A former standout on the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team is returning to Storrs, this time on the sidelines. UConn and head coach Geno Auriemma announced on Monday that Nykesha Sales, a highly decorated player in UConn program history, has joined the Huskies as an assistant coach.

Career Highlights

Sales, who is from Bloomfield, helped lead UConn to its first NCAA women’s basketball national championship in 1995. During her four seasons with the Huskies from 1994 to 1998, the program reached two Final Fours and captured eight BIG EAST titles. She finished her collegiate career as UConn’s all-time leading scorer with 2,178 points. She now ranks seventh on the program’s all-time scoring list and still holds the Huskies’ career steals record with 447.

Sales earned All-American honors twice and was a two-time All-BIG EAST First Team selection. Sales was named BIG EAST Player of the Year in 1998, Defensive Player of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and Freshman of the Year in 1995. After graduating from UConn in 1998, Sales spent nine seasons in the WNBA with the Orlando Miracle/Connecticut Sun franchise.

She also played professionally in Europe from 2005 to 2013. Sales began her coaching career as an assistant at the University of Central Florida, where she coached from 2016 to 2022. She most recently spent four seasons as an assistant coach at Georgia, helping the team reach the NCAA Tournament twice.

Original reporting: NBC Connecticut — read the source article.