Connecticut Sun Is More (and Less) Tied to UConn Than You Might Think

[JavaMan]

The American Athletic Conference women’s basketball tournament tips off this week. It brings together a college program and a professional franchise that have revolutionized the sport: the UConn women’s basketball team and the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.

But as UConn continues its skyward trajectory under head coach Geno Auriemma, the Sun look toward the 2016 season -- the WNBA’s 20th -- facing an uphill climb, and a clear goal to strengthen its place in the state’s women’s basketball market after a run of disappointing seasons.

The best way to do that? Win.

“For us, it’s going to come down to: how do we legitimize ourselves?” said Chris Sienko, the Sun’s vice president and general manager. “People know who we are. We’ve done great things. We have to win a championship. I think that’s when people start putting us in the same conversation with UConn.”

A team having more losses than wins is -- for Connecticut women’s basketball fans -- something of a strange concept. UConn’s women’s basketball program, which has fervent support across the state, is the best in the country, hasn’t lost a game in over a year, and routinely wins games by double digits.

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[warbler1055]

Doesn't Geno have some kind of restaurant at the Mohegan Sun? Hopefully the Sun Sienko will do better in the future than in the past. Sacking Mike Thibault was not the smartest thing. Installing Ann Donovan as HC was not very smart either. Here is hoping the new Sun coach will do well!!!

 

[UcMiami]

Doesn't Geno have some kind of restaurant at the Mohegan Sun? Hopefully the Sun Sienko will do better in the future than in the past. Sacking Mike Thibault was not the smartest thing. Installing Ann Donovan as HC was not very smart either. Here is hoping the new Sun coach will do well!!!

I didn't have a problem with them getting rid of Mike - I think he is a really good coach in terms of putting together teams and making them competitive, but the games I watched where they lost I was not impressed with his game coaching - he would make substitutions only after he had allowed the opponent to gain momentum or until after his team lost momentum. And ultimately he had been unable to get the ultimate prize - lots of good teams make changes at the point where they seem to have plateaued with a good coach. I think the error was in hiring Donovan, a choice I thought was bad when it was made, and proved to be worse in practice even with the injures.