How early enrollee Jana El Alfy is adjusting to life with UConn women’s basketball: What to know, injury report for game against Creighton

Jana El Alfy was not expecting the snowstorm that greeted her when she arrived in Storrs from Egypt to join the UConn women’s basketball team as an early enrollee for the 2023 class on Jan. 23. The 6-foot-4 forward had never even seen snow before.

“To be honest, I wasn’t prepared for it at all,” El Alfy said Tuesday. “Getting to experience that on my first day, it was kind of cool. But I wasn’t looking forward to see it a lot, you know what I mean?”

In a span of few days, El Alfy traveled across the world from Egypt to Connecticut, began classes, experienced her first snowstorm and sat on the bench for her first game in Gampel Pavilion. It was a lot to take in at once.

“I was overwhelmed at first,” El Alfy said. “But everyone was helping me. I mean, the coaches, the staff, my teammates, they helped me a lot with everything. … It’s hard for me to come here, especially because I came all the way from Egypt. But I didn’t feel like I was alone or I don’t know what to do because my teammates were here next to me all the time and the coaches and everyone, they’re helping me.”

Dorka Juhász, one of five other international players on the roster, has made a point to help El Alfy adjust. She came up to El Alfy as the Huskies ran drills in practice Tuesday ahead of a game against Creighton on Wednesday. Juhász pointed things out as the drill unfolded while answering any questions the freshman had.

El Alfy later participated in those drills herself, but she hasn’t been a full participant in practice yet. She will not play this season.

“She’s done some work three on three, four on four, so it hasn’t just been individual work, and most of the time there’s defense on what we’re doing,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said. “So the things that you wanted to see, she has a feel. She has a feel for the game, where she wants to ball and how well she runs the floor. She just has to learn our style of play and what we want from those guys. But skill level, yes, she’s very skilled. And she’s got a little bit of an edginess to her, too.”

El Alfy graduated high school early and opted to come to college ahead of schedule to help herself acclimate to a new environment.

“I wanted to come here to adjust earlier and just get it over with, like get the schoolwork going on and just start earlier,” El Alfy said. “I thought it’d be better for me. I thought it’d be easier for me next year when I start playing. So yeah, I thought maybe if I came early, I’d adjust better with school and stuff.”

School has been a big adjustment for El Alfy, whose native language is Arabic. Though she has taken English classes her whole life, she came a week after classes started for the winter semester and had to catch up on work. The sporadic weather in Connecticut has also been a big shock, especially since El Alfy’s not used to it being this cold.

As for the basketball itself, El Alfy has found that Auriemma has a very similar coaching style to her father, who is the the head coach of the Egyptian women’s national team.

“I’m working on everything right now,” El Alfy said. “Especially improving my skills more, improving my habits, improving my mentality.”

The Huskies went everywhere with El Alfy when she first arrived, making sure to take care of their new teammates. But El Alfy has made a point to explore campus on her own lately, eager to get to know her new community.

“We’ve been helping her a lot of ways, but she’s pretty good at finding herself,” Juhász said. “Sometimes we’re in the apartment and it’s like, ‘Where’s Jana?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh, she went here, she went there.’ She’s exploring a lot on her own and I know she found another I think Egyptian friend on UConn’s campus, so that’s awesome for her just to have somebody that is from the same country and just having somebody that she can always talk in her own native language.

“But I mean, she has been doing great. Every time we go say like, ‘Hey, do you need help? She’s like, ‘No, I got it.’ She’s adjusting super quickly and she’s a great kid. I think she’s fits perfectly into our team.”

Injury updates

Caroline Ducharme, who has missed the last 13 games with a concussion, has been participating in practice without a noncontact pinney this week.

Prior to practice on Tuesday, Auriemma said that Ducharme spent the most time in practice since suffering the concussion (on Jan. 2) on Monday. The sophomore guard’s status for Creighton on Wednesday remains up in the air.

“She’s getting closer and closer to playing,” Auriemma said. “Whether that’s [Wednesday] tomorrow, I don’t know yet. I’ll probably know more today and I’ll know more tomorrow after shootaround how she feels. Beyond that, I don’t know anything else.”

Auriemma also provided an update on Azzi Fudd, who has been out since reaggravating her right knee against Georgetown on Jan. 15.

“She’s out there working out,” Auriemma said. “She’s out there doing stuff. Morgan’s {assistant coach Morgan Valley} got her doing a bunch of stuff. She’s doing some noncontact things. But I don’t, as of right now, have a return date. I wish I did, but I don’t.”

What else to know for the game

Site: Gampel Pavilion

Time: 7 p.m.

Series: UConn, 6-0

Last meeting: No. 8 UConn 72, No. 21 Creighton 47 on Dec. 29 in Omaha

TV: SNY; Allen Bestwick, Meghan Culmo and Maria Marino

Streaming: SNY app

Radio: UConn Sports Network on 97.9 ESPN