Shock rookie Diggins talks about life on, off the court

Welcome to Tulsa, Skylar. 

Almost through the first half of the Tulsa Shock's first exhibition game of the season, a hard collision left the Shock's new point guard, Skylar Diggins, bent over near the sidelines. No foul was called. The game kept moving and she was still standing there, looking at the floor. A trainer soon came over with a towel, and Diggins walked off the court with a busted lip. 

"I was coming off a screen, and she tried to go over it, and I think once I made that turn, she kinda, like, flung her arm back and caught me right on the left side of my face," said the Shock's first-round draft pick the following day. 

It was a hit hard enough to give the 22-year-old a headache. 

Diggins had disappeared to the locker room after that, got stitches (of which she later tweeted a photo) and returned to the game a few minutes into the third quarter. 

"I don't know if she was trying to send me a message. I don't know what kind of player she is," Diggins says of the Atlanta Dream's Aneika Henry. "I'm assuming it was an accident. I guess, 'Welcome to the big league.' " 

The day after the exhibition game, the Shock players have traded in their uniforms for slacks and dress shirts, dresses, sparkly stiletto pumps and, in Diggins' case, a creamy white peplum blouse, rich-red ankle pants and a pair of cork ballerina flats with gold cap toes to greet society ladies headed to a fundraiser at the Tulsa Convention Center. 

Diggins moves her face slightly to show her lip. It's definitely swollen; but, as a teammate had pointed out earlier, if she smiled, you could barely see it. 

"I've got a couple stitches in my elbow, fractured my wrist, my ankle, pretty lightweight stuff," Diggins says. "Cuts and bangs and bruises happen all the time, probably get one of those every time I play. This cut was a little different ... but it's all good." 

All-American

The 72-58 loss to the Dream that day was a rough start but a start nonetheless for Diggins, arguably the most talked about player in the WNBA right now. 

And the regular season hasn't even started yet. 

Charge it to her All-American status - and leading her alma mater to the Final Four three years in a row. That she's the only Notre Dame player of either gender to register more than 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists and 300 steals in her career.