WBB: Evina Westbrook looks back on her leadership as Storrs swan song looms
STORRS-As the University of Connecticut removed the University of Tennessee from one of its women’s college basketball perches, it only felt appropriate that a former Volunteer was on hand to not only witness the changing of the guard and actively partake in its makeover.
UConn’s 83-38 victory over Mercer in the opening round of Bridgeport Regional play of the 2022 NCAA Tournament on Saturday was their 28th consecutive tip-off triumph, breaking away from a tie they shared with the Lady Vols (1982-2008). It was the first leg of Evina Westbrook’s two-part postseason farewell to Storrs: the senior will be one of four (joining Dorka Juhasz, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Christyn Williams) whose game sneakers will touch Gampel Pavilion’s hallowed playing surface for the final time when the Huskies face UCF to close second round action on Monday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Westbrook is a rare player who has repped the basketball cathedrals in both Knoxville and Storrs, fulfilling the potential that followed her from Salem, OR in both stops. Though Westbrook has become more of a depth option for the Huskies (one of two players, along with Aaliyah Edwards to play all 31 games this season, though she started 15), her leadership has become paramount in a year where the hardwood goddesses threw some of the worse injury luck they had to offer in Storrs’ direction.
“Leader” became one of many titles that Westbrook has held during her collegiate career, one earned well before stars like Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and Aubrey Griffin were lost for extended periods. Westbrook herself wanted to put a new spin on it: upon her on-court arrival following a redshirt season in 2019-20, she asked her younger teammates to call her “mom”. It was a role that Westbrook seemed to have gone either way upon in terms of embracing. She was used to being a floor general through her time as a point guard at South Salem High School but countered that a class clown personality.
Based on that first request, Westbrook’s early time at the helm faced a mini-mutiny: speaking in the lead-up to the UCF game, she recalled that her teammates’ initial reaction to her maternal request was, in her own words, “What? Like no way.”
But the moniker quickly caught on and even earned a slight evolution, as she’s unofficially known as “Mama E”. In addition to on-court nurturing, Westbrook brought an aura of peace to UConn’s attempts to stay mentally afloat as they navigated their way through the most taxing stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, which helped hone her modern role.
When December case surges confined Connecticut to campus during the 2020-21 season, Westbrook and Nelson-Ododa produced a Christmas miracle by hosting a team get-together that featured visits from both Santa Claus and The Grinch (the seniors in easily detectable disguise). When Valentine’s Day rolled around, t-shirted were produced with Westbrook digitally
inserted in the players’ baby photos, cementing her status and creating perhaps one of the most unsung but mentally vital comebacks in program history.
“I don't know if we needed it…or maybe they needed it. I don't know,” Westbrook said of the ways she came through in non-basketball ways on Sunday. “It was something that just happened, just developed into what it is now.”
Westbrook’s teammates refused to replicate her humility.
“It’s not about points with E," Williams told Doug Bonjour of Hearst Connecticut last season. "She’s a great leader off the floor. She’s the 'mom' of our team. We love E to death."
“She does everything for this team," Bueckers said of Westbrook's traditional on-court talents per Dan Gardella on CT Inside. "I said that once before, and she keeps proving my point. Rebounds, assists, passing, defense, scoring, just anything we need her to do, she’s going to do it, she’s going to do it to the best of her ability."
Transformations and newfound talents defied the dreariness of COVID-related shutdowns and postponements. Some became musicians or artists. Westbrook became a mom.
