UNCASVILLE – Former UConn women’s basketball star Bria Hartley has gotten accustomed to chaos in her basketball career over more than a decade as a professional, so she had no hesitation about signing a training camp contract when the Connecticut Sun called her just five days before the league’s final roster deadline.
Hartley was in Uncasville to watch practice the day she signed her contract and jumped head-first into workouts as soon as she was medically cleared. The 32-year-old point guard has played for five different WNBA teams in nine seasons since she was drafted by the Washington Mystics in 2014, so adjusting to sudden change is well within her comfort zone.
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“It’s quick and it changes, but if I’m completely honest, I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Hartley said after practice Tuesday. “I’ve moved around a lot, changed a lot. Injuries happen, life going overseas, coming here, I just always stay ready. I have a great support system with my family … so I just kind of roll with the punches.”
The Sun already had tough decisions to make about cuts with the season opener against the Mystics on May 18 fast approaching, and adding Hartley without an opportunity to see her in game action makes her more challenging to evaluate compared to players who played the preseason matchups. But general manager Morgan Tuck said the team felt it was missing a piece coming out of a 94-86 preseason win over the New York Liberty on May 9, and Hartley’s availability worked out perfectly to fill the need.
“Sometimes you just have to wait and see how camp goes, and when you look and see how our practices go, how exhibitions go, sometimes you realize maybe we need something a little bit different,” Tuck said. “She’s a great player and a great person, so it’s always good when you bring some good experience, someone who’s been in the league, understands the game, can pick things up quickly. Obviously when she came in is a tough time in camp, but she’s been great so far.”
It’s been nearly three years since the last time Hartley played in the WNBA, and her last appearance ended in devastating fashion. She signed a rest-of-season contract with the Connecticut Sun in July 2022 after being waived by the Indiana Fever, but she was only on the roster for a week before suffering an ACL tear during her third game. She returned to playing professional basketball overseas in Spain a year later, then joined Galatasaray in the Turkish Super League in 2023-24. Hartley spent the 2025 offseason competing in Athletes Unlimited alongside more than a dozen active WNBA players, and she finished 10th out of 41 contenders in the league’s points system.
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“Especially since I’ve had two (ACL tears), I’m probably not as fast as I used to be, but at the same time I think I’ve worked on my pace, changing pace,” Hartley said. “The good thing about basketball is you don’t have to be the fastest. If you can get to you spot, you can still be effective. And then also just improving my spot shooting. Those first couple months after the ACL, the first thing you can do is catch and shoot. You can’t move the same, but you can catch and shoot, so I think people will see that, even though we haven’t seen me play a lot in the last four years, I’ve definitely been in the gym.”
The Sun are an ideal landing spot for Hartley as she attempts to make her return to the WNBA, in part because she has some familiarity with first-year head coach Rachid Meziane’s system. Hartley has dual citizenship in the U.S. and France, and she competed for the French national team when Meziane was an assistant coach in the 2019 EuroBasket tournament. She was France’s No. 2 scorer averaging 11.2 points plus 3.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists over six games, helping the team to a silver medal.
“He’s a really smart coach just playing with him on the French national team and then seeing what he’s done with the Belgian national team as well with how well … so I have faith in him and his ability and what he’s able to do,” Hartley said. “Like I said, I’ve been around the league for a long time, so the sets and everything are kind of similar. It’s not action I haven’t run … I think the biggest thing is being able to communicate with the players about what they need and where I can kind of help them and fit in.”
Hartley’s signing was also a reunion with Tuck, who was her teammate at UConn from 2012-14. Hartley and Tuck won national championships together in 2013 and 2014, and their names are both immortalized on the Huskies of Honor wall at Gampel Pavilion as WBCA All-Americans. With two fellow former Huskies, Tina Charles and Olivia Nelson-Ododa, on the roster and another in team president Jennifer Rizzotti, Hartley said returning to Connecticut always feels like home.
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“Morgan and I were in college together, so as you become adults you want to see people kind of reaching their dream and reaching their goals, so it’s great to see (her now) especially when you’ve known someone since they were 18 years old,” Hartley said. “I’m a Connecticut player … I really started my basketball journey when I was here, so there’s a lot of familiar faces. I know the fanbase in Connecticut is always really good. Coming here, it feels comfortable.”
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