After rediscovering her basketball identity, former UConn star Katie Lou Samuelson gearing up for big summer with Seattle Storm, USA 3x3 Team

Within a span of two weeks, Katie Lou Samuelson will have won a championship in the premier women’s league in Spain, played in Seattle with her new WNBA team and then traveled back to Europe to prepare for the upcoming FIBA 3x3 Olympic qualifying tournament.

It’s a big summer for the former UConn star, who’ll juggle adjusting to playing with her third WNBA team in three seasons, and USA Basketball duties.

But this Katie Lou Samuelson is perhaps the best prepared she’s been, physically and mentally, to manage it all and play her best basketball.

After a breakout season in Europe, Samuelson has returned to Seattle, and will be shortly heading back to Europe, having rediscovered her confidence, finally feeling like herself again.

“I feel like my first couple years [in the WNBA], I really lost my identity as a basketball player, and I’ve been able to get that back over this past year,” she said Tuesday before the Storm faced the Las Vegas Aces.

After spending her first season in Chicago, where she was drafted No. 4 overall in 2019 following an All-America career at UConn, Samuelson was traded to Dallas, where she spent the 2020 WNBA bubble season. She was then traded to Seattle along with a 2022 second-round pick in exchange for the 2021 No. 1 overall pick. Samuelson has averaged 3.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 14.1 minutes across her first two seasons in the league

When she was traded to Seattle, Samuelson was in the midst of her season in Spain with Perfumerías Avenida. She was playing with fellow former Husky Tiffany Hayes and, for the first time since high school, her older sister, Karlie, who played at Stanford from 2013-17 and has suited up for L.A. and Dallas in the WNBA. Katie Lou and Karlie are both set to return to Avenida next season.

“It was so much fun. It’s a once in a lifetime thing to be able to do that,” Katie Lou said. “We had always joked about it when I finished college saying, ‘Maybe we can get on the same team together’ and it happened pretty quickly. It was like being back in high school, living with her, getting into those little arguments everyday, but it was super fun.”

On the court, Samuelson was able to regain the confidence she’d lost after an up-and-down start to her pro career. She helped guide Avenida to the EuroLeague Finals and a Spanish League title, while taking home a host of individual honors. She was All-EuroLeague first-team alongside the likes of Courtney Vandersloot, Gabby Williams and Emma Meesseeman, and was also the MVP of the Spanish League finals. She averaged 15.5 points and 5.1 rebounds in EuroLeague play this season.

“I really was given a lot of freedom on my overseas team to develop back into where I feel comfortable, strong, confident in myself and my game, and I think that really was the main difference for me,” Katie Lou said. “Being a professional and seeing yourself have some success always helps you and your confidence to keep going forward.”

She was still finishing up with Avenida when the Storm training camp started on April 25. She arrived in Seattle May 9 but due to COVID-19 protocols wasn’t able to practice until two days before their opener against the Aces. She started that game and had five points on 2 of 3 shooting, with six rebounds, an assist, steal and block in 23 minutes.

In Seattle she’ll be playing alongside former Huskies Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart, one of her old UConn teammates.

“I was really close to Stewie when she was a senior and I was a freshman so it’s pretty cool to have that experience again,” Katie Lou said. “To be able to learn from her and reach out to her whenever I need anything, she’s made it really easy for me coming here, on the court and off the court.”

Having a familiar face assist her in getting acclimated to a new team helps, but with her revitalized confidence, Samuelson also believes she can prove herself as more than just her reputation as a strong 3-point shooter.

“I can add a lot on the court, little things, passing, spacing on the floor, helping the team defensively,” she said. “I really was able to embrace all that and use that to know that I’m a valuable player and I can continue to get better and be in a situation where I can really help a team succeed.”

Stewart has seen a different player, too.

“Lou has really gotten into a good rhythm in her pro career, I want to say it’s probably the best she’s felt since she left UConn,” Stewart said earlier in training camp. “To have her coming off that high and coming into Seattle, I know she’s looking forward to being here. What we’re going to do is continue to put her in the best spots possible to have success, and I’m looking forward to being back on the court with her.”

Samuelson will head to France on Wednesday to prepare for the 3x3 tournament, set for May 26-30 in Austria. She’ll team up with Vegas’ Kelsey Plum, Chicago’s Stefanie Dolson and Dallas’ Allisha Gray to help the U.S. qualify for the Games. The top three teams will make it and eight teams will participate in Tokyo’s 3x3 tournament as the event makes its debut July 24-28.

Samuelson says she feels “really good” physically and has managed to stay healthy throughout her overseas season but admitted it’s tough to go from Spain to her new team in Seattle to Olympic qualifying in such a short time.

“It’s a lot to go back and forth. But I’m looking at it as I’m getting a chance to hopefully qualify for the Olympics, and that’s something that I would have never thought I’d have the opportunity to do this year,” she said. “I’m taking it as something really positive, really amazing that I get to be part of that first group that could go.”

Then it’ll be back to Seattle, where the Storm are hoping to defend their 2020 WNBA title. Samuelson should be back in Connecticut on June 13 along with Stewart and Bird when the Storm visit the Sun.

She hopes she can help with that, and that her strong individual season in Spain was just the start of a blossoming professional career.

“I’m just trying to find a place that I feel like I belong and fit in, and I feel pretty good here,” Samuelson said. “I’m taking it day by day, but it’s been great so far. I’m really happy to be part of this program.”

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com