Lauren Cox

{{Infobox basketball biography

| name = Lauren Cox

| image =

| caption =

| width =

| number = 13

| team =

| league = WNBA

| position = Power forward

| height_ft = 6

| height_in = 4

| weight_lb = 205

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1998|4|20}}

| birth_place = Flower Mound, Texas, U.S.

| high_school = Flower Mound
(Flower Mound, Texas)

| college = Baylor (2016–2020)

| draft_league = WNBA

| draft_year = 2020

| draft_round = 1

| draft_pick = 3

| draft_team = Indiana Fever

| career_start = 2020

| years1 = {{WNBA Year|2020}}–{{WNBA Year|2021}}

| team1 = Indiana Fever

| years2 = {{WNBA Year|2021}}

| team2 = Los Angeles Sparks

| years3 = 2022–2023

| team3 =Valencia Basket Club

| years4 = {{WNBA Year|2023}}

| team4 = Connecticut Sun

| years5 = 2023–2024

| team5 = Virtus Bologna

| years6 = 2024–present

| team6 = Townsville Fire

| highlights =

NCAA champion (2019)
Big 12 Player of the Year (2020)
First-team All-American – AP, USBWA (2020)
WBCA Coaches' All-American (2020)
Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award (2020)
Third-team All-American – AP, USBWA(2019)
2x Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year (2018, 2019)
3x Big 12 All-Defensive Team (2018–2020)
3x First-team All-Big 12 (2018–2020)
Big 12 Sixth Player of the Year (2017)
Big 12 All-Freshman team (2017)
McDonald's All-American (2016)
{{nowrap|FIBA Under-18 Americas Championship MVP (2016)}}

| medaltemplates ={{MedalCountry|{{USA}}}}

}}

Lauren Elizabeth Cox (born April 20, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for Virtus Bologna (Italy).{{Cite web |date=2023-07-12 |title=Lauren Cox è una nuova giocatrice di Virtus Segafredo Bologna! |url=https://www.virtus.it/news/lauren-cox-e-una-nuova-giocatrice-di-virtus-segafredo-bologna/ |access-date=2024-01-25 |language=it-IT}} She played college basketball for the Baylor Lady Bears.{{cite web |title=Lauren Cox - Women's Basketball |url=https://baylorbears.com/sports/womens-basketball/roster/lauren-cox/9530 |website=Baylor University Athletics |language=en}} She was named a preseason All-American by Lindy's Sports, Athlon Sports, and Street & Smith prior to the 2019 season beginning. In November 2019, ESPN ranked Cox as the second-best collegiate women's basketball player in the country behind Sabrina Ionescu.{{cite news |title=The top 25 players in women's college basketball |url=https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story?id=27914075&_slug_=the-top-25-players-women-college-basketball-2019-20 |accessdate=23 January 2020 |work=ESPN.com |date=4 November 2019 |language=en}} She would be named Big 12 Player of the Year that season.{{cite press release|url=https://big12sports.com/news/2020/3/9/womens-basketball-2019-20-phillips-66-all-big-12-wbb-awards-announced.aspx |title=2019-20 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 WBB Awards Announced |publisher=Big 12 Conference |date=March 9, 2020 |accessdate=March 9, 2020}}

Professional career

Cox was drafted by the Indiana Fever at the 2020 WNBA draft on April 17, 2020 with the 3rd overall pick. In her rookie season she played 14 games, averaging 3.6 points and 3.3 rebounds. During her sophomore season, she played in 11 games for the Fever before being abruptly waived on June 27, 2021. Three days later on June 30, 2021, she signed with the Los Angeles Sparks, finishing the season with them by playing in 15 games and averaging 3.5 points and 3.7 rebounds.

Cox was not signed after finishing the 2021 season with the Sparks. And thus, would miss the entire 2022 season. In June, 2022, it was announced she would be joining Valencia Basket Club for 2022-2023 season of the Liga Femenina de Baloncesto.{{Cite web |last=Calabuig |first=Pascu |date=2022-06-01 |title=El Valencia Basket ficha a la estadounidense Lauren Cox |url=https://www.superdeporte.es/valencia-basket/2022/06/01/valencia-basket-ficha-estadounidense-lauren-66776409.html |access-date=2022-06-01 |website=Superdeporte |language=es}} She also played in the FIBA World Cup 3x3 Basketball Tournament during the summer of 2022.

On February 7, 2023, the Connecticut Sun announced that they signed Cox and Kristine Anigwe (9th overall pick of the 2019 WNBA Draft) to training camp contracts.

WNBA career statistics

=Regular season=

| align="left" | 2020

| align="left" | Indiana

| 14 || 1 || 13.1 || .419 || .500 || .733 || 3.3 || 1.4 || 0.4 || 0.3 || 0.8 || 3.6

| align="left" rowspan=2 | 2021

| align="left" | Indiana

| 11 || 0 || 8.6 || .316 || .333 || 1.000 || 2.0 || 0.3 || 0.4 || 0.3 || 0.6 || 1.4

| align="left" | Los Angeles

| 15 || 0 || 14.0 || .413 || .200 || .778 || 3.7 || 0.6 || 0.7 || 0.9 || 0.6 || 3.5

| align="left" | 2023

| align="left" | Connecticut

| 1 || 0 || 0.0 || — || — || — || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0 || 0.0

| align="left" | Career

| align="left" | 2 years, 2 teams

| 41 || 1 || 11.9 || .398 || .357 || .771 || 3.0 || 0.8 || 0.5 || 0.5 || 0.7 || 2.9

High school

Cox was one of the top-rated high school basketball players in the country. She was the 2016 Women's Basketball Coaches Association High School Player of the Year.

Career statistics

=College=

| style="text-align:left;"|2016–17

| style="text-align:left;"|Baylor

| 37 || 1 || 13.4 || .433 || .412 || .747 || 4.1 || 1.2 || 0.4 || 1.4 || 1.1 || 7.6

| style="text-align:left;"|2017–18

| style="text-align:left;"|Baylor

| 34 || 34 || 30.2 || .516 || .304 || .748 || 9.7 || 2.9 || 1.1 || 2.7 || 1.7 ||15.3

| style="text-align:left;"|2018–19

| style="text-align:left;"|Baylor

| 38 || 38 || 29.5 || .522 || .306 || .734 || 8.3 || 3.7 || 0.8 || 2.6 || 1.5 || 13.0

| style="text-align:left;"|2019–20*

| style="text-align:left;"|Baylor

| 22 || 22 || 30.2 || .463 || .333 || .614 || 8.4 || 3.6 ||1.3 || 2.7 || 1.6 || 12.5

|- class="sortbottom"

| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"|Career

| 131 || 95 || 25.2 || .492 || .322 || .725 || 7.5 || 2.8 || 0.8 || 2.3 || 1.5 || 12.0

* 2020 NCAA tournament canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Personal life

Cox was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 7. She wears an insulin pump during games.{{cite magazine |last1=Litman |first1=Laken |title=Baylor Center Lauren Cox Going for Back-to-Back Titles |url=https://www.si.com/college/2019/11/07/baylor-lauren-cox-diabetes |accessdate=23 January 2020 |magazine=Sports Illustrated |date=7 November 2019 |language=en-us}} In each season of Cox's Baylor career, the Lady Bears played a preseason type 1 diabetes benefit game. The 2019 edition of the game, in Cox's final season at Baylor, was especially significant for her personally, as the opponent was defending NCAA Division II champion Lubbock Christian, which featured her younger sister Whitney—who had been diagnosed with the disease at age 17—as a freshman reserve. Near the end of the 2019–20 season, the United States Basketball Writers Association announced that both sisters would receive the Pat Summitt Most Courageous Award for their basketball and community involvement in the face of their condition.{{cite news |url=http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/tipoff/february20/summitt.html |title=Most Courageous Cox sisters battle Type 1 diabetes |first=Mel |last=Greenberg |publisher=United States Basketball Writers Association |date=February 2020 |accessdate=March 3, 2020 |archive-date=July 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720020500/http://sportswriters.net/usbwa/tipoff/february20/summitt.html |url-status=dead }}