The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
McWilliams-Franklin debuts as coach
UNCASVILLE — With her Dallas Wings team in a fight for the playoffs, there was no time for Taj McWilliams-Franklin to get sentimental.
The all-time leading rebounder in Connecticut Sun/Orlando Miracle franchise history just happened to have her first game as the interim head coach for Dallas in Mohegan Sun Arena, her home arena from 2003-06.
“If you spend too much time thinking about those things, you lose focus on what you want to do,” McWilliams-Franklin said before Tuesday’s game against the Connecticut Sun. “I ate the lunch (before the game) with a couple of players, I told them about when I was in Connecticut but they already know (that) Connecticut/ Orlando was my first WNBA home.”
McWilliams-Franklin began her coaching career as an assistant coach at Rice in 2013. She spent three seasons as the head coach at Post University in Waterbury and also had a stint as an assistant coach with the WNBA’s New York Liberty before being hired by Fred Williams as an assistant in Dallas in 2017.
Williams was let go as the Dallas coach after an alleged altercation with team president and CEO Greg Bibb following Sunday’s loss to Washington. It was the eighth straight loss for Dallas. With three games left in the regular season, there was little margin for error if the Wings want to hold off Las Vegas for the final playoff berth.
“They have handled it really well, it is obviously a really emotional time,” said Dallas assistant coach and former Connecticut Sun
guard Erin Phillips. “The group loved Fred Williams, now they know that they have to move forward. Basketball is something that is fun but it is also their job and they have a job to do like we do as a coaching staff. We have fans in Dallas who are expecting us to play hard and we are going to do that. I give the girls a lot of credit — it is a very emotional 48 hours now — they have showed me a lot professionalism
is how they are continuing to fight through the season.”
Former UConn forward Azura’ Stevens is among the key players looking to help turn things around in Dallas. With McWilliams-Franklin working with the post players, she’s spent plenty of time working with Stevens.
“I learned a lot from here when she was one of the assistants teaching us how to play the game,” Stevens said.
McWilliams-Franklin believes her previous coaching stint have helped
prepare her for this opportunity.
“I am more patient,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “When you play and you start coaching right after like I did at Rice you have the patience of a player, and as you grow and understand coaching, what you are trying to do, you grow more patient as a coach.”
McWilliams-Franklin played for the Sun franchise for eight seasons, four years with the Orlando Miracle and the last four here in Connecticut. During that time the team had a roster full of players who would
transition into coaching, including Nykesha Sales, Wendy Palmer, Debbie Black, Jamie Carey and Brooke Wyckoff.
“Our teams weren’t the most athletic and it really was about basketball IQ,” McWilliams-Franklin said. “We had to find something we were better than, we weren’t outjumping them. I talked to Asjha (Jones) about this when I was in DC, it was all about outthinking and outsmarting (other teams).”