For so long, the UConn Huskies have been a dominant force in women’s college basketball, but their players have also had a huge impact in the WNBA’s 29 seasons. The Connecticut Sun alone have felt that impact, particularly this past offseason and regular season so far.
The Sun have two former Huskies in their front office with Morgan Tuck as their general manager and Jennifer Rizzotti as the team’s president. But it doesn’t stop there, they also have three former UConn players on their roster with Tina Charles, Nelson-Ododa and Hartley.
The three former UConn stars lead Connecticut through their first game of the season, despite their loss to the Washington Mystics. Hartley scored 11 points going 3-for-4 from the field, Charles finished with a double-double of 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Nelson-Ododa had a near double-double with 18 points and eight rebounds.
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“Maybe I’m so biased, because I think UConn is, like the best program ever, but the one thing I think that UConn does really well, and I’m not saying others don’t, is that they prepare you for life,” Tuck told The Next. “Obviously, for basketball to be a pro, but they teach you how to have a career. You hope to be a professional [athlete], but we understand that’s unlikely, right? Most people aren’t going to be a pro athlete, but they prepare you for life.”
“And I think that’s why you see across [the board] from Jenn, who played back in the day, ‘95 to current day, where you see players, whether they’re a player, whether in the front office, whether they’re a coach, they’re usually pretty successful,” she continued. “I think that stems from what you learn at UConn and the characteristics that you have to have and what’s required of you and the standard. I think it’s very transferable. So I think that’s why you always see a lot of UConn players in the league, where you see a lot of us in different positions, because I think we all have a very similar foundation and base that carries with us even past our playing days.”
Hartley joins Sun training camp
On May 11, the Connecticut Sun announced that Hartley had signed a training camp contract, an offer that came to her through Tuck, her former UConn teammate. Hartley signed the contract just seven days before the season home opener.
With little time to prepare and joining training camp late, there were doubts about her making the final Sun roster. But Hartley was confident in her personal skill set and was prepared for the moment.
“I think I was just really able to fit a need that this team needed at the time,” Hartley told The Next. “I just made sure I stayed ready. I was always looking for an opportunity in this league, so I just thought it’d be great to come here and just be myself, really. What they needed was someone that can do the things that I can do. So I’m really confident in that, and just being who I am as a player, who I’ve been all these years.”
Hartley hasn’t played in the league since 2022, when she played three games with the Sun before suffering a season-ending ACL injury. As a two-time NCAA champion (2013 and 2014) and WNBA vet, she has a lot of experience to bring to this young Connecticut squad.
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Tuck says she didn’t hesitate to bring Hartley in, knowing her long-time friend and teammate could fill a void of experience at the guard position and contribute to the team’s success.
“I think when you’re going through camp, you maybe have an expectation going in, but you always, to me, you have to be very honest with the system, right?” Tuck said. “And we always try to be honest with our process, and we have to observe what we’re seeing, and if we feel like we need to change or we need to see something else, we have to be willing to do that. And so that’s the situation we’re in. We’re like, all right we need maybe a little bit of different look.”
“We need to bring someone else in that has that experience, has been successful in the league, that can maybe just bring a different element that we didn’t know if we had quite yet. And so I think Bria was someone that came up through our coaching staff. And she’s been around a long time, so people are familiar. And I think when she came in, even day one, you would have never thought it was her first day at practice and hadn’t been there for a couple weeks. So I think she fit really seamlessly into what we were doing, and being honest with the process we felt like she deserved a spot,” Tuck continued.
Rachid Meziane, the head coach of the Sun, previously coached Hartley during the 2019 Eurobasket tournament when he served as an assistant coach for the French National Team. With Hartley having played for Meziane before, she is familiar with his system and so her adjustment to the roster happened seamlessly.
“It’s not a surprise for me, because Bria brings what I expect from her: her leadership,” Meziane told reporters on media day. “She has a very high basketball IQ and it’s why now she’s on our team, because it’s something we need on our team. And also her experience … but she came and she [showed] that she’s ready so she’s in shape. So I think that it’s a good thing for her and for the team.”
Hartley says she’s ready to tackle the challenges of a franchise with a brand-new looking team and a different coaching staff. She hopes to be able to help her younger teammates grow on and off the court.
“Man, I’m just grateful, honestly, just grateful for God to have the opportunity. It’s exciting,” Hartley said. “[I] want to go out there excited [and] kind of just get my feet wet again. I have a lot of experience in this league, but [I] just want to make sure I’m going out there ready and being a good example for my younger teammates.”
A Husky reunion
Both Tuck and Charles think and speak very highly of Hartley based on what she’s overcome not only as an athlete, but a person as well. Hartley has reunited with both Tuck and Charles in a crucial new era for the Connecticut Sun after losing all five of their starters from the previous season.
“Bria Hartley has an amazing testimony. I think, anyone who believes that their dreams will come true, and just what resilience looks like, endurance looks like, and just perseverance, that’s just Bria Hartley,” Charles told The Next.
“To have been out of the league for three years with her injuries. It’s an amazing comeback story. You know, I had the pleasure of, honor of playing alongside of her for three years with [the] New York Liberty, and I’m just so happy of her growth as a woman, a mother and just a player. you know to come in and do what she did her first game back the other day, just truly happy for her.”
Hartley and Tuck’s friendship is special; they met when they were just teenagers navigating college as student-athletes, and have remained close ever since. Hartley played at UConn from 2010-2014 while Tuck played from 2012-2016, allowing them to spend two seasons together as Huskies.
“It’s awesome. We came and met each other when we were like, 18/19 years old. So just kind of to see the growth that we’ve gone through [in] life, even outside of basketball is just tremendous. And just there was a time where we were teenagers being shaped into young adults so it’s just great to see how we’ve grown up,” Hartley explained.
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The UConn women’s basketball program seems to find itself back at the Final Four almost every year, making this the destination for an annual Husky reunion. Tuck spoke on their most recent meetup in March:
“I think kind of like all of us that played at UConn, it’s like, once you play there, whether you’re a teammate or not, it’s like you’re really a part of a family,” Tuck said. “So it was, cool, I just saw her at the Final Four. That’s kind of like our UConn alum reunion every year. But Bria, she’s such an awesome person. And it’s always cool when you get to be someone’s teammate and see them from how they were in college and how they’ve grown throughout their career.”
“And I think I give her a lot of credit, because she didn’t have maybe the easiest path. She’s had multiple injuries, she’s had to sit out of the league, but she stayed ready, she stayed in shape, and so, I love her to death, but I think the reason we thought to bring her in is because of her experience. What she can do on the court, her leadership, her IQ, that we felt like it could fit into coach’s system. And I think she came in, in a hard situation. I told her, ‘hey, look, you have a couple days, right? We don’t necessarily have a spot for you, but let’s see what you can do’ and she came in and looked great,” Tuck added.
The same foundation
Coming from UConn’s elite program under head coach Geno Auriemma, the foundation is laid for players whether they pursue a career as a professional athlete or not. Auriemma is the most winningest coach in college basketball history, men’s or women’s, and just finished his 40th year as head coach of the program by winning his 12th National Championship.
A lot of players have come through his program and many of them spoke about how the program prepared them not just for pro basketball games, but for life as professionals. Hartley and Charles are both two-time national champions, Tuck is a four-time national champion, Rizzotti is a one-time national champion and Nelson-Ododa is a two-time Big East Conference champion and two-time American Athletic Conference champion.
“We all say we’re coming from the same cloth, coming from Coach Auriemma, and just how he teaches us to carry ourselves, and how he teaches us to work at a high level,” Hartley said. “That’s why a lot of UConn players come into this league and they’re pro ready. I’ve watched her [Nelson-Ododa], and just to see her grow from her rookie year to now it’s been tremendous, and then coming back playing with Tina [Charles], I played with Tina before at the pro level [with the New York Liberty] so it’s nice to be reunited with her and anywhere we go in this league, she’s a Husky and we’re are always going to show each other some love.”
All five of these former Huskies, now Connecticut Sun players, have a common approach and are prepared to find success under pressure.
“We just all have the same baseline. I think that’s also great, just people who are aligned, and [know] how you’re supposed to approach the game, how to run an organization, what togetherness looks like, just all of that. I think we all look back to where we come from at some point in our careers,” Charles said.
As the Connecticut Sun push to make the playoffs for a ninth consecutive season, the longest active postseason streak in the WNBA, this Husky connection from the court to the front office will help guide them to success.
“Coach Auriemma really prepares you to be a pro. And so [I’m] just very thankful to have had that common thread, that alignment between all of us. But we know what constructive criticism can do. We know what accountability looks like, so it’s just great,” Charles said.
