{"id":644991,"date":"2026-05-03T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644991\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T11:49:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T11:49:10","slug":"what-connecticut-sun-rookies-learned-in-wnba-preseason-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/644991\/","title":{"rendered":"What Connecticut Sun rookies learned in WNBA preseason debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNCASVILLE \u2014 In her preseason debut with the Connecticut Sun<\/a> against the Toronto Tempo<\/a> on Wednesday night, rookie center Raegan Beers<\/a> realized she was really playing WNBA basketball the first time a jump ball was called.<\/p>\n

The NCAA rule is muscle memory for Beers, who was a two-time All-SEC first-team selection at Oklahoma. In college, possession is awarded to one team or the other based on an alternating possession arrow, but at the pro level the players involved in the call actually have to play out the jump to resume the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it\u2019s a very big learning curve, and there are different nuances to different rules that, I\u2019ve watched the W for a couple years now, so I knew them, but experiencing them for the first time was definitely something a little different,\u201d Beers said with a laugh. \u201cI forgot on a jump ball that you actually do the jump. The first time it happened I was like, \u2018Why are they all walking to the center?’\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sun had four players, including Beers, make their WNBA debuts in the 83-78 win over the Tempo<\/a>, and all of them held their own despite some jitters. Second-round pick Charlisse Leger-Walker<\/a> was a standout putting up eight points and a team-high four assists plus a steal and a block. She said she was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable she felt handling the intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it was probably not as physical as I expected, which was the most surprising thing, because I went in with such a mindset of like, \u2018I\u2019m gonna come out with bruises, maybe a slight concussion,’\u201d she joked. \u201cBut I went in there, and it wasn\u2019t as bad as I thought, so maybe just the preparation that I\u2019ve had coming in and everyone talking to me about it kind of prepped me.\u201d<\/p>\n

What we learned from the Connecticut Sun\u2019s comeback win vs. Toronto Tempo in preseason opener<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The matchup against Toronto was a perfect first experience for the rookies, because the Tempo are also an inexperienced team working to establish a foundation as an expansion franchise. But the Sun face a completely different animal on Sunday in their second preseason game, against the New York Liberty. The Liberty, who won the 2024 WNBA championship, are led by a trio of veteran superstars in two-time MVP Breanna Stewart<\/a>, 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones<\/a> and four-time All-Star Sabrina Ionescu<\/a>, players that most of Connecticut\u2019s young talent grew up idolizing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at their roster and I\u2019m like, I\u2019m going to be playing Stewie, Sabrina, like these legends of the game,\u201d Leger-Walker said. \u201cAs much as I\u2019m like, \u2018Whoa,\u2019 I also have to stay in the moment, go out and play basketball. \u2026 I\u2019ve played a lot of international basketball and played a lot of WNBA players in my past experiences, so I\u2019m just leaning on that and enjoying the moment. I\u2019m always going to respect the players I\u2019m playing against, but at the end of the day when we step on the court, I\u2019m a competitor.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s easy to be intimidated \u2014 and starstruck \u2014 by the big names on New York\u2019s roster, Beers said it\u2019s also an invaluable opportunity to share the court and compete on the same level with some of women\u2019s basketball\u2019s all-time greats.<\/p>\n

\u201cJonquel Jones, I\u2019ve admired her for years now, and it\u2019s like, \u2018Okay, now I\u2019m actually gonna go and play against her,\u2019 but it\u2019s such a cool experience to be able to say you did that,\u201d Beers said. \u201cIt\u2019s been my dream to play in the W for a couple years now. That was something I wanted to do once I knew I could, so it\u2019s just cool to see that happening in real life, playing the girls that I\u2019ve admired for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The preseason matchup with the Liberty will give the Sun an early taste of its regular-season opener, scheduled for May 8 against New York at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But head coach Rachid Meziane said the team is more focused on its internal development than on its opponent, especially as he works to implement his system with newcomers making up the vast majority of the roster.<\/p>\n

The Sun coach\u2019s biggest frustration coming out of the Toronto game was with his team\u2019s ball security: Connecticut gave up 26 turnovers including 14 on steals, and the Tempo scored 27 points off the lost possessions. Meziane said the priorities in practice entering Sunday\u2019s preseason matchup are strengthening the offensive connection and communication as well as focusing on one-on-one defense to prevent some of the easy layups and transition opportunities they allowed in Toronto.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s still a long way to go before the Sun are ready to truly contend with the best teams in the league, Meziane said the group is much farther along now than they were at this time last season. The team\u2019s chemistry has come together effortlessly during training camp, and Meziane said it\u2019s a positive sign that they are already starting to hone in on making nuanced adjustments rather than spending more time establishing big-picture concepts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy is there, the desire to play together, to defend together, you can feel it,\u201d Meziane said. \u201cBut we still have to fix some stuff \u2026 Offensively it\u2019s about just taking more care of the ball than what we are doing right now, because (26) turnovers is too much, and we have to reduce that \u2026 We had a couple of moving screens, so guards have to be better at beating the defender on the screen, working the opposite side before then playing the ball screen. All these are small details, but at the end of the day they are very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Connecticut Sun fanbase shows up stronger than ever despite \u2018heartbreaking\u2019 Houston relocation<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

How to watch<\/p>\n

Site: Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville<\/p>\n

Time\/date: 5 p.m., Sunday<\/p>\n

TV: ION<\/p>\n

Streaming: WNBA LeaguePass<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UNCASVILLE \u2014 In her preseason debut with the Connecticut Sun against the Toronto Tempo on Wednesday night, rookie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,215492,4785,3458,4784,215526,57165,884,180660,43017,3457,240173,240172,82,45963,630],"class_list":["post-644991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-charlisse-leger-walker","tag-connecticut","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-ct-news","tag-gianna-kneepkens","tag-hartford-courant","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-mohegan-sun","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-rachid-meziane","tag-raegan-beers","tag-sports","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}