The three former UConn teammates got to spend some quality time together in New York on Wednesday night, but the one topic never brought up was how their lives would change in about 24 hours.
Gabby Williams was the first former Husky off the board, going No. 4 to Chicago. Azurá Stevens was taken with the sixth overall pick by Dallas and Kia Nurse was the 10th overall pick by New York.
“I was nervous, I was anxious and I wanted the time to be here already,” Williams said. “It’s a scary thing, you don’t know what city you are going to, you don’t know what team you are going to be, you don’t know who your teammates are.”
UConn has had 23 players selected in the first round. The only programs with more total draft picks are Tennessee and Stanford.
“It says so much about the program that Coach (Geno Auriemma) and CD (Chris Dailey) have built, people want UConn players and that is because they know how to develop us,” Williams said. “That is why I went to UConn so I could be developed and I could be pushed every day.”
It was the sixth time that three teammates from the same college were selected in the first round in the same draft.
It is the third time it happened with UConn players. In 2002, the program made history when Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams were among the top six picks. In 2016, Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck were the top three picks.
In 2001, Georgia teammates Kelly Miller, Deanna Nolan and Coco Miller were all first-round picks.
Eleven years later Tennessee’s Shekinna Stricklen, Glory Johnson and Kelley Cain were among the top seven picks while Alaina Coates, Allisha Gray and Kaela Davis from South Carolina were each No. 1 picks last year.
Nurse was available when the Connecticut Sun picked at No. 9. Sun. Coach and general manager Curt Miller coached both her older sister and aunt when he was a college coach and he recruited her hard when he was at Indiana, but Lexie Brown’s ability to play the point guard at the professional level was a deciding factor for the Sun selecting the former Maryland and Duke guard.
james.fuller
@hearstmediact.com; @NHRJimFuller on Twitter