Apr. 13—CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Four times All-ACC, the University of North Carolina’s all-time leading rebounder, and the most integral part of a Tar Heels team that reached the NCAA Division I women’s basketball Sweet 16 a couple of weeks ago.
Rochester Lourdes graduate Alyssa Ustby can take credit for all of that. It was a heck of a five-year run for the 6-foot-1, strong, athletic and driven forward.
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“I’m just really proud and grateful for having such a storybook ending to my college career,” Ustby said. “I feel like I squeezed everything I could out of every opportunity I had. It was so special to play here, to have North Carolina across my chest.”
As Ustby reflects on her time at UNC, she said it was no easy choice to attend the prestigious academic and athletic college. She’d strongly considered going to the University of Minnesota out of high school, but in the end determined that would have been too easy and wouldn’t have stretched — and scared — her the way that North Carolina did.
As much as she feared her move 1,100 miles from home, she also craved it.
“Minnesota would have been comfortable,” said Ustby, who also starred in the classroom at UNC and is set to earn a masters degree in Applied Professional Studies, a customized degree tailored toward business. “North Carolina was the scary choice. There were a lot more unknown factors there such as ‘would I be good enough to play basketball there?’ And North Carolina attracts so many high-level people. People call the University of North Carolina the Ivy League of public schools. Academics are really challenging here.”
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Turns out Ustby got exactly what she was shooting for — growth, in every area. That includes in the business world, as in this era of Name, Image and Likeness in college athletics, she built sponsorships with a number of businesses in North Carolina, using her athletic fame to endorse products, getting paid along the way.
“I invested in the North Carolina community and that investment was returned to me tenfold,” Ustby said. “In so many ways, this place forced me to grow. I wanted to be challenged and pushed. I wanted to find my limits. My confidence and belief in myself that I could accomplish anything really grew. I am really set up for success because of all of the experiences I had.”
Basketball was the primary one and what brought her to North Carolina. A five-year starter with the Tar Heels, she was twice named first-team All-ACC and twice second-team. Her primary calling cards were her rebounding and defense. Ustby finished her college career in third place all-time in the ACC in rebounds, with 1,269. She finished this season leading her team in double-doubles with nine and 14 times was in double figures in rebounds.
Her biggest addition this past season was a newfound ability to hit 3-pointers. An Achilles heel in past seasons, Ustby trained endlessly to improve her deep shooting and wound up hitting 3-pointers at a sturdy 34% rate this season.
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Though the business world is in Ustby’s future, she does not want to be done playing basketball. Monday will be a huge day for her, the WNBA Draft begins at 6:30 p.m. (ESPN) and Ustby hoping to get selected.
ESPN’s mock draft predicts Ustby to get selected at No. 27 overall. Draft analyst Charlie Creme writes, “With a game built on hustle and toughness and a nose for the ball, Ustby is not a skilled offensive player. But she was one of the best rebounders in the ACC throughout her college career, though she was often effectively guarded by bigger and stronger players.”
Ustby, who will watch the draft from North Carolina, along with family members, knows the unpredictability of WNBA drafts and landing long term on a WNBA roster.
But she likes her chances and has built a love for the game that keeps growing. She plans to keep playing, be it in the WNBA, overseas or both.
“Anything can happen in a draft,” Ustby said. “And whether I am drafted or undrafted, I will likely go to a WNBA training camp and scrap to prove that I am valuable and worthy of a spot on a team. It is very common to get waived and then pulled back, depending on a team’s needs. I am still having so much fun playing basketball that I am also interested in playing overseas. I’d love to see more of the world with that.”
