Center stage
Lopez Sénéchal leaving college under bright UConn lights
Lou Lopez Sénéchal came to UConn from Fairfield through the transfer portal, not some magical apparatus that instantaneously transformed her game. She was really good with the Stags and she has been really good with the Huskies, making the most of her one year in Geno Auriemma’s program.
“I don’t think Lou did anything different this year than she probably did the last four years,” Auriemma said Saturday before a practice at the Werth Champions Center. “The difference in Lou this year and last year is she just had a bigger stage to play on and now more people in America know who she is. And that’s a great thing for her because I think that’s what she deserves.”
It has probably changed her future.
Lopez Sénéchal is averaging 16 points for the fourth-ranked Huskies, buoying a team weighed down by injuries among its guards and thriving under college basketball’s
brightest light. Numerous WNBA mock drafts have her slotted as a late firstround selection in the April draft.
“It’s still the goal to become a professional basketball player, WNBA, overseas, and I’m still in the process of learning,” Lopez Sénéchal said. “I think this year has definitely helped me to have more opportunities out there. The season is not over and I’m still thinking more about the present right now than what is going to happen in a couple months, even though it is in the back of my head.”
UConn, coming off a narrow road victory over DePaul, will play its regular season final Monday night against Xavier, Senior Night at Gampel Pavilion. Then the whirlwind really begins. The Big East Tournament. The NCAA Tournament. Whatever remains of classwork. The draft. A new city and new team and new life as a professional basketball player. The end of the road for the fascinating amateur portion of Lopez Sénéchal’s career.
“I feel like people who get here, whether it’s for a year or four years, they always create that bond with UConn and with all the players that have been there,” she said. “I think that — I know that — now I’m part of this program even if I’m here only for a year and even if I’m leaving soon.”