What Is Megan Walker Doing?

Walker To Leave Early, Turn Pro

The Story: After leading the Huskies in scoring this past season, Megan Walker announced Saturday that she will forgo her final season of eligibility and leave UConn to enter the WNBA Draft.

WHY NOW? That’s a very good question, especially considering Geno Auriemma said Friday he did not anticipate any players with eligibility remaining leaving the program. Walker, the AAC player of the year, stepped up big as a junior, leading the Huskies with 19.7 points and also contributing 8.4 rebounds over 32 games. Those numbers were significant improvements over her sophomore season, when she averaged 12.1 points and 6.7 rebounds in 36 games, and vastly better than her freshman season, when she admitted to struggling with the pace and flow in college and had 5.8 points and 3.3 rebounds in 32 games with no starts. She’s eligible to leave UConn because she will turn 22 in November.

WHAT DID SHE SAY? As Walker wrote on Twitter, “Due to the unfortunate circumstances that caused the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, it saddens me that I was not able to finish my junior season in the way that I would have liked. I am, however, ready to move on to the next phase of my life and career.”

WHAT DID GENO SAY? “Meg’s decided this is the right time for her to take advantage of this opportunity. Obviously, she had an incredible season this year and is incredibly talented. We support her 100 percent and we’re going to support her going forward. We wish her the best of luck as she begins her pro career.”

IS SHE READY? We’re about to find out. She was not the game-changing, transcendent player we’ve come to expect at UConn — though, to be fair, the Huskies haven’t really had one since Breanna Stewart graduated after the 2015-16 season. She was a reliable scorer, but was thrust into that role almost by default, with nobody else on the Huskies really willing or able to take that responsibility. She shot 47.7 percent this season, which was second among UConn’s full-time starters; for context, over the past 10 seasons, the only non-bigs who led the Huskies in field goal percentage were Moriah Jefferson and Gabby Williams, and each shot better than 57 percent in those seasons.

BOTTOM LINE: There’s no denying it’s a curious decision by Walker, who becomes the third player, after Morgan Tuck and Azura Stevens, to leave the Huskies for the WNBA with eligibility remaining. It’s fair to wonder, though, if there were other factors at play; Walker was one of four players in UConn’s 2017 recruiting class and now all four are gone, with the others having transferred earlier in their careers. (Walker also reacted to the Hartford Courant’s rather awkwardly worded tweet with the crying laughter emoji.) What will work in her favor is that, aside from the stars at Oregon and Baylor, the WNBA draft class isn’t particularly deep. She could be a late first-round pick, and even with the changes in the collective bargaining agreement that guarantee higher salaries for all players, Walker still isn’t going to be making a ton of money as a rookie so the finances aren’t some type of allure. It also means that the Huskies, despite their loaded recruiting class, are going to take a bit of a hit next season without Walker to rely upon. Whereas they were a national championship contender, well, we’ll just have to see.