UConn women notebook: El Alfy gets warm UConn welcome

Jan. 24—STORRS — Seeing Jana El Alfy arrive on campus for her first day as part of the UConn women's basketball team had center Dorka Juhász turning back to clock to 2018 and her first days at Ohio State after coming from her hometown of Pecs, Hungary.

"There were a lot of fifth-year players there helping me get acclimated," Juhász said Monday night. "Everything was super-new and I had no idea.

"There's a lot of things going on off the court and I also want to help Jana on the court and give whatever I have to her. She'll have amazing teammates around her when I leave. She's going to be in great hands and we're excited to have her."

El Alfy — a 6-foot-4 center from Cairo, Egypt — got here Sunday and enrolled in spring semester classes Monday. She was on the bench Monday night and watched her new teammates pound DePaul 94-51 in Big East action at Gampel Pavilion.

She is the sixth international player on the Huskies' 13-player roster.

"She came yesterday so we haven't seen a lot," UConn guard Nika Mühl, a native of Zagreb, Croatia said. "Her English is amazing. I was surprised because our English was pretty bad when we first came here. The freshmen are taking great care of her. She was on the big screen today and she liked it and the people loved her.

El Alfy received a warm ovation from the crowd of 8,055 when she was introduced and shown on the video board in the first half. She smiled and waved to the fans.

She will wear No. 24, last worn by two-time All-American Naphessa Collier.

El Alfy has represented Egypt in FIBA competition three times. At the 2022 U-17 World Cup, she was third in scoring at 16.4 points and second in rebounds at 11.0 as Egypt finished 11th out of 16 teams. She has participated in the NBA Academy Women's Program since 2019.

She will practice and travel with the team but will not play in games. If she does, she will use a full year of eligibility.

"She can do anything that anyone else on the team can do," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "She's in class. She's going to come to practice and do all the things we do. The only thing she won't be doing is seeing any game action. Even though it may be worth it to us, is it really worth it to her, to use up a whole season for February and March. And how long is it going to take her to catch up anyway to what we're doing.

"She has a great future here, She is going to have a great career. Little by little, she is going to get acclimated to our program and what we do and how we do it. But as far as playing, that is not in the works right now."

Moore tribute

Doug Bruno coached Maya Moore with USA Basketball's 2006 U-18 and 2007 U-19 teams, coached against Moore as coach at DePaul, then coached her again in his time (2009-16) as Auriemma's assistant on the senior national team.

"She is the ultimate, consummate competitor," Bruno said. "She just loved to compete, and she competed with such class and dignity.

"Her competitiveness on the court was really something to behold. To be able to know Maya and be blessed to coach her and see her strength of character, she is just a championship human being."

Moore, the Huskies' only four-time All-American and three-time Wade Trophy winner, announced her retirement at age 33 last week. She is one of 13 players to win NCAA and WNBA titles and Olympic and FIBA World Cup gold medals,

Bruno recalled his time around Moore with fondness.

"My favorite Maya Moore story personally is that we have these 10 'We wills,' that we preach to our DePaul program, and I preached them to the USA Basketball team," Bruno said. "I don't expect a player on our 2006 18U team to remember our 10 'We wills.' But fast forward to maybe 2014 and Maya was walking next to me and someone else was there. She starts rattling off the 10 'We wills.' She said to one of our her teammates, 'Do you want to hear Bruno's 10 We wills?' She started rattling them off. She said they resonated with her.

"If I could write my script, I would have Maya play basketball until God doesn't let her play basketball anymore. But Maya has obviously demonstrated that she has much higher agendas than basketball. You admire her from afar while she is doing it."

Bruno didn't mention the one painful memory of Moore.

On March 1, 2008. DePaul had a one-point lead and the ball on the Huskies. The Blue Demons' Missy Mitidiero raced up the floor trying to run out the clock when Moore came from behind her for a steal and called time out with 7.2 seconds left. UConn took possession and Ketia Swanier's length-of-the court drive and layup with 1.6 seconds to go gave the Huskies a 77-76 win.

Bruno's teams are 0-22 against UConn.

Husky bites

Freshman Ayanna Patterson (concussion protocol) saw action for the first time since Jan. 5 at Xavier. She played the final 13:18 and had six points and six rebounds. ... The Huskies remained at No. 5 in the Associated Press poll released Monday. South Carolina was the unanimous No. 1 followed by Ohio State, Stanford, LSU, and UConn. For the first time in the 47-year history of the poll, no Texas-based team was ranked as the Longhorns dropped out following a loss to Texas Tech.

For coverage of all sports in the JI's 18-town coverage area, plus updates on the UConn women's basketball team and head coach Geno Auriemma, follow Carl Adamec on Twitter: @CarlAdamec, Facebook: Carl Adamec, and Instagram: @CarlAdamec.