{"id":777990,"date":"2026-07-04T13:39:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/777990\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:39:13","slug":"freshman-olivia-vukosa-is-confident-and-ready-for-the-season-to-start-at-uconn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/777990\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Olivia Vukosa is confident and ready for the season to start at UConn"},"content":{"rendered":"

STORRS \u2013 When Olivia Vukosa<\/a> walked into the Werth Family Center<\/a> for practice every day this summer, she would look up at the faces of the UConn women\u2019s basketball All-Americans and national champions on the wall.<\/p>\n

Though she is only a freshman for the UConn women\u2019s basketball team, she was not intimidated by the array of superstars staring down at her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be up there one day. I know I\u2019ll be up there,\u201d she said Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019m just working hard toward that goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vukosa, a 6-4 center from Christ the King<\/a> in Queens, N.Y. who was the national Gatorade Player of the Year, said Wednesday that she is ready for the season to begin. The UConn women\u2019s basketball team has been participating in its summer workout sessions and Vukosa said although the play has been more intense than high school, she feels like she is adjusting \u201cpretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, it\u2019s been really good,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m having a lot of fun. I knew it was going to be tough so I had that mindset coming in. It\u2019s definitely hard but fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vukosa also said she has no problem following in the footsteps of two Christ the King alums who went to UConn \u2013 Sue Bird and Tina Charles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a little pressure,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m mostly trying to make a name for myself as a kid from Christ the King who went to UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ranked No. 3 in the Class of 2026, Vukosa averaged 17.8 points, 18.1 rebounds, 5.5 assists, and 4.4 blocks per game her senior year and led her team to the New York Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Class AA state championship game, where the Royals lost to St. Mary\u2019s (Manhasset, N.Y.). They did win the CHSAA Tier 1 New York City tournament title.<\/p>\n

After that, she had a whirlwind schedule, playing in the McDonald\u2019s All-American game<\/a> in Phoenix at the Final Four, then the Nike Hoop Summit in Oregon followed by the Jordan Brand Classic in California and the Chris Brickley Invitational in Chicago in early May.<\/p>\n

After all that, she took two weeks off from basketball for a well-deserved break.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent time with friends and family,\u201d she said. \u201cWorked out here and there but not too much basketball. Just trying to be a kid for a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what I needed especially coming into the first five weeks of college basketball all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vukosa was happy to find herself as a roommate of junior guard Kayleigh Heckel, a friend and fellow New Yorker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were saying we always wanted to play with each other and it ended up happening and we ended up being roommates,\u201d Vukosa said. \u201cSo a full circle moment for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the court, she said she\u2019s figuring out where she belongs with the other post players, Jana El Alfy and Gandy Malou-Mamel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just trying everything out right now and seeing what fits best with Jana and Gandy,\u201d Vukosa said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of us, we\u2019re trying to figure out where we\u2019re all going to maneuver on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said El Alfy has been a mentor to her, \u201cespecially since we play the same position. She has all the answers for me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vukosa wants to study biological sciences, on a pre-med track. She would like to be a pediatrician some day.<\/p>\n

She also didn\u2019t shy away from addressing the challenge of balancing a difficult academic program with competing in a high-level college basketball program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m ready to take on whatever it is,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said that UConn coach Geno Auriemma has a similar approach as her coach at Christ the King, Bob Mackey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel like I\u2019ve left Christ the King, it feels very similar,\u201d she said. \u201cThey were always hard on us at Christ the King and they\u2019re hard on us here and that\u2019s what I need as a player and that\u2019s why I ended up coming here \u2013 to be pushed all the time. To my limits. Past my limits. I think these five weeks has helped me a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one thing she needs to work on, she said, is her stamina but again, she was confident that part of her game would get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I\u2019ve been trying to improve on since I\u2019ve been here,\u201d she said. \u201cAuriemma)\u2019s always telling me to push and to run and to keep moving on the court and I think I\u2019ve gotten better than that in this short time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI approach the game with confidence and I always want to make a statement on the court, whether it\u2019s offensively or defensively or just being a vocal leader. Those are things I\u2019m working on this whole summer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STORRS \u2013 When Olivia Vukosa walked into the Werth Family Center for practice every day this summer, she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,926,925,927,2680,2341,2679,231,772,1544,94858,66,922,6107],"class_list":["post-777990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-connecticut-news","tag-ct-news","tag-ct-sports","tag-hartford-courant","tag-huskies","tag-local-news","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab","tag-olivia-vukosa","tag-sports","tag-uconn","tag-uconn-womens-basketball"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116861990597263460","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}