Jana El Alfy has “a great future” with UConn, even if she won’t play this season

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Headlines

From the UConn WBB Weekly Premium:

• Aaliyah Edwards is on the verge of All-American status

• UConn enters “toughest stretch of the season” without its best player

• UConn needs to be ready for anything against DePaul

From The UConn Blog:

• Chasing Perfection: All-American Aaliyah Edwards

• Two UConn women’s basketball signees made the 2023 McDonalds All-American team

• UConn women’s basketball 2023 signee Jana El Alfy enrolls early

• Azzi Fudd out again after knee injury, no timetable for return

• UConn women’s basketball beats Butler, 79-39

• Photo gallery: Butler Bulldogs @ UConn women’s basketball

• UConn women’s basketball takes care of DePaul, 94-51

• Photo gallery: DePaul Blue Demons @ UConn women’s basketball

Last week’s Weekly:

• Amari DeBerry, the most interesting Husky in the world

Elsewhere:

• Katie Lou Samuelson joined Shea Ralph’s staff at Vanderbilt as Director of Player Development (Vanderbilt Athletics)

Jana El Alfy has “a great future” at UConn, even if she won’t play this season

Late on Sunday night, Jana El Alfy arrived in Connecticut from across an ocean in Egypt to begin her UConn women’s basketball career, enrolling a semester earlier than expected. The next morning — her first full day in Storrs — a few inches of snow fell on the campus.

It didn’t take long to get a proper introduction to her new home — in more than one way. In addition to the weather, El Alfy sat on the bench for her first game as a member of the program when UConn took on DePaul that same Monday.

That’ll be the extent of her game experience this season. Even though El Alfy is here, she won’t play for the Huskies until next fall.

“She can do anything anybody else on the team can do,” Geno Auriemma said. “She’s in class, she’s gonna be coming to practice and doing all the things that we do. The only thing she won’t be doing is actually seeing any game action.”

The reason? Eligibility.

If she were to suit up at any point — even for just a minute — she’d lose one of her four years to play. Considering the Huskies have already played 20 games and El Alfy is eight months behind the other freshmen, the team doesn’t want to burn a quarter of her college career just to throw her into the fire for a couple of months.

“Is that worth it? 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 whatever part of March? And how long is it gonna take her to catch up anyway to what we’re doing?” Auriemma said.

Instead, El Alfy will get a jump start on a true (and full) freshman year next fall. For now, she’ll get acclimated to life in the US and at UConn, learn the ins and outs of the program, and get a taste of college basketball.

While it’s not a method of development UConn women’s basketball has used often, the team on the other side of the Werth Champions Center has found plenty of success with it.

In 2018-19, UConn men’s basketball brought in Akok Akok midway through the year. He redshirted the remainder of that campaign but then had a standout freshman season until he tore his Achilles. Last year, Alex Karaban followed the same path as Akok and now that he’s playing this season, he’s become an established starter and a key piece of the Huskies’ success.

Geno has only brought in a freshman early once before. During the 2020-21 season, when all winter athletes were granted an extra year of eligibility, the Huskies added Saylor Poffenbarger in January and played her. Poffenbarger struggled in limited action (she had just six points and four rebounds in 12 games) then transferred in November of 2021.

Auriemma made it clear at the time that the only reason she saw game action was because she wouldn’t lose eligibility.

For UConn to bring El Alfy in early — even though she won’t play — shows just how highly she’s viewed by the coaching staff. A native of Cairo, Egypt, and the daughter of Egyptian women’s national team coach Ehab El Alfy, Jana committed to the Huskies back in November. Listed at 6-foot-4, she’s been described by Auriemma as a modern-day post player.

“She’s a big kid who’s athletic and can play on the perimeter. She can score, she can rebound. She’s played a lot of basketball growing up. Her father is the national team coach, so she really understands the game,” he said after she signed her letter of intent.

The coach hasn’t shied away from putting high expectations on her, either.

“She’ll be the first, I think, Arabic speaking-woman to ever play in the WNBA,” he said during the 97.9 ESPN Coaches’ Show.

UConn also has an opening in the frontcourt with Dorka Juhász set to graduate. Aaliyah Edwards will be the anchor down low but behind her, the Huskies have more questions than answers among their returning post players: Amari DeBerry, Ice Brady, and Ayanna Patterson. With El Alfy coming in a few months early, she should figure into that mix as well.

“She’s got a great future here. She’s gonna have a great career,” Auriemma said. “Little by little, she’s gonna get acclimated to our program and what we do and how we do it.”

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Only a few years until the same happens in Storrs: