New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
A Storm of activity
Inside Westbrook’s whirlwind after UConn season ended
The first round of the WNBA draft concluded without any UConn women’s basketball players selected.
Evina Westbrook sat on a chair in her family’s living room watching the draft on TV and waiting in their Salem, Oregon, home April 11. She was confident her name would be called, but she had no idea when or by whom.
She got chills when her teammates Christyn Williams (the No. 14 overall pick by Washington) and Olivia Nelson-Ododa (No. 19 by Los Angeles) were selected. Their professional careers were officially beginning.
Then, with the No. 21 overall pick, the Seattle Storm banner appeared along the bottom of the screen. On the far-left corner it read ‘Pick is in.’
The banner rolled up, reading “Evina Westbrook.”
Westbrook leaped from her chair. Her dreams were now a reality. She jumped up and down.
She turned away from the TV and clapped her hands. She walked toward her dad and leaned into his chest. His outstretched arms embraced her and held her close.
Out of 108 women in the draft candidacy pool, she was one of the 36 selected. She had made it.
“Just sitting there and at any time I’m just ... my heart is pounding,” Westbrook said Tuesday. “As soon as it (happens), you’re like, ‘OK, so and so has drafted...,’ and your heart just kinda stops for a second. A lot of us have been waiting for that moment since we’ve been dreaming about it and for it to finally come true (draft) night, I’m still honestly in shock. Like it really does not feel real.”
Those 10 days were a whirlwind for Westbrook. She finished her collegiate career in the national championship in Minneapolis on April 3. She moved out of her apartment in Storrs — a place she’s called home for the past three years — five days later. The Storm drafted her on April 11 and she planned to move to Seattle on Thursday to begin her professional career.
Westbrook has learned to handle life’s ups and downs with poise. She remained upright through UConn’s unprecedented season of injuries, through the death of her childhood coach, through a transition into a new role off the bench, and through some memorable losses — including the program’s first in a national championship game.
It all prepared the 6-foot guard for her next chapter. She’s grown mentally stronger and has learned so much more about herself and her passions off the court.
“It was and still is hard to process, like I was just at school a couple days ago, I just said goodbye to my teammates a couple days ago, my room (in Connecticut) is completely empty,” she said. “I was just drafted by the Seattle Storm, like it’s just, oh my God, the emotions, they’re just all crazy inside of me still.”
During the second quarter of UConn’s national title loss to South Carolina, Westbrook rolled her ankle. She limped to the bench and sat out until the third quarter. A trainer diagnosed her with a sprain, yet Westbrook — who transferred to UConn from Tennessee for games like this — played on.
“Once I got back in the game, my adrenaline kinda kicked in and I was good,” she said. “But I mean, it definitely hurt. But it’s
the last game of the season so I’m trying to go out and play.”
Westbrook finished with seven points, four rebounds, two assists and one block. As the Gamecocks danced in raining confetti on the court, Westbrook was seen outside the Huskies’ locker room crying.
UConn flew back to Connecticut the next day. Westbrook began packing up her apartment while starting rehab on her ankle. She flew home to Oregon a week after the title game.
She felt anxious falling asleep that Sunday night. She had closed the UConn chapter of her life and the next day would turn the page and begin her WNBA chapter.
Draft day was spent preparing the house to host about 50 family members and close friends for the draft. Westbrook’s mom, Eva, scheduled a makeup artist to do Westbrook’s makeup. She wore a light green pantsuit.
“All my emotions just leading up to the day were honestly just all over the place,” Westbrook said. “All I could think about was hearing my name being called and seeing my name pop up on the screen. Just to have it at my house, with all my family with me and just really love on me, I think was the biggest thing.
“I don’t think it mattered where it was. Being at the draft would have been an honor but I’m really glad that I got to do it at home with all of my family there.”
The Westbrook house erupted in celebration when Westbrook’s name appeared on the screen. Not only was she a WNBA draftee, but she was staying in the Pacific Northwest.
For the first time since high school, her family can drive to see her play, with Salem less than four hours south of Seattle.
Westbrook grew up watching the Storm on TV, looking up to UConn legend Sue Bird. She followed along as the franchise tied the league record with four WNBA titles. She visited the Emerald City during AAU tournaments and fell in love with it.
“They’re a great organization. They’re my dream team when I was growing up because they were far enough away from home but still close,” Westbrook said. “The city really never disappoints. It’s so beautiful, like it’s very diverse, there’s different things going on, it’s real chill. I just love Seattle, the city itself.”
Westbrook joins Bird as the fourth ex-UConn player on a Seattle roster that also includes Breanna Stewart and Gabby Williams.
“It’s great to know that there’s so many Huskies there, but it’s a lot. I can’t be the one person that disappoints so I know my game’s gotta be on point and they’re expecting that of me,” she said.
“But they also know I’m a rookie. I’m coming, I’m going to make mistakes, be a little nervous at first but really just gotta go in there and play my game. But I’m excited just to play with all of them: Gabby, Sue, Stewie. Oh my gosh, it’s going to be so much fun.”
She moved to Seattle on Thursday in preparation for training camp starting Monday. From there, Westbrook will need to impress coaches for the chance to earn a spot on an already-deep roster before the season starts on May 6.
Westbrook knows it will be hard. But she knows she’s ready.
After the season that UConn had, she’s grown stronger on and off the court. She learned how to be poised when things unravel and how to be selfless when roles change.
Eight of the Huskies’ 12 players missed at least two games or more due to injury or illness. The team lost four games due to COVID-19. And midway through the year, Westbrook’s role changed from being a starter to reserve.
“I really did grow mentally,” she said. “I was hit with adversities that I think during them I questioned, I didn’t know why I was going through them, but looking back at it now, it definitely made me stronger. … Just going through all of it, at the time I didn’t know that I needed it but, looking back at it now it’s definitely a blessing in disguise.”
It was the first time in Westbrook’s five years of collegiate basketball that she regularly came off the bench. It was new but also nothing she couldn’t handle — a similar mentality to her first sports broadcasting experience weeks later.
BROADCASTING FUTURE?
On Feb 16, she made her debut on the student-run UCTV, broadcasting from Gampel Pavilion on the men’s basketball game against Seton Hall.
Sports broadcasting has long been a passion for Westbrook. During her official visit to UConn, she toured UCTV’s studio and learned about the club.
While basketball kept her busy nearly year-round, she made time last fall to attend one of the club’s meetings and do a mock news segment from the anchor desk. She learned how to write a script and read off the teleprompter.
When UCTV sports director Noam Watt couldn’t find someone to cover the men’s game against Seton Hall, he reached out to Westbrook. She had never covered a game, but he knew she wanted to try.
As part of the assignment, Westbrook attended Dan Hurley’s media availability the day before the game. She stood in the scrum of reporters and asked questions. On game day, she sat in the press-row corner of Gampel before attending the team’s postgame media availability and writing her game story script.
Once fans left, she did her postgame report on the court.
“For her to take two days out of the season, in the middle of it in February, the days are cold and the season’s tough, to come and cover a full game with us, go to pregame, cover the
game, spend multiple hours at Gampel postgame and pregame, it meant a lot,” Watt said.
“It was really cool. The impressions that her work got was crazy because everyone was really excited to see her doing this.”
Westbrook said she wasn’t nervous to go behind the camera since her knowledge of the sport made her feel comfortable when it was time to create her game story.
“You see them (reporters) talking on TV, it looks flawless, but leading up to that they’re doing a lot of preparations,” Westbrook said. “So I kinda got to see all of that stuff, all the good meat of the stuff and not just the finished product. It was such a fun experience.”
Her time behind the camera changed how she answers questions from reporters when she’s being interviewed.
“Now I try to give more,” she said. “Sometimes I feel like it’s hard because in a basketball player’s eyes it’s like some of the questions that a reporter asks can be very similar to each other. So it just feels like we’re repeating ourselves, but from a reporter’s side, it’s like they have similar questions, but they could be different stories …
“So now instead of getting kinda wrapped up in the ‘These are real similar questions,’ and then you just get to the ‘You don’t want to answer the questions’ to be like ‘OK, let me try to give a different type of answer,’ I definitely get to see the different points of view from both sides.”
Westbrook hopes to get involved and network with Seattle teams to get more media experience behind the scenes. She would prefer to pursue that career in the offseason instead of playing around the world.
“I gotta for one, make the team — that’s going to be the hardest part — and then just try to get connected and make the right relationships with the right people,” Westbrook said. “Just in the offseason, trying to get with maybe the Seahawks or just another team to try to get more reps in so I can maybe try to do some broadcasting stuff instead of having to go (play) overseas.”
Westbrook spent draft night celebrating with her family. There was dancing, partying and an overwhelming sense of joy.
She has loved basketball since she was a baby, taking naps in her car seat in the basketball gyms where her dad worked as a coach. She stuck with it through elementary and middle school, traveling to California nearly every weekend in high school to compete on the AAU circuit.
She left Tennessee amid a coaching shift and sat out her first year in Storrs.
Westbrook has worked her whole life for draft night’s celebration. And feels ready to compete for a spot on one of the league’s most iconic franchises.
“I’m just so excited,” she said.