Rachel Banham returns to her first WNBA home in Connecticut
Rachel Banham has signed a two-year deal with the Connecticut Sun, marking a return for the Minnesota basketball great to the team that drafted her fourth overall in 2016.
“We are excited to welcome Rachel back to Connecticut,” General Manager Darius Taylor said in a releaes. “Her experience, sharp-shooting and versatility provides depth to our backcourt. She will be a tremendous fit with our team and organization.”
Banham, 30, spent 2016 to 2019 with Connecticut before returning home to Minnesota in a trade with the Lynx in 2020. The former University of Minnesota Gophers All-American averaged 6.4 points in 115 games with the Lynx.
Banham has spent the past two years working as an assistant with the Gophers women's basketball team. She was promoted to assistant coach this year under new head coach Dawn Plitzuweit, having started with the program in 2022 as the director of quality control.
It's unclear at this point if she will continue to work with the Gophers. However, there is no crossover between the college basketball season and the start of WNBA training camps on April 28, followed by the season opener on May 14.
Banham left the University of Minnesota as the schools' all-time leading scorer with 3,093 points, which at the time ranked No. 1 in Big Ten history and sixth in NCAA history.
She now ranks third in conference history behind Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell (3,402) and Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark (3,424 and counting).
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Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.