How Gandy Malou-Mamel went from no-name Irish prospect to UConn commit

The first time Kieran Quinn saw Gandy Malou-Mamel play, it happened by accident.

A former member of the Irish national basketball team who played at Division II Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut, Quinn serves as a liaison and advisor of sorts for Irish basketball players looking to come to the United States. One day about 20 months ago, he was asked to look at film and provide an opinion on a specific player.

Instead, Malou-Mamel caught his attention — and he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“I’m like, ‘Who the hell is that?’ All I saw was her running up and down the floor under four seconds, going rim to rim numerous times,” Quinn said. “I could see her length as she was putting her lead hand out. She was playing like a rim-running five. I’m like, ‘Oh my God. This kid can move.’”

He eventually found a connection to her through a fellow Irish player who he helped earn a spot at University of St. Joseph in West Hartford named Ruairi Cronin. With COVID still restricting travel, Quinn couldn’t immediately get to Ireland so he needed Cronin to put Malou-Mamel through a series of drills, record them and send the tape back.

The results weren’t great.

“It was a hot mess,” Quinn said. But... “You could just see the raw materials of what could be a tremendous athlete.”

Less than two years later, Malou-Mamel is committed to UConn.

“Gandy told me when she came over, she was like ‘My dream school is UConn,’” Quinn said. “I did not think that 10 months ago, 11 months ago when she arrived here that we’d be talking about UConn — but we are.”

Ireland is a unique sporting country. Soccer and rugby are both popular, though the biggest sports are Gaelic football and hurling — traditional Irish sports governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association, or GAA. Basketball is mostly an afterthought in the landscape with an estimated 30,000 participants compared to soccer, GAA, and rugby, whose membership numbers are comfortably over 150,000 each.

Malou-Mamel played soccer up until fifth grade when a basketball coach came into her PE class and gave everyone a taste of the sport. She immediately fell in love.

“I found it much more fun,” Malou-Mamel said. “Less waiting for a score. I loved running up and down.”

She joined a local club when she was 12 and never looked back. At first, she was so shy that she didn’t do much besides run up and down the court, rebound, and try to shoot during the rare occasion that she got the ball. Try is the operative word there — “Chuck it up in the basket and hope it goes in” is how Malou-Mamel described her shooting before she came over.

For a few years, she just played for fun but when she turned 15, a switch flipped inside her. Malou-Mamel realized she wanted basketball to be more than just a pastime — she wanted it to eventually be her job. She started putting in more time and effort and worked harder on her conditioning.

Malou-Mamel could only develop so much in Ireland, though. Her club team rarely did more than scrimmage during practice, so she never did drills to improve individual aspects of her game.

“I never really practiced just dribbling when it’s outside of a scrimmage or a game,” she said.

To fulfill her dream, Malou-Mamel knew she needed to leave Ireland. More specifically, to go to the United States. While it was a nice idea, it was little more than that. She had no concrete plan for how to make that happen.

“I just kept saying that without having an actual bridge to come here because it was very hard to find someone that will give you a chance to come here and develop you and go to school here,” she said. “It was in my mind to come here but it didn’t become a true reality until someone gave me a chance to come here.”

Enter Quinn.

After seeing Malou-Mamel’s film, he returned to Ireland the first chance he got and set up a workout with her in person. That session confirmed everything he’d already seen on tape. Right there, Quinn decided that he’d not only help her get to the United States, he’d host her himself.

“To see it in the flesh, I was like ‘To hell with this, you’re coming to America,” Quinn said.

Just like that, Malou-Mamel had her bridge.

It didn’t come without its share of bumps on either end, though. Before they went any further, Quinn wanted to make sure Malou-Mamel had the proper expectations. He didn’t want her to think any of it would be easy.

“He told me coming here would be a challenge,” she said. “He looked me in the eye (and said), ‘This is not a joke. Coming here is hard. It’s gonna have a lot of hard days. A lot of bad days.’ But the fact that he was honest with me — the honesty thing is very important.”

Quinn also gave Malou-Mamel an idea of what her basketball training would look like, how school would work, and how many hours they’d commit to all of it. All of it was daunting — but it didn’t scare Malou-Mamel away. After coming up with the dream of becoming a professional basketball player, she could finally envision a path toward that goal.

“Given a map, I could see myself actually navigating and exploring my way to development here,” she said.

Malou-Mamel’s parents, Giselle and Yves, were on the board, too. As refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they understood how valuable an opportunity in a new country could be. Just as Ireland gave them an opportunity for a better life, the United States could do the same for their daughter.

“You need someone to tell you yes when you find it hard because as a kid, coming to a different continent isn’t easy. They came from a different continent themselves. They knew how this worked, how this would be for me. So they just kept pushing me, they were my biggest supporters as this went on,” Malou-Mamel said. “They trusted Kieran when he came to my house. We saw the good in him and his family so they knew that it would be a good opportunity for me. They helped me stay positive in myself and were just my biggest supporters.”

On the other side, Quinn needed to convince his own family — his wife Jen, a former basketball player at Colgate, 16-year-old daughter Sidney, 14-year-old son Kieran and 8-year-old daughter Mairéad — to commit to Malou-Mamel as well. It required sacrifice from all involved.

The adjustment to their new life took some time, but it ultimately worked out. Not only is Malou-Mamel headed to UConn, Sidney committed to Navy — her own dream school. While both are talented players in their own right, they’ve helped make each other better.

“It had its challenges,” Quinn admitted. “But iron sharpens iron. When you get rewards like this, it's usually because you've gone through some obstacles. She has and she's a much better person for it. We're all better off for having Gandy in our lives.”

On paper, there’s not much about Malou-Mamel jumps off the page. As a sophomore at Gill St. Bernard’s school in Gladstone, New Jersey, she averaged 7.5 points and 6.9 rebounds in 27 games. ESPN’s class of 2025 rankings don’t include Malou-Mamel among the 70 players listed. Even Google reveals very little about the newest Husky.

None of that defines Malou-Mamel’s game — or more importantly, her potential. Instead, her 6-foot-5 frame and near 7-foot wingspan combined with elite athleticism is what caught the Huskies’ eye — just as it did Quinn’s.

UConn’s interest began in May at the Clash of Clubs in Dallas. Malou-Mamel’s EYBL coach with the Jersey Gemz, Patty Coyle, played with associate head coach Chris Dailey at Rutgers. Coyle asked the Huskies to check Malou-Mamel out and they did, showing up for a game against Philly Rise, one of the top AAU clubs in the country.

Malou-Mamel decided to grab their attention.

“I knew they were watching so I felt the need to play really well and show them what I can do because it’s not hard to miss me on the court,” she said with a laugh. “I knew that was my chance to show them what I can do.”

“I had a good game.”

Soon, Malou-Mamel found herself talking with the legendary Geno Auriemma. While she was intimidated at first, she quickly warmed up once she got to know him better.

“He was a very kind person, very honest and I think you need that in a staff,” she said. “They were all very honest people and they wouldn’t tell you something just to make you feel better. They want you to get better by you knowing what you need to develop and what kind of person you are — and they will tell you. I liked that about the staff.”

The recruiting process wasn’t as straightforward as UConn offering Malou-Mamel a scholarship and her accepting it, though. While Auriemma indicated his initial interest, he then took a step back. The Huskies knew they wanted her, but they waited to see if she wanted the Huskies.

“He kind of pushed for me to show my interest in the school first,” Malou-Mamel explained. “So rather than him pulling me towards committing, it was more I had to do with myself. I had to be sure of myself wanting to be there. He was not going to baby me into making that decision.”

It didn’t end up being a very difficult choice. After all, Malou-Mamel knew she wanted to go to UConn from the moment she arrived in the United States but for a while, that was a faint possibility. Once it became real, she moved quickly and made it official.

“It’s been a hard-to-reach dream,” she said. “When they reached out to me... [I knew] I would really love to go there and become a great player one day.”

It helped that the Quinn household had a few connections to UConn. Quinn played with UConn men’s basketball sophomore Andre Johnson’s father at Post, is long-time friends with the Hurley family, and knows Bill Cadarelli, a former assistant coach for the Huskies alongside Jim Calhoun.

UConn also fit into Malou-Mamel’s goals. From the moment she learned she could play basketball for a living if she was good enough, she dedicated herself to that. Even though college sports aren’t part of the sporting landscape in Ireland, “everyone knows of UConn,” according to Malou-Mamel. Once she came to the US, she quickly learned that those that succeed with the Huskies get a shot at the professional level.

“I know there’s past players at UConn, many that have gone pro and succeeded and have great careers,” she said. “So that is why I feel like UConn is the right path for me.”

From here, Malou-Mamel will play the waiting game. She still has an entire year until she can even take an official visit and two years until she officially joins the Huskies. In the meantime, she’ll continue to work on her game everywhere — at home, in clinics with a local coach, Tiny Green, with the Jersey Gemz at Gill St. Bernard’s under head coach Mark Gnapp — to get ready for the eventual jump to college. At this point, Malou-Mamel believes she has the basics of basketball down, so she can start working on honing her skills.

“There’s going to be much more work,” she said. “Since I came, I focused on the basics of the game. Now I have to get ready to work on more skills — my shooting ability, of course. I have to work on that more. I think just going to be [about] getting myself better rather than just staying on the same level I am now because I know I’ve gotten much better but now have to get D-I ready.”

It won’t be hard for Malou-Mamel to find motivation, though. Her commitment to UConn is proof of concept that hard work pays off. From here, it’s about continuing her development and, if all goes to plan, the Huskies will be pleasantly surprised when she finally arrives in two years.

“I don’t think UConn basketball has any idea what they’re getting,” Quinn said.

Malou-Mamel is the first to admit that she’s not the stereotypical pale-skinned, red-haired Irish girl, but that fact doesn’t make her feel any less Irish. She has plenty of love for her home country and takes tremendous pride in being the first Irish-born player to suit up for the Huskies.

“As my parents were refugees, Ireland was a safe haven for them. It’s a safe haven for me. I don’t feel ashamed of representing the country, wearing green. I’ve done a lot because of people in Ireland that have helped my parents, helped my family, and I’ll always give back to them. I’ll wear the flag when I go to UConn and everyone will know that I’m Irish.”

“If they don’t, I’ll tell them,” Quinn chimed in.

“I might not look Irish, but they’ll find out,” she added with a laugh.

In August, Malou-Mamel will participate in the Irish National Team’s training camp — her first experience with the senior squad. Her commitment to UConn should make that a regular occurrence, too.

This isn’t just a big moment for Malou-Mamel, her family, and the Quinns. When she finally gets to Storrs, she’ll be the first Irish-born player ever to play at the high-major level in women’s college basketball. What she’s doing is truly unprecedented.

“This story in itself is the biggest story in Irish basketball history,” Quinn declared. “There’s been boys that are playing DI right now but nobody’s playing at the top of the pile for the most storied program in college basketball.”

None of it would’ve been possible if Quinn didn’t spot her on video and decide that he needed to get her to the United States. He hopes she can pay it forward sometime down the road.

“The only thing I want from Gandy — well, I might want a UConn t-shirt — is one, I obviously want to graduate high school and graduate college with the best grades, right?” Quinn said. “But the most important thing is that one day she does the same for another Irish kid.”

While Quinn might’ve been Malou-Mamel’s bridge to the United States and UConn, the rest is all her.

“She’s going to UConn because she’s good enough to go to UConn,” he said. “Not because of me.”