The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Stevens taking the high road against former team
ALBANY, N.Y. — Leave it to Azurá Stevens’ big sister to prepare her for the surreal scene she was walking into as her former and current teams prepare to meet in Saturday’s Albany Region semifinal.
A few days before Stevens would be surrounded by a mass of humanity armed with tape recorders, notebooks and the hope that an entertaining or even controversial sound bite might come out of the mouth of the top reserve on the top-ranked UConn women’s basketball team, one text message got Stevens ready for what was coming, courtesy of former St. John’s and Trinity Catholic star Da’Shena Stevens.
“She texted me when she saw who we’re playing and said, ‘How do you feel about that?” Azurá Stevens said with a laugh shortly before hitting the practice court Friday afternoon. “I was like, ‘What do you think?’ ”
When Stevens and three of UConn’s starters walked into the locker room, the media was ready to pounce. A few headed in the direction of Napheesa Collier, Crystal Dangerfield and Katie Lou Samuelson, but the majority of them made their way to interview the 6-foot-6 Stevens, who played her first two seasons at Duke before becoming the most highprofile transfer in UConn women’s history, with the showdown between Duke and UConn on the horizon for Saturday at approximately 1:30 p.m.
“We know that ‘No’ is the answer,” Dangerfield said with a chuckle. “It doesn’t matter what they ask her. She’s not going to say anything to incriminate herself or anything like that, she’s been taking the high road with everything. This is going to be her first Sweet 16 since her freshman year, we’re excited for her and we aren’t going to let anything outside take that away from this game, and we’re ready to move forward.”
Stevens squaring off against Duke would be a juicy storyline under nor-
mal circumstances. However, when Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie was quoted in a Duke Chronicle article posted online on July 1, 2016, saying, “I just think that Azurá made that decision to go to Connecticut. She told us, she told her teammates that ‘I want a guaranteed national championship.’ That became something more important than a Duke education. It was really sad,” it certainly added flavor to the first meeting between the programs since 2014.
McCallie was asked to respond to those comments Friday and said she was misquoted.
“I did not make those remarks. That’s what the media wrote,” McCallie said.
“I guess that happens sometimes. All I’ll say is I’m very proud of Azurá. What she’s done is amazing. She’s a very, very good player, and she’s going to be a big headache for us tomorrow. She just works hard on her game. She’s a very committed studentathlete.
What I can see from film and that type of thing is her inside game. Her presence on the inside, what she’s doing now in terms of paint points and paint opportunities is very, very significant, not to mention her defensive presence.”
Stevens averages 15.1 points in 21 minutes per game, and in 34 games she has posted team-leading marks of 91 offensive rebounds, 253 total rebounds and 69 blocked shots. In the postseason she is contributing 17.8 points, 8 rebounds and 2.4 blocked shots per game while shooting 67 percent from the field. She has only attempted three 3-pointers, a far cry from what she was doing earlier this season, when she would occasionally lurk around the 3-point line.
“I’ve tried to expand my game and my low post presence. I’m moving a lot more,” Stevens said. “At times earlier this season I’d find myself standing still or driftng around but noticing that it’s a lot tougher to guard when you’re moving around a little bit. The style of play we have, we’re always moving, so it’s hard for the defense to keep up with that.
“I came here just to (be) pushed a certain type of way from a program and I think I really have gotten that. It’s been challenging. It’s not easy coming into this program and it’s a rewarding feeling to feel like you’re growing as a player, and that’s an everyday type of thing, not a one-day thing; every day in practice you have to be locked in.”
McCallie isn’t the only person from Duke who mentioned what a different player Stevens was than at Duke, where she was the No. 2 scorer and rebounder on a 23-win team as a freshman and the leader in both categories in her sophomore campaign.
“I think she’s a great player,” Blue Devils senior forward/center Erin Matthias said. “We played together for two years, we came in as freshmen together so we know tendencies that the other does. I’m looking forward to going up against her, it’ll be a good time.”