STORRS — Kelis Fisher came to UConn with the family nickname, “Big Fish,” but she found she had chosen to swim in a very big pond.

“Last year, it was like a hard time, but UConn is not easy,” Fisher said last week. “I expected it to be hard. This year it could be even harder, so just keep taking the challenge on.”

She was, and is still up for it. Fisher, a fast, animated 5-foot-9 point guard from Baltimore, came in as a top 25 recruit, a Jordan Brand All-American after her time at IMG Academy. She was the Big East’s preseason freshman of the year.

But on a stacked UConn team, coming off the 2025 national championship, destined to win its first 38 games, Fisher spent most of the year hyping her new teammates from the bench, averaging 5.7 minutes, 2.6 points in 28 games played. In her late-game appearances,  she showed some flashes of the things that got her to UConn, making nine steals, 16 assists. In the NCAA Tournament, she played five minutes in the first-round blowout of Texas-San Antonio, but did not get on the court in the subsequent games.

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Most of what Fisher took from her first season in Storrs was the learning experience, and she said she never had a doubt about staying for year two.

“The challenge wasn’t even not playing,” Fisher said. “It was the mental part, the physical part, going in the weight room every day. Some days we have bad days at practice, just being able to take that challenge on and just keep growing. The mental part is a big part of the game, Coach yells at you, how are you going to respond and come back? Just got to continue to work. As the season went on and I looked back, I’d say I should have done this more or this more,’ but in that time I think I got better.”

KK Arnold handled most of the point guard duties for the Huskies last season, with Azzi Fudd in the backcourt beside her and Kayleigh Heckel coming off the bench. Fudd is now in the WNBA as the No.1 overall pick, Arnold and Ashlynn Shade are seniors, Heckel a junior, and newcomers from overseas Jovana Popovic and Marine Dursus will be competing for backcourt time. Fisher is working ever harder for her playing time.

“It’s going to be a long process, it was a hard process,” she said, “but getting through it, developing, nothing (last year)  was a waste. Everything happens for a reason, to keep getting better as a person, maturing, growing up. I came in here with a mindset of, it’s going to be hard, nothing is going to be easy. That was in my head.”

“I learned a lot from some players that left, people like Azzi, I’ve still got KK on my side.”

Fudd, in her fifth year in the program, offered encouragement when Fisher would make the inevitable rookie mistakes. “Azzi she taught me a lot,” Fisher said. “Just playing my game. ‘Mistakes are going to happen, there’s not one person in the world that doesn’t make mistakes. Learn from them, keep improving.’ Don’t let let the mistakes just close me off from the team.”

Fisher’s enthusiasm never seemed to be dampened. In one funny practice sequence caught on video, coach Geno Auriemma “guarded” Fisher one-on-one and, despite holding a bottled water in one hand, prevented her from scoring. Then he went on offense, flung the ball over his head and in off the glass. Former assistant coach Jamelle Ellliott, who left the program in early June, also from the Baltimore/D.C. area, took a certain interest. “She’d be getting on me, yell at me,” Fisher said, “then at the end of the day she’d come over and give me a hug.”

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To keep her mind off her lack of in-game experiences, Fisher was in the gym practicing, shooting more. She has ramped up her gym time still more this summer. Her stamina, her pull-up jumper and her confidence in her game are all on the upswing, she says.

“It’s pretty different this year,” Fisher said. “Staying here this summer and working out, improving every day, getting better.”

As a sophomore, Fisher is helping the newcomers get acclimated, hoping to make their first-year experiences easier than her own, but as always, finding a niche in a UConn pond so teeming with talent with be tough.

“Competition, going against other great players, great teams, that’s what drive us in practice every day,” she said. “Everybody’s got to wait their turn. I definitely had to go through that process. Getting in gym helped me, take my mind off that. We have a great team, a lot of great players.”

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