough situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson has seen that togetherness, too, including in tight wins over the league-leading Lynx, the fifth-place New York Liberty<\/a> and the seventh-place Dream recently. And after a 2-point loss to the Lynx on June 24, he credited his players for having full belief that they could be connected enough and good enough to beat the Lynx for the second time in four days.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe expectation to be in games and win games is something that is starting to emerge with this group. \u2026 It takes time to get there, and we want to cement that,\u201d said Johnson, whose Mystics are currently in eighth place at 10-9. \u201cSo how do you get there? You put your work in, your player development, your film. You need your reps; you need these experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

One reason the Mystics are believing in themselves is because they\u2019ve gotten it done in clutch minutes already this season. (The WNBA defines clutch minutes as those when the score is within 5 points in the last five minutes of regulation or in overtime.) Through Saturday, they\u2019ve played a league-high 81 clutch minutes<\/a> across 13 games and gotten a league-best eight clutch wins. That\u2019s despite playing only 19 games so far while other teams have played as many as 22.<\/p>\n

\"WashingtonWashington Mystics guards Cotie McMahon (23) and Georgia Amoore (8) celebrate during a game against the Minnesota Lynx at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2026. (Photo credit: Hannah Kevorkian | The IX Basketball)<\/p>\n

But another reason for the Mystics\u2019 self-belief is because the energy and the toughness McMahon plays with give everyone else a bit of swagger, too. That\u2019s invaluable for a young team that is still figuring out the pro game and facing unfamiliar situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just has a specific tenacity that just comes with her,\u201d Amoore said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a player or players like that, they give you a bit of confidence in terms of, when things get tough, that somebody can unlock something,\u201d Johnson said on June 26.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it elevates us,\u201d guard Sonia Citron<\/a> told The IX Basketball on June 28. \u201cWhen you see how hard she plays \u2026 [and] just the energy that she brings, it almost makes you want to play even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the Mystics know there\u2019s a lot of work ahead to get to where they want to be, they are taking on some of McMahon\u2019s relentlessness and self-belief. That might be her most important contribution to the team this season because of how it reaches everyone on the roster.<\/p>\n

McMahon showed that tenacious mindset when she was asked what it was like playing against players who are often five years, sometimes 10 years, older than her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even think about it like that,\u201d she said. \u201cI mean, we just go out there and take on whoever\u2019s in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The IX Basketball. The IX Basketball\u2019s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.<\/p>\n

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