Valley returns to UConn as assistant

Morgan Valley is leaving a fragile position as head coach at Hartford for one of the most coveted assistant coaching positions in college basketball, returning to UConn as a member of Geno Auriemma’s staff.

“It’s a no-brainer, but at the same time it was really, really hard,” Valley said Wednesday morning. “We had started to turn the corner in recruiting (at Hartford), but when you get the call from the Mecca of basketball it’s kind of hard to say no.”

Especially now.

With Hartford deep into exploring a downgrade for its athletics department from Division I to Division III, Valley, part of three national championship teams with UConn as a player in 2000-04, is leaving behind the uncertainty of one situation for the stability of another.

She notified the UHart coaching staff of her departure Tuesday. On Wednesday, she told players during an 8 a.m. team meeting.

“Some are really happy. Some are really upset,” Valley said. “I think a lot of

these things, when you kind of get punched in the face, it takes a little time to get used to what just happened.”

Valley, 40, will replace Shea Ralph, recently named coach at Vanderbilt, and join associate head coach Chris Dailey and Jamelle Elliott as assistants.

“I’m just really excited for the opportunity,” Valley said. “I honestly can’t even

believe that it’s happening. It’s been a crazy couple of days and I’m just really grateful to Coach. It’s really hard to put into words. It’s just exciting, it’s an honor, it’s pretty surreal. I thought this ship had sailed. I never even thought it was a possibility. But it’s just an honor and I’m so excited to represent a place that means so much to me.”

Valley, who had three years remaining on her contract, was 4-37 as Hartford coach. After Kim

McNeill left the Hawks to become coach at East Carolina, Valley was hired in April 2019. She even purchased McNeill’s West Hartford home, a pretty seamless life transition that was counter to what she experienced on the job.

Taking over a team depleted by injuries and departures, Hartford was 0-28 before upsetting first-place Stony Brook in the 2019-20 season finale. Afterward, Valley was mobbed by players upon entering the locker room and, later, she and staff members uncorked a bottle of Dom Perignon that longtime friend and former teammate Diana Taurasi had given to her 10 months earlier.

The Hawks were 3-9 this past season, which was discontinued in January due to COVID-19.

“I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it,” said Valley, who had come to Hartford after spending two seasons as an assistant under Adia Barnes at Arizona.