Evina Westbrook will be transferring to UConn's women's basketball team, she announced Friday on Twitter. A 6-foot guard, Westbrook played two seasons for Tennessee and caused a stir after the Lady Vols' NCAA tournament loss to UCLA on March 23 when she said "steps need to be taken" with the coaching staff. Tennessee coach Holly Warlick was fired March 27, and then Westbrook entered the transfer portal on April 5. The Vols officially announced she was transferring on April 16. Westbrook, a native of Salem, Oregon, was the No. 2 overall recruit by ESPN HoopGurlz in the prep senior class of 2017, behind current UConn player Megan Walker, with whom she'll now be teammates. Westbrook will have two seasons of eligibility left but will have to sit out the 2019-20 season unless she obtains a transfer waiver from the NCAA. As a longtime rival of Tennessee, UConn was an intriguing choice for Westbrook. The schools met 22 times, including six times in the Women's Final Four, before their series was ended by former coach Pat Summitt in 2007. The Huskies and Lady Vols will resume their series this coming season with a game Jan. 23, 2020, at UConn. The following season, they will meet at Tennessee, which is now under the direction of coach Kellie Harper. Westbrook averaged 14.9 points and 5.3 assists this season for the Lady Vols. She averaged 8.4 points and 4.3 assists as a freshman, when she was named to the SEC all-freshman team. She's the second Tennessee player to transfer since the end of the season; freshman forward Mimi Collins is also leaving the Lady Vols. The Huskies, who lost to Notre Dame in the national semifinals, added another transfer last week in 6-1 forward Evelyn Adebayo from Murray State. As a graduate student, she is eligible to play this coming season. UConn also brings in two freshmen, Aubrey Griffin and Ania Makurat, for next season.<doc-sep>While Westbrook was No. 2 in her recruiting class, Megan Walker was widely regarded as the top recruit. Walker averaged 12.1 in her first season as a starter for the Huskies this year. But the rest of the 2017 recruiting class didn’t pan out for UConn the way it was expected to. Andra Espinoza-Hunter transferred after the fall semester of her freshman season and was eligible to play last year at Mississippi State. Lexi Gordon announced her decision to transfer during the middle of this past season, lading at Texas Tech. Mikayla Coombs, who declared after the 2018-19 season she would transfer, announced earlier this week she would head to Georgia.<doc-sep>The Telegraph Two of the surprise packages of this clay-court season have been British – initially Dan Evans, who made a deep run in Monte Carlo, and more lately Cameron Norrie, who played his second final in three weeks on Sunday. Unfortunately, Norrie wasn’t able to land a maiden ATP title in Lyon. But then he was up against Stefanos Tsitsipas, who has been the dominant force of 2021 outside the slams, and now stands at No 1 in the table of most rankings points gained since January 1. Nevertheless, it had been a hugely creditable effort for Norrie to go this far, especially when you consider that he took out top seed Dominic Thiem on Thursday, and then trounced big-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov in Saturday’s semi-final, losing only two games in the process. Norrie has come to clay late in his career, but it feels like this is developing into his favourite surface. He has one of the heaviest left-handed forehands in the game, loaded with top-spin, and uses it like a miniature version of Rafael Nadal. The result has been a tally of 14 wins and only four losses since he began his European clay-court swing in Barcelona. So while the French Open, which starts next Sunday, has traditionally been a graveyard of British hopes, there are reasons to hope that this year’s event could deliver some more positive results. Norrie’s previous final in Estoril had been a nervewracking affair which he eventually lost on a deciding-set tie-break to the more experienced Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Sunday was more straightforward for Tsitsipas, who needed only 69 minutes to hammer home a 6-3, 6-3 victory. It was Tsitsipas’ second title of the clay-court sequence, after he won Monte Carlo in mid-April, taking out Evans in the semi-final along the way. He has become a serious contender to upset the establishment – specifically Nadal and Novak Djokovic – at Roland Garros over the next few weeks. “I felt in good shape from the beginning of the tournament,” said Tsitsipas afterwards. “I am proud of today’s match, I knew it would be a difficult one against Cameron, who has been showing great tennis this week. He has been winning against good players and showing what the left hand can do on clay. “It was not an easy match today. I had to handle the nerves and I am proud of my performance and the way I stayed focused towards my goal.” On this year’s results, meanwhile, both Evans and Norrie stand among the world’s 20 most successful men. Evans is at No 16 and Norrie No 14. The next challenge for them both is to convert that ATP Tour form into a deep run at a major.<doc-sep>
After losing all but one member of its once-famed 2017 recruiting class, UConn women’s basketball now has the top two players from the class on its roster. Former No. 2 prospect Evina Westbrook announced her commitment from the Huskies, coming in as a transfer from former arch-rival Tennessee. Listed at 6-foot, Westbrook started all 64 games in her career with the Lady Vols but made her decision to transfer after Tennessee fired head coach Holly Warlick. This past season, Westbrook finished with 14.9 points and 5.3 assists per game — both team highs. The Salem, Oregon native will need to sit for a year before having two seasons of eligibility left remaining barring a waiver from the NCAA. While recent UConn transfers Batouly Camara and Azura Stevens both had to sit, the fact that the NCAA is becoming more lenient in giving out waivers recently and the fact that Westbrook is coming from a school where the coach was fired should help her case. According to A Dime Back’s Russ Steinberg, UConn is “confident” that Westbrook will get the waiver. If Westbrook does get the waiver, she will be the leading candidate to slide into the starting lineup along with Crystal Dangerfield, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Megan Walker and Christyn Williams. Along with the recent commitments of Polish guard Ania Makurat and Murray State grad transfer Evelyn Adebayo, the immediate addition of Westbrook would put UConn back into the conversation as the best team in the nation. Even if Westbrook is forced to sit, she will be a strong veteran addition to the Huskies’ 2020 recruiting class that features No. 1 recruit Paige Bueckers. In this scenario, Westbrook would be eligible to enter the WNBA Draft after the 2020-21 season. Westbrook will get to see her old team twice with the Huskies. Tennessee will come to Connecticut this upcoming season before UConn makes the return trip to Knoxville in 2020-21.