Sun Tab Rizzotti as Prez

By Bob Phillips

UNCASVILLE—Jen Rizzotti is coming home. Not that she really ever left, but today the Mohegan Sun announced that the former UConn star has been named president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.

A Connecticut native, Rizzotti starred at New Fairfield High before joining Geno Auriemma and the Huskies where she first burst onto the national scene. While playing with the Huskies from 1992-1996, she became an important member of the 1995 team that finished with a spotless 35-0 record and the first national championship in the history of the storied program that now has 11.

Rizzotti currently ranks No. 24 on the all-time UConn women’s basketball career scoring list with 1,540 points, and is the third-leading player in Husky history in career assists with 637 and steals with 349. As a senior, the 5-6 sparkplug earned several national accolades, including the Associated Press Women’s College Basketball Player of the Year Award, and the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award, awarded annually to shorter-than-average players who have excelled on the court.

She went on to have a solid eight-year professional career that started with the New England Blizzard of the defunct ABL, and included two WNBA championships while playing for the Houston Comets (1999, 2000). After finishing her playing career, Rizzotti headed back home to Connecticut where she became head coach at the University of Hartford for 17 seasons. While with the Hawks, she was named the American East Coach of the Year three times (2006, 2007, 2010). Most recently, she served as head coach for George Washington University from 2016-17 through this past season. Rizzotti, who currently serves as an assistant coach for both the USA Women’s Olympic Team and the USA AmeriCup Team. In 2011, she was named USA Basketball Coach of the Year.

"I am so honored to rejoin the WNBA family in this leadership position with the Connecticut Sun," said Rizzotti. "This league employs the very best women’s basketball players in the world. But more importantly, the WNBA is an inclusive and diverse community of women that inspire, lead, and in their own words, 'provide a voice for the voiceless.' I am proud to have won two championships as a player in the WNBA and will work tirelessly to help bring a championship to the Sun franchise.

"I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize the contributions that Amber Cox made to this franchise over the past five years," Rizzotti continued. "She and [head coach and general manager] Curt Miller, have made the Connecticut Sun one of the most successful teams in the WNBA. I look forward to using this foundation and the overall culture of the Mohegan Tribe and Mohegan Sun to attract players, fans, and sponsors to be a part of our bright future."

If she were to do so, it would be the first championship in the franchise’s 22-year history. (The franchise began as the Orlando Miracle before being acquired by the Mohegan Tribe and moving to Connecticut in 2003.)

The Connecticut Sun recently announced their schedule for the upcoming 2021 season, which starts on the road against the Atlanta Dream on Friday, May 14. Led by DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and Jasmine Thomas, the Sun will play their first home game of the season on Sunday, May 16, which will mark their first return to Mohegan Sun Arena since Game 4 of the WNBA finals on Octo. 8, 2019. The WNBA played the entire 2020 season in a bubble (nicknamed “the Wubble”) in Florida.

—Staff Reports