For veterans, there’s business to finish
This day belongs to the seniors, as a long and unpredictable trip at UConn is coming to its end.
Christyn Willams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Evina Westbrook and Dorka Juhasz all will be honored in ceremonies for Senior Day, the last UConn women’s basketball home game, on Sunday before the Huskies play Providence at Gampel Pavilion.
The game starts at 2 p.m. Ceremonies will start about 1:30.
“It’s bittersweet,” Williams said. “I’m very excited for the next chapter, but we have unfinished business to take care of. Yes, it’s our last game at Gampel, but we still have a lot of games to be played, the whole postseason. So I’m not looking at it like the last game ever, but it’s bittersweet.”
At UConn, there is always unfinished business and for the seniors the final home games will likely be the first two NCAA Tournament games with UConn hosting. For this group, the unfinished business is the program’s 12th national championship, the goal that has eluded UConn since 2016.
This senior class, however, has had to guide the program through a season like no other, at least for UConn. With nearly every player losing time due to injury, some of the best players losing significant chunks of the season, the Huskies have had to bounce back from losses five times and continue to keep the faith that, eventually, the team would be whole again.
“One of the biggest changes is in my mentality,” Nelson-Ododa said. “Realizing that this is an uncharacteristic season, you don’t know what’s going to happen next game. So being prepared for anything, having to be prepared on the fly, it all comes into it and it’s played a huge part, not only in our leadership, the seniors’ leadership, but the overall growth of the team.”
Here’s a closer look at UConn’s senior honorees
CHRISTYN WILLIAMS Redemption
Before Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, Williams came to UConn as the No. 1 recruit in the country in the Class of 2018. Williams, from Little Rock, was three-time Gatorade player of the year in Arkansas, was a starter from her first game, and has played in 122 games, averaging 34.1 minutes, 14.1 points.
There was a moment late in her sophomore season when coach Geno Auriemma barked that she was “uncoachable,” and she took it to heart. She averaged 16.3 points per game and was an All-Big East player.
Still, she recorded a video series for YouTube called “redemption summer,” chronicling her rehab from elbow surgery. In the first installment, she promised viewers her senior year would be a “long one, but a fun one.” As it turned out, she had no idea.
“I mean, yes, this year has been hard,” said Williams, who has 1,724 career points. “And I feel like I’m more mature than I was my sophomore year. But yeah, you know, having my surgery and everything on my shooting arm. It was a lot. But I mean, I got through it. And then we get here and there’s more adversity. But you know, we always stick together as a team. And this team makes things a lot more fun, like just the group of people and the girls that we have on our team and just make adversity fun … and we’re just going to continue to keep fighting whatever is thrown at us.”
OLIVIA NELSON-ODODA Steady improvement
The No. 5 recruit in 2018, Nelson-Ododa, 6-5, from Winder, Ga., has played against very high expectations, matched against UConn’s legendary front court players. She has found her voice and become a top defensive player, averaging 7.4 rebounds with 44 blocks this season, and extraordinary versatility. Though she was slowed by a groin injury late in the year, “ONO” played some of her best games when the Huskies were depleted by the other injuries.
“I think it’s developed a lot over the year because of the adversity we’ve faced,” she said. “It’s a pretty uncharacteristic season for UConn. A lot of the stuff we’ve faced, I’ve never even seen over my four years. So we had to step out of our comfort zone and figure out a lot of things in order to lead our team and come out with ways to grind out certain things. With the growth of our leadership it’s formed into something we didn’t think we’d have to do, just something different.”
EVINA WESTBROOK Finding a home
Evina Westbrook, from Salem, Ore., started her career at Tennessee, then transferred and had to sit out a frustrating year at UConn as the NCAA denied her a waiver to play right away. In her first season at UConn, disrupted by COVID, she averaged 9.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists.
However, she became not only a team leader, but the “Mama” of the team, as Williams called her, cooking on holidays, offering advice when she sees someone down.
She passed on the WNBA draft after last season because she, too, felt unfinished business, she wanted a true, full-year college experience at UConn. It became more than she bargained for, and during a mid-season slump a change in roles and a talk with assistant coach Morgan Valley changed things for Westbrook. She’s playing her best basketball as a spark off the bench as this season ends, including a 10-assist performance against St. John’s on Friday.
DORKA JUHASZ
Never walk alone
Dorka Juhasz, 6-5, from Pecs, Hungary, transferred after graduating in three years from Ohio State, and has proven to be a valuable player in various roles, averaging 7.7 points and 5.9 rebounds in 21.9 minutes.
Her decision to participate in Senior Day festivities does not mean she has made a decision about next year; she is considering returning. But she does feel kinship with this group. Her parents won’t be able to be at Gampel, but her teammates have offered to walk out with her, much as the UConn men’s players did for Phil Nolan’s Senior Day.
“When we talked about it, my parents are not able to come, and they were like, ‘Oh, we want to walk out with you,’ ” Juhasz said. “That just made me so happy. They welcomed me so quickly and were so happy I was here. It’s really like being part of a family. I had a different team, but I came in and felt love from them right away.”