By Jeffery Green | @Jeffery_Agreen
Sports Capital Journalism Program
TAMPA – “I saw [Sarah Strong] do things that I hadn’t seen any kid [in high school] do in a long, long, long time,” UConn Coach Geno Auriemma said about true freshman Sarah Strong.
No one for the Huskies is surprised at what Strong has been able to do in this tournament in just her first year. After a 22-point performance against UCLA in the Final Four, Strong became just the third UConn freshman to score at least 20 points in a Final Four game, joining Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart.
The lights do not get brighter for her. “Obviously when you watch her, she doesn’t play like a freshman,” UConn redshirt senior Paige Bueckers said. “She plays like an experienced vet… her being able to be unaffected by anything that goes on in the game… The sky’s the limit for her.”
But even as her stardom rises, she still shows the same character. “Sarah is an incredible player, but I think that something that impresses me the most about her is just how mature she plays and how even-keeled she is,” UConn guard Azzi Fudd said. “You can never know if she’s got 20 points and 20 rebounds, you wouldn’t be able to tell… She looks at her opponent as just another game that night. Doesn’t matter where we are, what stage we’re on.”
Strong has done a lot of work to get to this point, and her family has supported her the entire way. Strong’s mother, Allison Feaster, was an All-Star WNBA player who played 11 seasons, primarily for the Charlotte Sting. She is also the Vice President of Team Operations and Organizational Growth for the Boston Celtics, so basketball is important to her family.
“I was texting my mom earlier… She does all the talking,” Strong said. “She just does the fancy stuff. She spends the mornings driving extra minutes every weekend. I wouldn’t be where I am without her.”
They talk before every game too. Feaster even sent her daughter a text saying, “you are that b*tch.”
“It’s kind of what she says to me all the time,” Strong said. “It really means a lot to me, because I know it comes from a good place.”
When a reporter mentioned that Strong talked about her transition from high school, Auriemma joked, “I’m surprised she actually said that much.”
Letting Bueckers and Fudd answer group questions first during the group press conferences, Strong is not quite sure what to say at times.
But through it all she has been a key reason the Huskies have a chance to win their 12th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, and their first since 2016. Standing in their way? A South Carolina team coached by Dawn Staley, who played with Strong’s mother on the Sting for five seasons.
Staley even recruited Strong coming out of high school. “Being a teammate [with Feaster], I thought, would actually help us out a little bit more than what it helped us out. Like, we made history together,” Staley said.
The two helped lead Charlotte to its first and only WNBA finals in 2001, before being swept by the Los Angeles Sparks, 2-0.
South Carolina might have tried to recruit her, but her mind was already made up. “It was UConn all the way,” said Strong.
Yet even without Strong, Staley still sees her talent. “[Strong] might be, in the next three years, she might be the best player to come out of UConn. And those are strong words,” said Staley. “But what she’s able to do – stay calm, the IQ is off the charts, the skill set is off the charts… I think she’s the piece that puts it all together. She makes it all work.”
