Before Breanna Stewart was making All-Star Games, winning MVPs, and leading the WNBA in scoring, Stewart was winning every award at the NCAA level. The two-time WNBA Finals MVP played four seasons at UConn before her time in the pros, establishing a strong Husky legacy.
As Team USA women's basketball attempts to win an eighth straight gold, look back at Stewart's time with UConn. Here are five college facts you may not know about Stewart:
- Stewart only lost five games in her four years of college basketball, which featured two undefeated seasons. Stewart accumulated a 151-5 collegiate record, winning four consecutive Division I championships from 2013 until 2016 to become the first four-time national champion in NCAA history alongside two of her teammates.
- Stewart won the Women's Final Four Most Outstanding Player in every year she played college basketball. She is the first and only player to win the award four times and the first freshman to win the award since 1987.
- Stewart is a three-time recipient of both the Naismith College Player of the Year and AP College Player of the Year, winning the awards in all but her freshman season. When Stewart won the AP Player of the Year in 2014, it was only the third time in history the accolade went to a sophomore. Stewart also is the first three-time AP Player of the Year winner.
- Despite being a four-time NCAA tournament champion, Stewart only won three tournament conference championships, losing to Notre Dame and Team USA teammate Jewell Loyd in the Big East championship in her freshman campaign. After that season, UConn joined the American Athletic Conference, and the Huskies would win three straight tournament championships. Stewart would also win conference player of the year all three of those seasons, becoming the fifth Husky to be selected as the conference player of the year multiple times.
- Stewart signed her letter of intent to play at UConn on the hood of a car. While most athletes elect to sign this legally binding contract in a pressroom full of reporters surrounded by their friends and family, Stewart was eager to become a Husky. To avoid media attention, she signed her letter of intent on the hood of a Honda vehicle outside a Syracuse, New York, hospital where both her parents worked.