Let's appreciate Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart

Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart led the Seattle Storm to another WNBA title on Tuesday night, further cementing themselves as two of the greatest ever to play the sport.

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 and Storrs Central.

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Top Links

From The UConn Blog and Storrs Central:

• Chasing Perfection: Fire up the Paige Bueckers hype train

• UConn women’s basketball’s schedule coming into focus; Geno taking things slow in practice

• Geno’s freshmen fueled by competitive fire

• 2021 No. 1 recruit Azzi Fudd down to UConn and UCLA; expected to commit before November signing day

• Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart are champions, again

• Report: UConn won’t play games at XL Center this season

Last week’s Weekly:

• Huskies could use a point guard by committee approach to replace Crystal Dangerfield

Elsewhere

• On the big stage, Seattle stars Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart have unblemished winning record (Associated Press)

• Breanna Stewart Is Coming For The Record Books (FiveThirtyEight)

• Ageless Sue Bird is the consummate champion (ESPN)

• Seattle’s Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird are basketball’s perfect storm (The Guardian)

• Sue Bird: The WNBA Sensation Peaking at Age 39 (Wall Street Journal)

In The News

Tiffany Hayes playing with Katie Lou Samuelson this winter

After sitting out the 2020 WNBA season, Tiffany Hayes is returning to the basketball court in Spain with a familiar face. According to her Instagram, Hayes signed with CB Avenida in Spain, joining former UConn star Katie Lou Samuelson and her sister, Karlie.

The European basketball season will begin soon with at least nine former Huskies playing abroad. Along with Hayes and Samuelson, Batouly Camara is also playing in Spain with CB Bembibre. Elsewhere, Napheesa Collier signed on with Hatay Büyükşehir Belediyespor, Megan Walker and Gabby Williams will both suit up for Sopron Basket in Hungary, Kyla Irwin is on SNP Bascats USC in Germany, Evelyn Adebayo is in Belgium with Phantoms Boom and Natalie Butler is with Pas Ioannina in Greece.

Azura Stevens will not play overseas after she underwent left knee surgery in late September and Bria Hartley is also out after tearing her ACL during the WNBA season.

Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart Appreciation

Note to readers: Instead of the standard story that you normally find in the Weekly, we’ve dedicated this space to Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart this week to highlight all of their tremendous accomplishments.

First, a list of championship won by Sue Bird (h/t @ByTimReynolds):

• 1995 Empire State Games

• 1997 New York City HS

• 1997 New York State HS

• 1998 New York City HS

• 1998 New York State HS

• 1998 High School National

• 1999 Big East Tournament

• 2000 Big East Tournament

• 2000 NCAA Tournament

• 2000 Jones Cup

• 2001 Big East Tournament

• 2002 Big East Tournament

• 2002 NCAA Tournament

• 2002 World Challenge

• 2002 Worlds

• 2004 WNBA Finals

• 2004 Olympic Gold Medal

• 2007 Russian League

• 2007 EuroLeague

• 2007 FIBA Americas

• 2008 Russian League

• 2008 EuroLeague

• 2008 Olympic Gold Medal

• 2008 FIBA Diamond Ball

• 2009 EuroLeague

• 2009 Ekaterinburg Invitational

• 2010 EuroLeague

• 2010 WNBA Finals

• 2010 Worlds

• 2012 Russian League

• 2012 Olympic Gold Medal

• 2013 Russian League

• 2014 Russian League

• 2014 Worlds

• 2016 Olympic Gold Medal

• 2018 WNBA Finals

• 2020 WNBA Finals

Now for Breanna Stewart’s accomplishments. Remember, she’s only 26 (h/t Matt Ellentuck):

• 2013 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player

• 2013 NCAA Champion

• 2014 College National Player of the Year

• 2014 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player

• 2014 NCAA Champion

• 2015 College National Player of the Year

• 2015 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player

• 2015 NCAA Champion

• 2016 College National Player of the Year

• 2016 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player

• 2016 NCAA Champion

• 2016 All-Rookie First Team

• 2016 All-Defensive Second Team

• 2016 All-WNBA Second Team

• 2016 WNBA Rookie of the Year

• 2016 Olympic Gold Medalist

• 2017 WNBA All-Star

• 2018 FIBA World Cup MVP

• 2018 All-WNBA First Team

• 2018 WNBA All-Star

• 2018 WNBA MVP

• 2018 Finals MVP

• 2018 WNBA champion

• 2019 EuroLeague regular season MVP

• 2020 WNBA All-Defensive Team

• 2020 WNBA Finals MVP

• 2020 WNBA champion

Photo Gallery

A sample of the best celebration photos from Bird, Stewart and Tuck. A full gallery will go out on The UConn Blog at 2pm.

Best of social media

Lots of Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart appreciation this week after the two helped the Seattle Storm capture the 2020 WNBA Championship:

The UConn Blog @TheUConnBlog

🐐

Gabe Ibrahim @gabe_ibrahim

Sue Bird is about to become the third player in WNBA or (M)NBA history to win championships in three different decades ('04, '10, '18, '20). The other two are Tim Duncan ('99, '03, '05, '07, '14 with the Spurs) and John Salley ('89, '90 with Detroit, 96 with Chicago, '00 with LA)

Daniel Connolly @DanielVConnolly

Just a couple champions

Breanna Stewart @breannastewart

🏆🏆

Brother From Another on Peacock TV @HolleyandSmith

.@MichaelSHolley breaks down why he appreciates the @S10Bird + @breannastewart @UConnWBB connection from this year's #WNBA Finals #WeRepSe4ttle

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Less than a year and a half after tearing her Achilles, Breanna Stewart came back with a vengeance to win her second WNBA Finals MVP 🏆 The ultimate comeback. Series averages: 28.3 PTS | 63% FG | 7.6 REB

Arielle (Ari) Chambers @ariivory

"It's been hard. I'm not gonna sugar coat it. It's been hard... you start asking [yourself] if it's worth it." - @S10Bird on coming back from injury. Happy 4 rings Sue. It was worth it.

Matt Ellentuck @mellentuck

SUE 💀💀💀

The UConn Blog @TheUConnBlog

how it started how it's going

The UConn Blog @TheUConnBlog

how it started: how it's going:

espnW @espnW

How it started: How it’s going:

History Corner

UConn runs the WNBA (but we knew this):

bschwartz @bschwartz

#WNBA stat to get me ready for tonight. Should the @seattlestorm win, that would mean that 16 of the 24 WNBA championships, or 2/3, would have at least one @UConnWBB alum on the champion roster. #BleedBlue @megangauer @herhoopstats @DT3sBun @ReneeMontgomery @RebeccaLobo

Photo credits: Mary Holt, Ned Dishman, Stephen Gosling