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UNCASVILLE — The UConn women’s basketball team had almost everything. All the Huskies needed in 1994 was a player who could do a little of everything.
Nykesha Sales was the missing piece of that historic puzzle.
“We didn’t have a ton of guys who could create their own shots,” Jennifer Rizzotti said. “We had good shooting, good guard play, good post play, but she was dynamic in so many ways offensively and defensively, so it literally was like the perfect piece for us.”
Rizzotti, now the Connecticut Sun president, Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Jamelle Elliott, Carla Berube and the rest formed the team that got the Huskies over the top in 1995, over the traditional national power programs of the mid-1990s like Tennessee and Stanford, and on to the first of Geno Auriemma’s 12 national championships and six undefeated seasons.
Geno Auriemma brings home another legendary Husky to fill UConn women’s assistant’s position
Several players from that team went on to successful coaching careers, including Sales, 50, who was hired Monday to replace Elliott on Auriemma’s staff for next season. Elliott was part of six championships, leaving big shoes to fill. Could Sales, who has coached at Central Florida and Georgia the last 10 years, once again complete a puzzle?
“I think she’s going to be a great addition,” Rizzottti said. “Obviously, she’s got the foundation of having played at UConn and understanding the standard of excellence you need to have to work and play there, but also she’s been out on her own, learning the coaching profession from different perspectives and different voices and it’s always nice when you can add that diversity back into an already successful program.”
Sales was clearly UConn’s target when Elliott left to start her own coaching/consulting enterprise earlier this summer. The job description mentioned that someone who had played in a Final Four and had WNBA experience. Sales was UConn’s career scoring leader with 2,178 points when she graduated in 1998, though her total has been passed by Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, Tina Charles, Katie Lou Samuelson and tied by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.
“We always joked about how (Sales) was the baby of the team,” Rizzotti said. “Geno was super soft on her, she got away with everything. And part of it was she was just so talented. She was like sneaky good, you didn’t expect the moves to come out of her that did. She’d be loafing on defense, then come out of nowhere and get a steal. She was an awesome teammate, so laid back and easy as a person. She fit right in with our group, socially, and yet had that same competitive fire that we all had on the court.
“She was good enough that we all wanted her out there, yet she was selflessness enough that she wanted the older players to get the attention even though she was getting a lot of it. She just let her game speak for itself.”
Sales went on to play nine seasons in the WNBA for Orlando and Connecticut, helping the Sun reach the finals in 2004 and ’05. Rizzotti, from New Fairfield, and Sales, who grew up in Bloomfield, were the first women from Connecticut high schools to play at UConn and in the WNBA. Rizzotti, the scrappy point guard, is two years older and helped recruit Sales.
“We played in same AAU organization,” Rizzotti said. “I was part of her recruiting process. She was a tremendous get for the program at the time, the last puzzle piece to our ’95 championship team. There haven’t really been a lot of Connecticut players to play at UConn and in the WNBA, it’s kind of cool we were the first two to do it in such a short amount of time.”
The ’95 Huskies were an exuberant team, often verbally sparring with their demanding coach, who was more an older brother figure to that team, as opposed to the grandfather figure he is today in his early 70s. But Rizzotti went on to a successful coaching career in college and with USA Basketball before joining the Sun. Elliott was a college head coach between her stints as a UConn assistant, and Berube has been successful at Tufts and Princeton and is now at Northwestern.
“None of us thought about coaching,” Rizzotti said. “It wasn’t like we looked around the room and said ‘This is who would make a good coach.’ We just kind of all fell into it. I would never have thought Carla would go into coaching either, but when you play the game a certain way and love it a certain way and find an opportunity, it’s like, you never know.
“It’s cool Nykesha has been able to make a career out of it I’ve got to imagine she has helped develop so many great players in her time she has been coaching, and that’s only going to continue.”
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Nykesha Sales was the missing piece of that historic puzzle.
“We didn’t have a ton of guys who could create their own shots,” Jennifer Rizzotti said. “We had good shooting, good guard play, good post play, but she was dynamic in so many ways offensively and defensively, so it literally was like the perfect piece for us.”
Rizzotti, now the Connecticut Sun president, Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Jamelle Elliott, Carla Berube and the rest formed the team that got the Huskies over the top in 1995, over the traditional national power programs of the mid-1990s like Tennessee and Stanford, and on to the first of Geno Auriemma’s 12 national championships and six undefeated seasons.
Geno Auriemma brings home another legendary Husky to fill UConn women’s assistant’s position
Several players from that team went on to successful coaching careers, including Sales, 50, who was hired Monday to replace Elliott on Auriemma’s staff for next season. Elliott was part of six championships, leaving big shoes to fill. Could Sales, who has coached at Central Florida and Georgia the last 10 years, once again complete a puzzle?
“I think she’s going to be a great addition,” Rizzottti said. “Obviously, she’s got the foundation of having played at UConn and understanding the standard of excellence you need to have to work and play there, but also she’s been out on her own, learning the coaching profession from different perspectives and different voices and it’s always nice when you can add that diversity back into an already successful program.”
Sales was clearly UConn’s target when Elliott left to start her own coaching/consulting enterprise earlier this summer. The job description mentioned that someone who had played in a Final Four and had WNBA experience. Sales was UConn’s career scoring leader with 2,178 points when she graduated in 1998, though her total has been passed by Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, Tina Charles, Katie Lou Samuelson and tied by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.
“We always joked about how (Sales) was the baby of the team,” Rizzotti said. “Geno was super soft on her, she got away with everything. And part of it was she was just so talented. She was like sneaky good, you didn’t expect the moves to come out of her that did. She’d be loafing on defense, then come out of nowhere and get a steal. She was an awesome teammate, so laid back and easy as a person. She fit right in with our group, socially, and yet had that same competitive fire that we all had on the court.
“She was good enough that we all wanted her out there, yet she was selflessness enough that she wanted the older players to get the attention even though she was getting a lot of it. She just let her game speak for itself.”
Sales went on to play nine seasons in the WNBA for Orlando and Connecticut, helping the Sun reach the finals in 2004 and ’05. Rizzotti, from New Fairfield, and Sales, who grew up in Bloomfield, were the first women from Connecticut high schools to play at UConn and in the WNBA. Rizzotti, the scrappy point guard, is two years older and helped recruit Sales.
“We played in same AAU organization,” Rizzotti said. “I was part of her recruiting process. She was a tremendous get for the program at the time, the last puzzle piece to our ’95 championship team. There haven’t really been a lot of Connecticut players to play at UConn and in the WNBA, it’s kind of cool we were the first two to do it in such a short amount of time.”
The ’95 Huskies were an exuberant team, often verbally sparring with their demanding coach, who was more an older brother figure to that team, as opposed to the grandfather figure he is today in his early 70s. But Rizzotti went on to a successful coaching career in college and with USA Basketball before joining the Sun. Elliott was a college head coach between her stints as a UConn assistant, and Berube has been successful at Tufts and Princeton and is now at Northwestern.
“None of us thought about coaching,” Rizzotti said. “It wasn’t like we looked around the room and said ‘This is who would make a good coach.’ We just kind of all fell into it. I would never have thought Carla would go into coaching either, but when you play the game a certain way and love it a certain way and find an opportunity, it’s like, you never know.
“It’s cool Nykesha has been able to make a career out of it I’ve got to imagine she has helped develop so many great players in her time she has been coaching, and that’s only going to continue.”
Continue reading...
