Liberty's Warley excited about her new job: center for the Phoenix Mercury

Her mother was speechless. And two days after making the roster of the Phoenix Mercury, Liberty graduate Avery Warley still found it hard to put together a sentence about what it all means.

"I think the most, the best word is, I'm just excited," a giddy Warley said. "I'm anxious. I'm just so, I'm speechless. The way it happened..."

Yep, that was pretty special. Warley is one of three free agents who survived final roster cuts last week. She will wear No. 23 for the Mercury, who open the season on Sunday at Minnesota at 12:30 p.m. The game will be televised by ABC.

This is a league where jobs are scarce, where first-round draft picks find themselves unemployed. Warley is grateful her agent found the opportunity in Phoenix and soon afterward, she was on a plane to training camp.

"My main goal was to show them everything that I had so I had no regrets," Warley said. "I had to show them everything my game had, so if I was to get cut, there was never, 'I should have done this. I could have done that.' I had to focus on what I could control. I couldn't control the decision. It turned out pretty good for me."

Agreed. In addition to the 6-3 center, only Aneika Henry (Atlanta) and Ziomara Morrison (San Antonio) made rosters as free agents. Warley felt good from the start, showing off the kind of rebounding prowess that distinguished her at Liberty, where her 1,282 career boards ranks first all time. In an exhibition against the Japanese national team on May 8, Warley scored eight with 13 boards.

"I definitely saw I could fit in with this team. I saw the chemistry I had with them," Warley said. "They play my type of basketball. Mostly I saw a lot of me in this team, and that gave me a lot of confidence."

Still, nothing was a given until Warley got the good word from team president and COO Amber Cox. That happened on Wednesday, one day before Warley turned 25.

As the team was preparing for media day, Cox welcomed her to the fold.

"I knew it was coming down to clutch," Warley said. "I just waited and was very patient, and when I came down for media day, she said congratulations to me."

Warley's first call was to her mother in Washington, D.C.

"She was so speechless," Warley said.  "I think she started crying. She had to sit down and process it. It was a good feeling all the way from Washington, D.C. to Arizona."

One of her new teammates is perhaps the most talented basketball player in the world: Diana Taurasi.

"She is an awesome person," Warley said. "I just talked to her and she was giving me words of wisdom, so I'm definitely in soaking in everything she tells me."

Mom has already circled July 1, when the Washington Mystics host the Mercury. Warley says everything that happened has been a highlight. She's learning to live the life of a professional basketball player, which is devoid of the distractions and responsibilities that come with being a collegiate athlete.

"It's nothing like being in college," said Warley, who is three classes shy of completing her master's in psychology. "It's not so structured. All you focus on is basketball, not homework or going to study hall. Now I can focus on basketball. This is what I do. It's my job."

No surprise, Warley remains humble about all of it.

"It is all God. I have no parts in it at all," she said. "I definitely worked really really hard when I got here. God always rewards hard work

Liberty bows out to Notre Dame in NCAA Tournament

You wonder what would have happened if Liberty had faced the Irish on St. Patrick's Day.....

But luck had nothing to do with this one, which was more about No. 16 seed Liberty pitted against the NCAA runner-up in its own building with a team that has all the talent to be a national champion. We'll spare you the detail other than the Irish scored the first 11 and outscored the Lady Flames 44-19 in the first for an end result of  74-43.

We take this chance to salute the marvelous collegiate career of Avery Warley, who leaves Liberty as the Big South Conference's all-time leading rebounder with 1,282 boards. Warley also tied the Big South career record with her 132nd game played.

As for the Lady Flames (24-9), all they did was win their 14th Big South title in the last 16 years. The first goal of every team is to rule their own conference, and no Division I team does this with as much regularity as Liberty.

The trick now is to do a bit more in the non-conference schedule to avoid the type of NCAA Tournament seeding that makes it difficult to advance. This year, for example, since Notre Dame was the only No. 1 seed that hosted the first two rounds, a case can be made that the Lady Flames drew the toughest opening-game assignment in the entire tournament.

While it will be impossible to replace Warley, there are plenty of reasons why Liberty could make some early season noise. For the first time in three years, the Lady Flames should start the season with an experienced point guard. And they still have Devon Brown, who overcame personal tragedy to put together another first-team All-Big South campaign and often played her best in Liberty's biggest games. Brown had 24 points and a career-high 14 rebounds in the Lady Flames' come-from-behind 81-73 victory over High Point in the Big South title game. She even distinguished herself in Sunday's NCAA Tournament loss to Notre Dame, finishing with a game-high 16 points.

Liberty, Warley top Big South preseason rankings

Death, taxes, Liberty being picked to win the Big South...some things just seem inevitable.

For the 14th time in 15 years, the Lady Flames are the preseason No. 1 in the conference's poll of coaches and selected media. Liberty got 19 of 20 first-place votes; we'd love to know the identity of the one voter who tabbed High Point first. Not that that's a crazy pick. We'd just like to know who it is.

Radford, the No. 2 seed in last year's Big South Tournament, was picked third, followed by 2011 conference tournament champion Gardner-Webb. Big South newcomer Campbell came in sixth.

The poll results

1. Liberty
2. High Point
3. Radford
4. Gardner-Webb
5. Winthrop
6. Campbell
7. Charleston Southern
8. Coastal Carolina
9. Presbyterian
10. UNC Asheville

Meanwhile, Lady Flames star and soon-to-be U.S. Pan Am Games team member Avery Warley was voted Big South Preseason Player of the Year. Warley is joined on the first team by teammate Devon Brown, Radford's Da'Naria Erwin Spencer, High Point's Shamia Brown and Winthrop's Dequesha McClanahan. Warley, Brown and Erwin Spencer were first-team all-league picks last season; McClanahan was the 2011 conference freshman of the year.