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Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Most-senior Husky working for big year; A Whale of a Cup omission, and more
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- Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: Most-senior Husky working for big year; A Whale of a Cup omission, and more
The time sneaks up on everyone, but sooner or later the wide-eyed newcomer, amazed by everything, confused or reticent to speak at times, becomes a senior.
In Jana El Alfy's case, she has become THE senior member of the UConn women's basketball team, the longest-tenured Husky. How does it feel?
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El Alfy, who came to Connecticut from Egypt, enrolled at UConn in January of 2023 and spent the remainder of that season as a redshirt, getting acclimated. Then she ruptured her Achilles playing overseas that summer and missed the entire 2023-24 season. After she debuted, El Alfy, 6 feet 5, appeared i n all 40 games during the championship season of 2024-25, starting 27, holding her own during the NCAA Tournament.
Last season, she was replaced by grad transfer Serah Williams as starting center, her minutes dropping from 16 per game to 11.5. In 69 career games, she's averaged 4.4 points, 4.5 rebounds in her 13 minutes per game.
Dom Amore: Now among Huskies' elders, KK Arnold has learned pace, balance. Is her best yet to come?
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Now she is working toward regaining her starting job and becoming the dominating center the UConn coaches imagined when she arrived 43 months ago.
"She's been aggressive," senior guard KK Arnold said, as the summer workout sessions were wrapping up. "She's starting to get that identity where when she gets the ball, and we need her to look to score, and then create. You've seen that a lot this summer. She's becoming very vocal on the back side defense. We need that aggressiveness with Jana and she understand that, she knows that and she's been showing another side of her that we're going to need this year."
Said sophomore Gandy Mamou-Mamel : "Jana brings so much energy, she's such a big force, energy wise, physical wise. Without her, it would be a much quieter team. She is such a big supporter for all of us, and were big supporters of her. She is a dominant player and I think she brings a dominant energy that we need. She has grown more confident this summer alone and I think she is going to show everyone what they expect."
Junior Allie Ziebell said, "I expect Jana to have a really great year. This summer she has shown a lot of improvement in her stamina, and her finishing around the basket. She has been more of a dominant presence this year, which is cool to see."
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El Alfy, too, has an important role to play behind the scenes. She has lived all the experiences an overseas student can have on campus, so on a team with several international players, El Alfy can be the big sister, the confidant, the sounding board.
"For them, it's being open and learning from everything," she said. "The second you step on the court, watch something, be more open and learn and ask questions if you don't know something. Being shy, sometimes you keep things to yourself, at least that's how I was when I first got here. (They need to) be more open to ask questions. Blanca (Quinonez), Gandy (Malou-Memal) and I went through the same things. So sometimes the new guys don't ask for stuff, but you kind of know what they need."
For example, when El Alfy first came to UConn, she did not expect to find many others from Egypt on campus, or groups such as the Egyptian Student Association t o help connect with them.
"It was very welcoming," she said. "Once school starts, there are different groups for different countries. Outside of basketball, it's really important to connect with those people. I didn't really know there were other Egyptians on campus, people in class, people who reached out to me."
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So El Alfy, technically a redshirt junior, and second-year Huskies Mamou-Mamel and Quinonez will be trying to make Marine Dursus from France, Jovana Popovic from Serbia feel more at home, to unlock their abilities as freshmen.
"We've got a new, good group," El Alfy said. "I feel like this is the most international group we've had since I've been here. It's just amazing to see how different the game is and what they bring to our team this year."
With Williams in the WNBA and Ice Brady transferred to Florida State, UConn will have a different look among its front court players working with national player of the year Sarah Strong. Morgan Cheli is back from her injury, with freshman Olivia Vukosa joining the program and Malou-Mamel having a developmental freshman season behind her.
Larger roles are there to be earned.
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"I'm going to embrace it," El Alfy said, "knowing I can have a bigger role. It's a responsibility, trying to get better every day. … my mindset going into every game is to help my teammates where I can and have more of an impact than I've had last year, or any other year, whatever that is — grabbing rebounds, scoring, playing good defense.
"I'm trying to be more consistent with everything. (I've grown in) being more OK with having mistakes, and learning how to bounce back from that."
One thing is different, however. J amelle Elliott, w ho had been mostly working with front court players, left the program last month for other opportunities outside coaching. That leaves a void for El Alfy.
"That was really hard," El Alfy said. "She's had a huge impact on everybody on this team, especially me. It's a little hard having her go, but I'm still gonna reach out for her if I need anything. She knew how to challenge me, get the best out of me and we had this special bond that's hard to descrive. She knew when to be hard on me."
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With an international roster, UConn women have seized the chance to bond over World Cup
But El Alfy has her "why," in the look of pride she sees on her parents' faces when they are able to travel and see her play in person. She has her U.S. home, which is how she has come to feel at UConn. "Just being here is my favorite part," she said.
And she has the experience. Now the senior Husky she aims to put it all together to meet the challenges.
"I feel more comfortable going into these workouts," she said. "You know what to expect and what's expected from you. You show up and try to make each other better every day, being here a long time you learn a lot of stuff, you learn things when you win and when you lose. We've got a good group of leaders that know what it takes and how to prepare for it."
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More for the Sunday Read:
Sunday short takes
*When the Royals' Tyler Tolbert got 12 hits in 12 at bats t his week, he tied a major-league record shared by four others including UConn legend Walt Dropo, from Moosup, who accomplished the feat with the Tigers across three games July 14-15 in 1952 . Dropo went 13 for 14 in those games vs. the Yankees and Senators.
*UConn/WNBA Hall of Famer Rebecca Lobo will be hosting a golf clinic Monday at 10 a.m. for 50 local kids from this summer's Camp Courant at Keney Park, teaching golf skills development through Bank of America's Golf With Us program.
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*UConn/WNBA future Hall of Famer Tina Charles, recently retired as a player, will be at East Rock Brewing in New Haven on Friday, 5-8 p.m., to launch her new venture, 78 Brewing Co ., to be a "home to craft beer brands dedicated to bringing people together over iconic stories." The name comes from the back-to-back 39-0 UConn teams on which Charles was a mainstay.
* Berlin's Matt Carasiti , who pitched for the Yard Goats "road warriors" team in 2016 and later in MLB with the Rockies and Mariners, is now a pitching coach in the Mets organization and has been in Hartford all week with visiting Binghamton.
*Darien High alums Chloe Humphrey , Shea Dolce and Caylee Waters, all All-Staters, will play for Team USA at the 2026 World Lacrosse Women's Championship in Tokyo in August. Humphrey and Dolce played on two state championship teams, including the undefeated '23 team. Waters, a goalkeeper , was the state player of the year in 2014 and has been with USA Lacrosse since 2015. Humphrey and Waters played with North Carolina, Dolce with Boston College's 2024 NCAA champs.
*Maybe it's just me, but every time I hear J oey Chestnut's name on July 4, I can't help but think of the blueberry pie contest scene in "Stand By Me." . .. And when the Yankees went through a 5-15 stretch, I couldn't help but think of the manager in "Bull Durham." "How'd they ever win five? … It's a miracle." ( And speaking of miracles, here come the Red Sox.)
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*The 30th Franciscan Golf Classic, which benefits the Franciscan Life Center and all its good works, is set for Aug. 10 at Stanley GC in New Britain. Cost is $195 per player, and great prizes can be won. Visit FLCenter.org for more information.
* Bananaball is returning to Dunkin Park in Hartford July 23-25, with two the Savannah Bananas' associated teams, the Indianapolis Clowns and Party Animals, doing their thing. Redding's Clark Gilmore, who played at Dartmouth and Notre Dame, is with the Clowns, and East Haven's Mark Smith , who played at Avon Old Farms and Sacred Heart, is a Party Animal.
*Geno Auriemma made a little news last week and among the nuggets dropped, he's restarting his own podcast. He did one a few years ago, and told podcaster Richard Deitch he has a dozen episodes recorded for release. "We've had maybe two basketball people on," he said, "the rest is about people who have reached a certain level of excellence and asking them things relative to that so that people watching can say, 'Yeah, that applies to me too.'"
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* Southington's Vincent Borghese , a righthander who pitched at Post University, then CCSU and finally Rutgers, where he became the No. 2 starter, is an area name to watch in the MLB Draft this weekend.
Summer Reading
If you love the intertwining of baseball with period U.S. history, "The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR And America At The Crossroads," by Randall Sullivan, is a fascinating exploration of the first midsummer classic in 1933 in the context of the Great Depression. Spoiler alert: The only thing pitchers had to fear was … Babe, himself. It's available on amazon.
Last word
Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon had the "Brass Bonanzas" to include his wife and five children among the names to be engraved on the Stanley Cup. It's technically within the rules set by the NHL and Hall of Fame, which limit the number of names to 55 and give discretion on listing nonplayers and coaches. However, left off the Cup, egregiously, was West Hartford's Bob Gorman, the equipment manager who recently retired after 50 years with the organization. Yes, that dates back to the WHA New England Whalers era — and was included on the Cup when Carolina won in 2006. A modest guy who doesn't like to draw attention to himself, Gorman was t alked into staying one more season by coach Rod Brind'Amour . He has been done wrong, and we have his back here.
