The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Westbrook excited to learn from UConn alum Taurasi
Every time former UConn women’s basketball guard Evina Westbrook makes a mistake in practice, she automatically knows the one voice that will immediately call her out.
Fellow former Husky star and Westbrook’s current Phoenix Mercury teammate Diana Taurasi will shake her head and challenge Westbrook to be better with a simple look.
It’s that support that has reignited Westbrook’s love of basketball.
“Just playing with her, it doesn’t matter if I mess up. She knows what I’m capable of,” Westbrook said Monday during the Mercury’s media availability. “So, every day, you know, I’ll miss a shot and she’ll laugh and be like, ‘You know what you should have done.’ Or I won’t take a shot and she’ll be like, she’ll look at me and I’m like, ‘I know. I know.’ And we’ll just start laughing. She gives me another, like a piece of joy to the game, I think, and I needed that, and I love that.”
Westbrook joined forces with Taurasi and fellow former Husky Moriah Jefferson this spring when the Mercury signed the Oregon native during training camp. All three guards represent different generations of UConn women’s basketball, however; to Westbrook, that’s what makes them so disciplined and motivated on the court.
“We come from like a certain type of pedigree for sure,” Westbrook said. “I feel like other people do know it and we know it ourselves just coming from UConn having that UConn mentality and bringing that to the W is much easier. … It’s great. I’m really glad I went there. It really set us up for success in the W.”
The Mercury are Westbrook’s fourth different team in the
WNBA after playing for Seattle, Minnesota and Washington during her rookie season last summer. Westbrook was drafted in the second round by the Storm but was waived before the start of the regular season. She teamed up with Jefferson with the Lynx for 14 games before closing out the year in D.C.
Now in Phoenix with Taurasi and Jefferson — who signed a free agent deal with the Mercury during the offseason — Westbrook is continuing to grow her game even more.
On Monday, she said Taurasi’s serious but fun demeanor has taught her how to play with more confidence.
“It’s her personality. I mean, I’m constantly laughing in the weight room just because she’s talking or she’s singing, she’s dancing,” Westbrook said. “But she’s still locked in at the same time. And when she comes on into court, it is business. She’ll mess up and stuff like that but she’s coaching at the same time. And just the reads that she makes and the passes. It’s the little things that she does is really impressive.
“But I mean she’s the G-OA-T for a reason. She doesn’t have that nickname out of nowhere. So, you definitely see it in practice. Just being able to be her teammate and just kind of being a sponge and kind of just soaking up everything that she’s been able to give me on and off the court, I’ve taken every advantage of it.”
Taurasi’s dedication to the game reminds Westbrook of Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma.
“It’s easy to see why they get along and why they butt heads because they’re the same person,” she said.
When a reporter in Monday’s scrum teased that UConn hadn’t won a national title since 2016, Westbrook responded with confidence.
“We’re coming back,” she said. “We can’t win them every year.”
Westbrook has averaged 8.7 minutes across three games so far this season for the Mercury.
The Mercury are 1-3 to start the year and sit at No. 4 in the Western Conference standings. Phoenix will travel to Texas this week to play at Dallas on both Wednesday and Friday in a homecoming game for star Brittney Griner. The former Baylor star was born in Houston and led the Bears to the 2012 NCAA Championship.
“We haven’t started off great as a collective, but I think it’s understanding throughout the whole team that we know what we need to get better at and it’s all of it is fixable,” Westbrook said. “… There’s a lot of new pieces on this team. So, it’s just all of us trying to feel that chemistry within each other. Everyone does something different. Everybody brings something different to the table. So, it’s how can we bring all this you know Thanksgiving food and make it a really good meal?”