Meet Qadence Samuels, the newest member of UConn women’s basketball’s 2023 recruiting class

A silver Ford Expedition pulls up in front of the basketball courts at Walker Mill Regional Park in District Heights, Maryland. One by one, the seven Samuels siblings and their parents, Shanda and Qwanzi Samuels Sr., stumble out and make their way up a hill adjacent to the blacktop.

With the park in walking distance of their home, the kids, ages 23 to 10, come here nearly every day to train, play pickup games and just spend time together. They all share a love of basketball, passed down from both of their parents, who played in college, and then from one sibling to the next.

Among them is Qadence Samuels, who announced her commitment to UConn women’s basketball for the 2023 class the day prior. The 6-foot-2 wing is dressed in all black workout clothes with a gold necklace featuring a tiny basketball and hoop dangling over the Nike symbol on her T-shirt. Her hair is done in two big puffs — people tell her she reminds them of New York Liberty wing Didi Richards because of the hairstyle — and her right eyebrow is dyed blue. Her favorite color aligns perfectly with the Huskies’ “Bleed Blue” mantra.

This is one of her first interviews and she’s a bit nervous. But now that she’s committed for the 11-time national champions there’s a lot more attention coming her way. She wants to take it all head on though, never one to back down from anything. That’s part of why she chose UConn, despite the program hopping on her recruitment late.

“It’s really because I want to be challenged and be great,” Qadence says of her decision. “And I believe that the head coach, Geno [Auriemma], will make me better and challenge me to be a professional basketball player.”

As soon as she gets on the court with her siblings, Qadence’s tension eases and her nerves are put to the side. They split into teams for 3-on-3. They run actual plays and actions complete with screens and backdoor cuts. The energy is certainly turned up all the way, complete with joking, trash talk and debates over uncalled fouls.

“Basketball, we usually fight if we play against each other,” Qadence says with a laugh. “It gets real heated. But yeah, we play really hard against each other.”

That much is clear as she and her older brother Qwanzi, who plays for George Washington, guard each other.

“Yes! Boooom!” Qadence shouts while pumping her first after draining a 3-pointer from the corner. Right after that she sinks a triple from the top of the arc and declares to her siblings, “I’m hot! I’m hot!”

When asked to describe her skillset shortly beforehand, 3-point shooting was the first thing she mentioned. A big guard on the wing, she also takes pride in defending the best players on the floor and rebounding.

At one point Qadence rolls over on the court laughing. The joy they all get from playing together is obvious.

“We’re really a tight group,” Qwanzi says. “We just want to see everybody in the family succeed and we just push each other to become better.”

During the pandemic, they would all go together to this court or the one at their middle school as early as 6 a.m. to train. They’d do form shooting, basketball drills and other on-the-court workouts, followed by some sort of strength and conditioning workout, which often involved running hills.

“We’re used to this. This is what we do,” Shanda explains. She and her husband both grew up in New Jersey, then played junior college basketball in Kansas before moving on to play at four-year universities in St. Louis; she was at St. Louis University and Qwanzi Sr. was at University of Missouri St. Louis.

“It’s awesome just to see them all because they’re all so different and they all need different things, so just to see their process and how it’s all different. But we continue to focus on consistency, make sure you’re working and being consistent in your work and everything else.”

Those differences showed through Qadence’s recruiting experience. After going through it with Qwanzi Jr. back when they knew much less about social media, they expected Qadence’s decision to be a long, drawn-out process. In some ways it was — she had built relationships with other schools for over a year — but the UConn commitment came together at rapid speed.

A few months ago, Qadence wasn’t even being recruited by UConn. She had offers from plenty of top programs and was leaning towards Miami. But then after one of the first AAU events this season, UConn reached out. Conversations with the coaching staff only started in May, but quickly picked up from there.

“To be honest, I actually cried when my dad showed me his number,” Qadence recalled of when Auriemma reached out. “I really cried when he showed me that UConn was actually recruiting me.”

Auriemma then sent assistants Chris Dailey and Jamelle Elliott to attend an AAU game in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to watch her live.

“Qadence has always been I guess kind of like that diamond in the rough or gem or kind of that picture within the picture where you’re like, wait a second, there’s something more here,” Qwanzi Sr. said. “And she’s been on some really talented teams and she’s had to play different roles and really develop her game. But the one thing that she’s been constant is that you can’t take off the floor because of this or because of that. So when they reached out, we were blown away, but it was vindication kind of for us where it’s like we know our kid is at that level and we know how hard she works.”

Qadence, her parents and her older brother took an unofficial visit to UConn on June 16. She admits looking back now that she was really nervous when she first got there.

“It felt like a dream, to be honest,” Qadence said. “I was like, ‘I’m really at UConn.’ And it was just, to me it was unreal because like I see all the trophies and stuff.”

They got a tour of the facilities and watched the Huskies train in summer workout sessions. As they did so, Qwanzi Sr. could tell how eager his daughter was.

“I’m looking at her, I’m like, ‘Yeah, you want to be out there,’” he said. “She wanted to go out and work out with them right then and there. I think she really wants to [be challenged], I think she really does and needs it at the same time. … I think holding her to a level of expectation and accountability is something that she strives in those sorts of environments. She’s willing to say, ‘Oh, I’m not going hard. I’ll go harder.’ Or, ‘Wait, you want me to do this? Alright, I’ll do it.’”

Qadence also had lunch with some players on the team, including Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd. She was really excited to talk to Bueckers, who she’d been of fan of for some time. She was already plenty familiar with Fudd, though. Qadence’s high school, Bishop McNamara, is in the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC), the same league as St. John’s, where Fudd and Qadence’s older brother, Qwanzi, went.

COVID-19 and injuries got in the way of Fudd and Qadence playing much against each other in league games, but they trained together. Fudd and Qwanzi often used to work out together at St. John’s, and Qadance often accompanied them for the 6 a.m. sessions.

“I’m just proud because I know that I’m super hard on her,” Qwanzi said. “Just letting her live out her dreams and being able to achieve her dreams at a young age, you know, she works hard, she deserves it. So I say why not? So it’s pretty exciting for me.”

It was on that trip to Storrs, as she sat in Auriemma’s office, that she got the official offer. As he talked with her about having to earn playing time and asked whether she wanted to “prove people right or wrong,” Quadence knew she wanted to play for him. She committed a little over a week later.

“She’s really owning the decision that she’s made and she kind of walks in it,” Qwanzi Sr. said. “Even around the house there’s just a different sort of bounce to her and I think she’s just, just really happy, excited to be one to be done with the process in a sense right now. And then the other part is what that next level has for her.

“Coach Geno had said to her about now it’s just about trying to dominate every possession that she has. And that’s now her goal to wear that, like, ‘Yeah I’m going to UConn and this is what that looks like.’ So I think she’s up for the task and she’ll be good.”