• UConn WBB Weekly
  • Posts
  • Sarah Strong getting early homecoming with trip to North Carolina

Sarah Strong getting early homecoming with trip to North Carolina

The freshman has quite a contingent coming to see her to play.

Author

Daniel Connolly
November 14, 2024

In partnership with

Photo: Ian Bethune

Welcome to the UConn WBB Weekly, a recap of everything that happened in the world of UConn women’s basketball over the past week from the team that runs The UConn Blog.

Sign up to get the Weekly in your inbox every Thursday or subscribe to get our premium newsletter which includes game coverage, analysis, recruiting updates, and more!

Headlines

News

Game coverage

BU
USF

Season preview

Last week’s Weekly

Sarah Strong getting early homecoming with trip to North Carolina

For the first 10 years of Sarah Strong’s life, she grew up in Spain while her mom, Allison Feaster, played professional basketball. Once her career ended, the family moved to North Carolina. At first, Strong worried about how her life would change in the United States.

“I was really nervous because in Spain, I used to watch American movies. I was scared about a bully shoving me in a locker or something like that,” she said with a laugh.

She didn’t have to worry about that. The scariest part about school in America turned out to be the lunch food.

“It was very different from the food to the kids to the way the school is, but I got used to it as I got older,” Strong said. “Probably (the biggest culture shock was) walking into lunch and the food. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ Awful.”

Now, just three games into her collegiate career, Strong is getting a chance to go home. On Friday, UConn will travel to Greensboro, North Carolina to take on the No. 14 UNC Tarheels. A native of Durham (her hometown was previously listed as Fuquay-Varina, NC, but she corrected it recently), Strong will have a big contingent of supporters at the game.

“It’s an hour and 30 (minutes) away from my house. I'm really excited to go,” she said. “Most of my friends and old classmates are going — and teachers — and my closest friends are going.”

Even with so many friends and family expected in the crowd, Strong isn’t treating it differently than any other game.

“They can watch it on TV either way,” she said.

This is an unofficial homecoming game — UConn had this on the books well before she committed and those are usually reserved for a player’s junior or senior year anyways — but the team is plenty familiar with them. Just last season, they traveled to Minnesota for Paige Bueckers, Toronto for Aaliyah Edwards and hosted Ball State for Nika Mühl.

They can sometimes be difficult to navigate given all the excitement and emotions surrounding the game but Geno Auriemma isn’t worried about Strong getting distracted by everything happening off the court.

“I haven't said anything. I mean, I haven't even thought about it in that respect,” he said. “Everybody reacts differently to these things. So far, she's not shown any signs of having anything get in the way of what she's trying to do. So I just assumed that she'll be fine.”

The familiar faces won’t be limited to the stands, either. During her recruiting process, her finalists came down to two hometown schools — UNC and Duke — and the Huskies. While she ultimately picked UConn, Strong still knows some players on the Tar Heels — most notably Blanca Thomas, a 6-5 freshman out of Charlotte.

“We were really close,” she said. “We always played against each other growing up.”

Strong laughed at the notion of getting into any pre-game trash talk but she made it clear that any pleasantries will have to wait until after the final buzzer sounds.

“We're not really friends on the court,” she said.

When UConn eventually gets around to planning Strong’s real homecoming game in a few years, they can ideally get it closer to her home. Had this game been held at Chapel Hill, her friends and family would’ve only needed to travel 30 or so minutes from Durham down Tobacco Road — an hour closer than the journey to Friday’s game.

Instead, UConn and UNC will face-off in Greensboro to complete a two-game series that isn’t quite a home-and-home but isn’t held in two truly neutral venues, either. When the Huskies initially approached the Tar Heels about playing each other, they wanted a one-off at Mohegan Sun Arena as part of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase.

Yet UNC coach Courtney Banghart, a native of New Hampshire, knew that’d result in a partisan crowd. She proposed adding a second game at Greensboro Coliseum, a “neutral site” that’s in the heart of the Tar Heels fanbase. The Huskies agreed, so they’ll head there on Friday instead of Carmichael Arena, UNC’s true home court.

Strong isn’t sure she’s ever been to the Coliseum, a 22,000-seat venue best known as a regular host of the ACC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments.

“I don't think I've been to it,” she said. “Maybe — I probably have. I just don't really know the name.”

Ultimately, it’s still a chance for Strong to go back to North Carolina. To her — even after spending 10 years in Spain — that’s home.

“Definitely my friends because I've been [friends with them] as long as I’ve lived [in North Carolina],” Strong said when asked what makes the state home. “My grandparents living there too also helps out.”

Best of social media

Important content:

A look back:

Quite a sight:

The Daily Newsletter for Intellectually Curious Readers

If you're frustrated by one-sided reporting, our 5-minute newsletter is the missing piece. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you comprehensive, unbiased news—free from political agendas. Stay informed with factual coverage on the topics that matter.

Reply

or to participate.