Marine Dursus never planned on coming to the United States to play college basketball. A native of Strausbourg, France, she came up through INSEP — a French boarding school focused on training elite athletes that’s produced the likes of Tony Parker as well as the Connecticut Sun’s Leila Lacan and Nell Angloma — before joining Angers, a club in La Boulangere Wonderligue.

Dursus expected to remain on that career path. She never paid much attention to the college game, partly because most games tip off late into the night in France. While some schools tried to recruit Dursus over the years, she never reciprocated the interest. She let her agent handle those conversations, which meant Dursus never went through a formal recruiting process.

“I wasn't expecting to come to the US,” she said. “I wanted to stay in Europe, play in EuroLeague and all that stuff.”

Then UConn came calling. When the Huskies reached out, Dursus’ agent advised her to take a longer look.

“My agent was choosing which [school] can be good for me,” Dursus explained. “Then UConn called her and she was like, ‘I think you have to see.’”