Coming off a season in which the Connecticut Sun recorded the fewest regular-season losses in franchise history, they understand the enormous expectations surrounding the team.
So, it is really championship or bust this season for the Sun?
That sounds accurate to many members of the Sun, who aren’t shying away from the lofty goal of trying to bring a WNBA title back to Connecticut for the first time.
“I would say obviously our goal is to hang a banner in Mohegan,” Sun guard Natisha Hiedeman said during team’s media day last week. “That’s been our number one goal forever. So I would say, that’s our only expectation. We’ve always been hearing like, ‘Oh, we were so close. Oh, we were so close.’ And we don’t want that to be another season where ‘Oh, we were so close.’ We really want to finish the job all the way until the end.”
Expectations have certainly shifted dramatically for the Sun in recent years due to sustained success. Connecticut has suffered only one losing season since 2017, and it came in a shortened campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, Connecticut came within one win of taking home the WNBA title and after obtaining the league’s best regular-season record at 26-6 last year, the Sun lost in the semifinals to the Chicago Sky, who would go on to claim the crown.
The Sun look to use those experiences to their benefit, and have a strong core, headlined by reigning league MVP Jonquel Jones along with All-Stars Brionna Jones, Alyssa Thomas and Courtney Williams.
“I’ve definitely felt the changes in expectations since my first season here,” said Brionna Jones, who won the league’s Most Improved Player award last season in her fifth year with the Sun. “Early on it was like, we want to get to the playoffs, and then we get to the finals it didn’t turn out the way we want. So then we come out the next season and we’re trying to be better and then COVID hit so it’s been a lot of ups and downs.
“But I think this season we’re going to have all our pieces that we want together and I think for us it’s like we all want to fight for that championship. I think that’s our goal this season, for sure.”
With the Sun having been on the precipice of a championship recently, Jonquel Jones believes the little things, like spacing the floor on offense and getting back on defense, could push Connecticut over the top. And if those little things get taken care of, Jonquel Jones and the rest of the Sun can see themselves hoisting up a trophy come August.
“We have been close,” Jonquel Jones said. “We were a quarter away. We’ve been in the semifinals a few years now. We understand that we’re a team that’s competing for a championship, and so when we focus on those little things, we can be a team that wins a championship and we think this year is the year, for sure. We believe that.”
The Sun, who opened their season with an 81-79 loss to the New York Liberty, return to action this Saturday against the Los Angeles Sparks, a game you can watch on NESN+ starting at 7 p.m. ET.
