Connecticut Sun notes: UConn star Aaliyah Edwards gets preseason homecoming vs. Toronto Tempo

“My mindset is just gonna be playing for the Connecticut Sun and having my teammates’ back, but the team has already poured into me. They’re super happy for me,” Edwards said. “Every time I play at home it’s with my national team, so it’s gonna be a little weird, but I’m excited.”

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Training camp standouts

Former UCLA point guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, the Sun’s 2026 second-round draft pick, will be one to watch against the Tempo after her impressive start to training camp. Nearly every player and coach has identified the rookie as one of the biggest surprises so far with how quickly she’s adjusted to her role as the team’s floor general despite her inexperience.

“It’s already hard coming in as a rookie on a new team, new environment, new league, but when you have to come in and play point guard, you have to get (veterans) in spots,” second-year guard Saniya Rivers said. “You’ve gotta have a lot of confidence. You’ve gotta have a lot of courage. You’ve gotta have some balls to do that, and she came in with all of that and just shocked me.”

Coach Rachid Meziane was also surprised by how smoothly first-round pick Gianna Kneepkens transitioned to the professional level. He said he had questions coming in about how the former UCLA guard would handle the pace and physicality of the WNBA, but he’s been impressed by her high IQ on the court.

“She’s not a super-fast player, but because she’s smart … she can take some advantage of the team system and also bring what she can bring,” Meziane said. “She’s a good passer and she facilitates our offense a lot of times. Defensively, her footwork and positioning, she compensates for a lot of her lack of physicality with her intelligence.”

Beyond the new draftees, former Harvard star Harmoni Turner is making a strong impression with her energy and competitive fire. Turner was selected in the third round of the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Las Vegas Aces but got waived during camp, and she spent the offseason developing her game overseas playing for Landerneau in France’s Ligue Feminine.

Turner may not make the final 12-player roster, but she seems like a perfect candidate for one of Connecticut’s developmental spots. Under the new collective bargaining agreement, teams can sign up to two development players — players with less than three years of experience who can appear in up to 12 games and do not count against a team’s salary cap.

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Learning experience

The Sun’s first preseason game comes a week and a half into training camp and provides a crucial opportunity for the coaching staff to evaluate its overwhelmingly young roster in live action against other pros rather than practice players. Only three of the team’s 15 active players have more than four years of experience in the WNBA, and six are rookies.

“It’s just gonna be how quickly we can adapt to the pace of the game, how physical it is. Everyone always talks about that, but I’m excited to see how that plays out in a game,” Leger-Walker said. “I’m obviously still learning, still learning how to play with a lot of these players but just learning to play at this level, so I’m just going in hoping I can be confident and take what’s there for me but also understand that I’m going to make mistakes and just learning from that as quick as I can.”

Connecticut is still in the process of implementing its offensive system, and everyone in the building expects there will be some ugly moments as they work through the growing pains for the first time. But the team is building its identity around defense, so Wednesday will be a test of players’ effort and intensity more than anything else.

“I just want to see how we’re going to respond,” All-Star center Brittney Griner said. “If we get up, are we gonna keep that lead, or are we gonna let them come back? If they get up on us, how are we gonna respond to it? You get to see everybody’s real character out there. When you get hit in the face with adversity, that’s when you really see the real player.”

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