An article in the latest SLAM magazine tells readers more about sophomore star Strong.
We see game in, game out just who Sarah Strong is on the basketball court for No. 1 UConn.
We don’t know that much about Strong off the court, but a cover story released Monday by SLAM magazine tells us a bit more about the sophomore superstar.
The story title on the cover is “The Future is Sarah Strong” and shows her in her UConn uniform holding a ball. The lengthy story on the inside quotes Strong, and it includes extensive comments from coach Geno Auriemma and teammate Azzi Fudd that depict her as a young woman who is transforming from a quiet freshman to a do-everything team leader.
A strong voice, a strong learner.
“She’s on the court now acting almost like a senior instead of a sophomore,” Auriemma told SLAM. “I think last year she was way more deferential to everybody else, but this year, I see her - she’s got a lot to say about a lot of things and talks a little bit of trash that makes me laugh. [If] she threw a bad pass or missed a shot, or I think she fouled somebody and I called her on it during practice, before she would just kind of shrink. Now she wants to go at me.”
Auriemma has coached a lot of women in his 41 seasons at UConn, a tenure that has produced 12 national championships. He sees in Strong someone who aspires to surpass the heights she’s already reached.
“She listens to everything you say, and she pays attention to everything that's going on. Maybe that's why she's got such a high IQ,” Auriemma told the magazine. “Whenever you're speaking, whether it's to her or someone else, she's locked in and really looking to figure out, ‘How do I learn from this? How do I get better?’ ... You don't have to repeat yourself. And to me, that’s a rarity in college basketball.”
Sarah Strong, renaissance woman
Fudd revealed in the SLAM article that there is a lot more to Sarah Strong than points, rebounds, steals and blocks – the areas in which she leads the team this season. The 6-foot-2 Strong is good at so many things.
“She’s a fast learner, and she teaches herself things,” Fudd said. “She can play piano, she teaches herself how to play guitar, how to do a Rubik's Cube. It's just, like so many things. There's got to be a word for it, for someone who can just pick things up and teach themselves some things.”
Join the Conversation
Remember to join our UCONN on ROUNDTABLE community, which is FREE! You can post your own thoughts, in text or video form, and you can engage with our Roundtable staff, as well as other Huskies fans. If prompted to download the Roundtable APP, that's free too!
