A prediction of winning four national championships had been made before the top-rated recruited class had stepped on the UConn campus in the summer of 2002. The class was anointed with the acronym "WNBA" to coincide with the initials of the players' first names, and there was a strong belief that winning would come almost effortlessly at UConn. As Willnett Crockett, Nicole Wolff, Barbara Turner and Ann Strother quickly discovered, they were only fooling themselves. Classes, study halls and early morning weight training sessions, which Turner and Crockett tried to dodge as often as they could, left them wondering aloud what they had gotten themselves into.
"I think our freshman summer by far was the worst experience of my life," Crockett said. "And there were times when we just all looked at each other and were like 'what?' I think we just grew into it. I think we needed that, though, because we all became so close. We became friends that summer."
Four years later, the class has compiled an overall record of 118-16 (56-6 Big East) and 14-1 in the NCAA tournament. It has been a part of two national championships, one Big East tournament championship and two Big East regular season championships.
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"WNBA" prepares for big game
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