The kind that Meesseman knew she would be positioning herself for if she embraced change. “We love that she has the championship experience with Washington and she knows it’s not easy. “I think that’s a positive,” Wauters says. Wauters says she thinks that Meesseman can play better as the season goes along. “It’s about doing whatever I can to make this team better, doing all the things that your team needs you to do.” “It’s what I expect from myself,” Meesseman said. But it’s not just the kind of versatility that the Sky expected from her. It’s the quintessential testament to what Meesseman can do. She also grabbed a career-high 7 steals, a game in which she also notched 17 points, 7 rebounds and hit 3 three-pointers. On May 14, she collected the 500th assist of her WNBA career. Her averages (through eight games) of 10.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.9 steals show her versatility and value to the Sky, who are trying to become the first WNBA team to become repeat champions since the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 20.

Meesseman is already a fixture in the Sky’s starting lineup, starting every game in the early part of the season and ranking among the team leaders in minutes played. He couldn’t know that nine years later she would be the centerpiece of his team’s effort to defend a WNBA championship. Wade, for whom Meesseman was the first player he ever scouted back in France, said he knew from the moment he saw her that he wanted her on his team. Mystics coach Mike Thibault, who drafted Meesseman as a 19-year-old back in 2013, called her “one of the best players in the world.” Ask those who know her and her game well and they will tell you that one of the WNBA’s most understated talents is actually one of the most gifted players on the planet. And she’s doing it without a lot of fanfare or hype. “But I think it only helps her.”Ĭomfortable or not, Meesseman is doing what she has done for the past eight years: filling the stat sheet. “Emma is out of her comfort zone, and she is having to come out of her shell,” Wauters says.

She said she thinks it’s been “challenging” for Meesseman to settle into a new city and a new team. Candace Parker, forward/center (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Advertisement Allie Quigley, guard (Chris Sweda /. Wade has called Meesseman’s transition “effortless.”īut Wauters has seen her friend out of her comfort zone and knows different. Portraits of the Chicago Sky's 2021 roster, featuring two-time MVP Candace Parker. Sky assistant coach Ann Wauters is a long-time teammate of Meesseman on the Belgian national team, and Belgian national team teammate Julie Allemand is also on the Sky roster. Sky head coach James Wade was an assistant coach on that team. Meesseman, the 2019 WNBA Finals MVP, played in Russia with Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley for UMMC Ekaterinburg. But let’s be real: Meesseman’s new start came with the knowledge that she was surrounding herself with old friends. It was one of the biggest free-agent moves of the 2022 offseason. Meesseman made the leap last winter when she chose to move from her comfort zone in Washington, where she spent seven seasons and won a title with the Mystics, to join the defending champion Chicago Sky. “But it came to the point where I needed to change something and grow as a person,” says the 29-year-old Belgian. Get your copy here.Įmma Meesseman admits it right from the jump. The Bruins' Natalie Nakase is an assistant with the Aces and Nikki Blue assists Nygaard with the Mercury, USC's Ebony Hoffman is on the bench in Seattle, and Washington State's Shelley Patterson is an assistant with the Washington Mystics.This story appears in the second edition of WSLAM 2. In addition to the Pac-12's playoff players, Conference alumnae are head coaches of two of the league's postseason participants in Stanford's Vanessa Nygaard (Phoenix) and UCLA's Noelle Quinn (Seattle). When the 2022 regular season began in May, there were 20 Pac-12 alumnae across 10 of the WNBA's 12 franchises.Īmong Conference members, OREGON leads all programs with three players on Playoffs rosters, followed by UCLA and WASHINGTON with two, and ARIZONA, ARIZONA STATE and CALIFORNIA each with one. 17, Pac-12 women's basketball will be represented by 10 former standouts from six Conference schools on six of the eight teams in the postseason. SAN FRANCISCO - With the 2022 WNBA Playoffs officially tipping off on Wednesday, Aug.

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