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"This place has a whole different level," Samuelson said. "How hard you have to work on everything, every specific thing. You can't cut any corner or take anything light."
The reality hit her a year ago in the first few practices in Storrs. Fresh off a decorated high school career that was punctuated with national player of the year awards and the honor of being ranked as the No. 1 recruit in the country, Samuelson thought she was ready.
As it turned out, it took a few months before she was absolutely ready. Samuelson had a sit-down with coaches sometime after UConn moved into the American Athletic Conference portion of the schedule.
The message was blunt.
"They kind of told me straight up, I wasn't playing hard enough, I didn't do enough of the little things and it had nothing to do with talent … I didn't talk enough," Samuelson said. "It kind of pushed me and once I started to get it in practice, it started to fall into games."
[MUCH MORE] interesting stuff in Paul's article that was listed in Nan's news thread. Apologizes if already posted. Looked but didn't see it.