UNCASVILLE — After the Connecticut Sun went 1-1 in their two preseason games, first-year head coach Rachid Meziane felt his squad was still missing a piece.
On Sunday the Sun signed former UConn women’s basketball star Bria Hartley to a training camp contract, just five days before teams are required to cut their rosters down to the 12-player maximum allowed at the start of the regular season. Hartley has not appeared in the WNBA since 2022, last playing in three games with Connecticut before an ACL tear ended her season. The 5-foot-9 guard was a two-time All-American at UConn, helping the Huskies to national championships in 2013 and 2014. She was drafted No. 7 overall in the 2014 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics and made the All-Rookie team in her first season.
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Hartley has bounced around the league over the last decade, appearing in multiple seasons with the Mystics, New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury between 2014-21. She began 2022 with the Indiana Fever before signing a contract divorce and finishing the year on a rest-of-season contract with the Sun. Hartley’s 2022 ACL tear was her second after suffering the same injury with the Mercury in 2020, and she hasn’t played more than 13 games in a season since her first ACL injury.
Meziane saw Hartley as an ideal addition late to training camp, partly because he is already familiar with the former Huskies star. Meziane served as an assistant coach while Hartley was competing for the French national team at the 2019 EuroBasket tournament, and she has a wealth of experience playing in European systems overseas, mostly in the Turkish SuperLeague. Meziane felt the Sun needed another veteran presence with a strong 3-point shot, and Hartley averages nearly 34% from beyond the arc in her WNBA career.
Hartley gives Connecticut 16 players currently with the team, so at least four need to be cut before the season opener against the Mystics at Mohegan Sun Arena on May 18. The Sun are also awaiting the arrival of 2024 first-round draft pick Leila Lacan, who is still overseas competing in the Ligue Feminine playoffs with her French club Landes Basket. Lacan’s season in France will end on May 16 at the latest, but Meziane said the 20-year-old guard will also take additional recovery time before getting a full workload in Connecticut. The team will have to make an additional cut once Lacan is available.
How injuries and absences will impact roster decisions
The task of evaluating the roster is made more difficult for Meziane because several expected contributors have missed significant time during camp. Neither of the team’s 2025 first-round draftees, No. 7 pick Aneesah Morrow and No. 8 pick Saniya Rivers, appeared in the preseason matchups, and while both are all-but-guaranteed spots on the roster, there’s uncertainty about how they’ll impact the rotation. Rivers plans to return to practice Monday after traveling home last week to grieve the unexpected death of her mother, and Morrow is sidelined with a lingering right ankle injury largely as a precaution.
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Meziane said he’s being excessively careful with Morrow because he sees her as “our future,” and the rookie forward came into training camp fresh off of a grueling Elite Eight run with LSU. Morrow averaged nearly 34 minutes per game in her final collegiate season and was battling through minor injuries throughout most of the NCAA Tournament. She said she’s spending lots of extra time in the film room and studying the playbook with the Sun’s player development coaches, and she is also working frequently with the strength staff to maintain her conditioning while off the court.
Veteran guard Diamond DeShields is also out with a right ankle injury, and Meziane said the timeline for her return is more complicated and uncertain. DeShields was a highly-anticipated prospect drafted No. 3 out of Tennessee in 2018, but her WNBA career has been plagued by injuries and she has missed time in every season since 2022. She originally suffered a right ankle injury with the Chicago Sky at the end of 2024 that sidelined her for the team’s last five regular-season games. DeShields was using crutches during practice last Thursday and has not participated in any basketball activities during the Sun’s practice viewing periods.
Connecticut Sun show system coming together in Rachid Meziane’s first win vs New York Liberty
Sun still evaluating spots during last week of camp
Marina Mabrey, Lindsay Allen, Jacy Sheldon, Tina Charles and Olivia Nelson-Ododa looked like a strong starting five in the preseason win against New York, and the two first-round rookies plus DeShields put the Sun at eight players locked in to final roster spots. Veteran forward Haley Peters also seems poised to make the cut after starting and scoring 11 points going 3-for-3 on 3-pointers against Seattle.
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Connecticut has seven players including Hartley fighting for three remaining spots on the final roster, and all could make a case based on their training camp performances. Forward Amy Okonkwo and center Kariata Diaby are both WNBA newcomers and arrived late to camp after finishing their season together with Bourges in the Ligue Feminine, but their experience in France was a major benefit in making the transition to Meziane’s system. Forward Robyn Parks played more minutes than anyone off the bench against the Liberty and shot 3-for-6 from 3-point range for nine points, and guard Yvonne Anderson was impactful on both ends of the floor with six points shooting 2-for-3 plus four assists and two steals.
The Sun also have two rookies, third-round draftee Rayah Marshall and undrafted signee Madison Hayes, who are impressing in their first training camp, and Meziane said the team is trying to prioritize long-term goals in decisions this season. Marshall has been lauded by everyone from Charles to general manager Morgan Tuck for her competitive intensity and willingness to learn, and though Hayes has seen limited minutes, she survived the first two rounds of cuts over players including 2024 draft pick Abbey Hsu and returning forward Caitlin Bickle.
Dom Amore: As new CT Sun coach tries blending Euro style with The W, it will be a process
