UConn's Westbrook has sacrificed individual honors for overall success

Mar. 22—Evina Westbrook, associate coach Chris Dailey was saying late Sunday night, could have easily been the UConn women's basketball team's player of the game in the Huskies' NCAA tournament first-round victory over High Point.

That's exactly what Paige Bueckers, a UConn freshman, has been saying about Westbrook all along.

"I mean, if I could give awards, she would have mine," Bueckers said as the Big East Conference postseason awards were announced on March 4 and Westbrook, a junior playing for the first time for UConn after transferring from Tennessee, was left off the list of honors entirely.

"She's our MVP, our do-everything person. This is on and off the court. She does so much for this team. She really sacrifices so much for us. She sacrifices her time, her money, her energy into just doing little things for us off the court 'cause we haven't been home in seven months, to make us feel at home, to make us feel loved and just welcome."

Westbrook, who sat out last season after the transfer due to NCAA regulations, is averaging 9.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists (second most on the team after Bueckers) and 1.8 steals per game for the top-seeded Huskies (25-1), who head to the second round Tuesday against No. 8 Syracuse (9 p.m., ESPN) in the River Walk Region.

"I think she does a little bit of everything well," Dailey said.

Meanwhile Bueckers, the Big East Player of the Year, Big East Freshman of the Year, an Associated Press All-American and a national player of the year finalist, was just getting started. The freshmen, seven of them on this UConn team, refer to Westbrook as "Mom" ... and they're only half kidding.

"Just the stuff she does on the court, as well," Bueckers said, continuing her list of Westbrook's virtues. "She's a leader. She's our talking person. She's the freshmen's mom. She, just I can't stress enough how important she is to this team and obviously I'm a huge Evina Westbrook fan but she deserves every award there could be."

Westbrook, a 6-foot redshirt guard, is a native of Salem, Oregon, and originally chose Tennessee over Oregon State, Notre Dame, Maryland and Southern Cal. A high school All-American, she was the 2017 Morgan Wootten National Player of the Year and the 2017 USA Today National Player of the Year. She was ranked by ESPN as the nation's No. 2 recruit overall and the No. 1 guard.

She started immediately as a freshman for the Lady Vols, all 33 games, and earned Southeastern Conference All-Freshman honors, then as a sophomore Westbrook led Tennessee in scoring with 14.9 points per game in addition to 5.3 assists and 3.6 rebounds. She scored 29 points in a December game vs. Stanford, 20-or-more points 10 times.

Somewhere, though, there was a disconnect in Knoxville, something Westbrook hasn't addressed since arriving at UConn. It was severe enough that UConn coach Geno Auriemma fought the NCAA to have Westbrook gain immediate eligibility for the Huskies, calling Westbrook's situation at Tennessee "an environment that's not necessarily healthy." Auriemma's appeal was denied.

Westbrook, in seeking to transfer from Tennessee, looked outside the realm of schools which were initially on her top list. She had a feeling about UConn from the first time she ever spoke to anyone from the program on the phone.

She warned her parents she was likely headed to the opposite coast.

"If everything goes good on the visit and nothing crazy happens, this is probably where I'm going to end up. They just cared. They cared about my health. They cared about me as a person," Westbrook said. "I knew it was the right decision."

Fast forward to August of last year. Westbrook, who had undergone two knee surgeries since transferring to UConn, had been on campus all summer despite the COVID-19 pandemic — the rest of her teammates had gone home to finish school online — to rehabilitate her knee.

Westbrook was named one of three UConn captains along with fellow juniors Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, with Westbrook the only player on the Huskies' roster who is over 21 years of age.

The roster was broken up into pods due to the pandemic; only a certain number of players could work out at one time. Each captain was assigned two or three other players to room with. Westbrook was teamed with a pair of freshmen in Nika Muhl of Zagreb, Croatia, and walk-on Autumn Chassion of Lafayette, La.

She compared living with the two of them to her 12-year-old brother.

"Like if there's a problem, 'Oh, we'll just call E,'" Westbrook related at the time. "It's been really fun having those two around."

Assistant coach Shea Ralph, at the start of the season, said that Westbrook brought an edge to the team, a competitiveness, a toughness.

"There's a vocal leadership about her that's been fun," Ralph said. "There's a lot about what Evina brings to the court that we haven't had in that way in a couple years. There's a certain real edginess about her that I think we've needed."

"Evina is like one of the most mature on the team. She does bring a sense of leadership that we need," Williams said. "She's very vocal on the court. When we're down, she knows how to bring us up."

Westbrook had 10 points, seven rebounds and four assists Sunday, as well as her relentless pursuit on defense, in her first NCAA tournament appearance at UConn, a 102-59 victory over High Point.

"It was the look in her eye, honestly," Dailey said.

But Westbrook also couldn't be happier about her other role, the one in which she dressed up as an elf to Nelson-Ododa's Santa Claus on Christmas morning to help her younger teammates celebrate the holiday away from home, the one in which she ordered everyone on the team T-shirts for Valentine's Day, the one as team mom.

"I really do feel like they're my kids," Westbrook said. "I like to make sure all of them are OK. I feel like it's my job to make sure everything is in line and everything is OK. (When they say thank you), that's what makes all the hard days easy. I appreciate it so much. I love all of them."

"I don't even know where to start," Muhl said of her admiration for Westbrook. "She's been a great friend and a great teammate."

Dailey said not everyone can be an All-American. Also, not everyone can give of themselves for the overall success of the team the way that Westbrook has.

"I think when you have a group of individuals who don't care who gets the credit or the accolades, you have a better chance of being successful," Dailey said. "I think E's willingness to give up part of that, part of all that, part of her game and to become more of a complete player has definitely helped our team.

"We have kids on our team and in our program over the course of 30-some years that they are willing to give up of themselves for the success of our group. E has bought into that."

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Follow Vickie Fulkerson on Twitter during the NCAA tournament at @Vickieattheday.