WASHINGTON – Four Final Fours. Two national championships. A 40-0 senior season.
Those are just a few highlights from Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley’s basketball careers at the University of Connecticut. The players are accustomed to competing in front of sold-out crowds on primetime national television and hanging out with Drake at the ESPY Awards.
But the first season in the WNBA for the duo hasn’t been so glamorous.
Dolson, 22, and Hartley, 21, completed their first regular season on Saturday with the Washington Mystics, who finished with a 16-18 record. For the club, that means a number 3 seed in the playoffs. For the rookies, the regular season record added up to seven more losses than they encountered during their entire UConn careers.
Under legendary coach Geno Auriemma, the Huskies tallied a remarkable 144-11 record across Dolson and Hartley’s four seasons.
“It’s really different. It’s a lot more losses than I’m used to,” Hartley said. “But it just shows how competitive this league is. There are games where you’ve beaten the team three times and you can go back and lose to them the next time.”
While Dolson joked that she doesn’t miss Coach Auriemma’s yelling, she and Hartley say they miss their UConn teammates.
“It gets a little lonely here,” Dolson said.
The first few weeks of the professional season were difficult, she said, but each woman had at least one familiar face across the locker room.“If we were awkwardly standing there, we knew we could go to each other and talk.”
Both players agree on the biggest difference between the college and professional games. It’s physical.
“Probably the biggest challenge has been the physicality. These women are bigger, stronger and smarter,” said Dolson, a 6-foot-5-inch, 214-pound center from Port Jervis, N.Y.
And for the lightning-quick Hartley, fewer of the 5-foot-8-inch guard’s drives down the lane result in trips to the free throw line.
“There are times when I’m going to the basket and I think maybe it’s a foul,” she said, “but this league is more physical and it’s not a foul in their terms. That’s been an adjustment.”
But perhaps the biggest adjustment is off the court. Dolson described the whirlwind transition from the familiar confines of Storrs, Conn., to the nation’s capital as “overwhelming.”
Less than one week after winning the national championship in Nashville, Tenn., on April 8, Dolson and Hartley were selected as the sixth and seventh picks, respectively, in the 2014 WNBA Draft. About two weeks after that, the teammates reported to Washington for training camp and suited up for their first preseason game May 6.
They were, however, able to make it back to UConn for graduation on May 11. The ceremony fittingly took place at Gampel Pavilion, the arena where so many of those 144 wins occurred.
For any college senior – even the few going on to become professional athletes – graduation brings more freedom and responsibility. Dolson said adjusting to a schedule that no longer includes classes, homework and frequent team activities is a challenge.
“In college you go everywhere with the team,” she said. “Now it’s a lot more on your own. You have a lot more downtime. You’re a professional and you’re supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time. But up until that time you can do what you want.”
For Dolson, some of that free time is filled by hanging out with Hartley, who lives right across the street from her in Washington. Going through a rookie season together has eased the transition for both young women.
“Being on a team with another rookie in general is great,” Dolson said, “but to play with a rookie I just played with for four years and have known for a while just made it 10 times better and more enjoyable for the both of us.”
Hartley was originally drafted to the Seattle Storm, which quickly traded her to the Mystics as part of a three-player transaction. The North Babylon, N.Y., native was excited to land closer to home and with her former teammate.
“I knew that playing with Stefanie, she could kind of help me along the way and I’d be able to help her as well,” Hartley said. “You have someone that you’re able to talk to about stuff … [who knows] what to say to push you.”
Despite the challenging transition, both players have made an immediate impact in the league. Hartley has earned a starting role and averages 9.7 points and 3.2 assists per game. Dolson averages 6.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in 18.4 minutes off the bench.
They’ll get their first taste of professional postseason play Thursday when the Mystics take on the number 2 seed Indiana Fever.
While it will be hard – or even impossible – to rival the incredible experiences they had at UConn, Dolson and Hartley are living out their dreams.
“It’s what you dream for, going to the WNBA, going to Connecticut, winning there and now coming here,” Dolson said, “there are a lot of great things happening. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Hartley said playing against women she grew up idolizing – especially former UConn stars like Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird – has been the most rewarding part of playing in the pros.
“You’ve watched them play and you’ve seen how great they are. And now you’re here and you’re dreams have come true and you’re playing against them.”