I nominate Megan Walker for the BA award for several reasons. Before I list my reasons for her nomination, I want to recognize and congratulate Kia Nurse on a stellar performance. Her contribution should in no way be dismissed or taken lightly. She was the steady presence, and calming influence on the floor that kept UConn in control of the game, and never allowed the Owls to mount a sustained run. This was not Kia’s best game. That would be her career-high 33 points in only 27-minutes of action in the win over No. 15/14 DePaul on December 1, 2016.
On Sunday, Kia was just being Kia. She was "on". She is a senior, she gets it. A performance from her of this kind is not unexpected or surprising. And given the climate of Sunday's game, it stood out as one that was very much needed, especially with Samuelson not suiting up. Dangerfield looked like a dealer in Las Vegas shuffling cards, as she was handing out passes to teammates whether they were open in the corner, or on the run during a fast break.
Megan Walker had her long awaited “breakout game” Sunday. Her timing could not have been better. With Lou not able to play, and with the team needing an infusion of energy and support from the bench to help take some of the pressure off the starters, she stepped up. She also relieved some of Geno’s anxiety over the team’s lackluster performance against Texas. On Sunday, Walker broke through for a career high 22 points, six rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes — by far the best performance of her young career.
"It's a big difference [from high school], but I kind of like my role," Walker said. "It gives me a chance to adjust to the game, the physicality of the game, without a lot of pressure, but knowing I can help and contribute as well. When [starters] see us doing well, they can trust us. I feel like they know if something goes wrong, or if someone's injured, if someone's in foul trouble, we'll be OK."
Auriemma: “It's nice to see when a kid realizes, ‘I just got punched in the face and you know what? It didn’t hurt that bad and I’m still here.' So when you see [Walker] play like she did — it's not what she accomplished, which is a lot, it's the look she had out there. She looked like, ‘This is where I belong, this is what I came here to do.’ And that's, basically, what I want, for them to go out there and say, 'This is why I came to Connecticut.”
The significance of Walkers performance is that she’s still trying to figure things out. She has not gotten "it" yet, Nurse has. Nurse is a senior, Walker is a freshman, yet her contribution to yesterday’s victory was just as important and timely as Kia’s. When Auriemma was looking for somebody, anybody to step up and play like a champion, Walker answered the call. Geno recognized that she was “on” yesterday, and allowed her to play all but 8 minutes of the game.
I remind everyone that Kia was in a "comfort zone" that she has been in since she was a sophomore. Megan has no comfort zone yet. She's still learning, yet she was able to have an exceptional game. For all of the reasons above, she is my nominee for Bad-Ass of the game award.
Now, let’s see if she can replicate that performance again Wednesday on the road against Memphis. This may have been her break through game in more ways than one. After a performance like this, she now KNOWS she can play at this level, and her natural basketball instincts and abilities can begin to kick in.
