There’s irony in the fact Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne — who walked away from a scholarship at powerhouse Connecticut and once put basketball in her past — is now hailed by some as the sport’s future. Watching her put together an all-time season, and doing it with a big smile, it’s easy to see why.
The Wilmington, Del., native left the blueblood Huskies to help build her local Blue Hens — think a lady Larry Bird. She led the U.S. to World University Games gold this summer and this week led 5-0 Delaware to the first Top-25 ranking in school history.
After a break from the game, she has not only rediscovered her love for it, but may someday redefine it. She rivals Baylor’s Brittney Griner, but has a less athletic, more complete game. Some call her the best prospect since Candace Parker.
“[We were] playing against the best player in the country,’’ Princeton coach Courtney Banghart said after Delaware’s 81-70 victory Thursday night at Jadwin Gym. Delle Donne is the nation’s top scorer, but the past week underscored how complete her game is and how deep her drive is, a perfectionist for whom good isn’t good enough; only great will do.
Delle Donne is blessed with a point guard’s game and a 6-foot-5 center’s frame, the former from longtime trainer John Noonan, the latter from 6-foot-2 mother Joan and 6-foot-6 father Ernest, who played at Columbia.
The junior forward is averaging an NCAA-best 30.6 points, 10.8 rebounds and three blocks. She has been likened to LeBron James since making the all-state team at Ursuline (Del.) Academy as an eighth-grader. And after beating Villanova’s double and triple-teams, Wildcats coach Harry Perretta gushed, “She’s like Larry Bird.”
“Definitely being compared to big names like that is an accomplishment. It definitely means a lot to me,’’ said Delle Donne, who says building a winner 20 miles from home means far more.
The Blue Hens haven’t wilted in the spotlight. Playing at undefeated Princeton, which had beaten Delaware the past two years, they ran to a 14-0 lead, Delle Donne pacing the win with 32 points, nine boards, five blocks and a Bird-like no-look pass. She even shot 13-of-19, bouncing back from a disappointing 11-of-26 vs. St. Bonaventure.
Naturally, that bounceback wasn’t luck but work, having taken shot after shot from behind the backboard following practice, trying to get the ball exactly a foot over the backboard and reach a 45-degree angle to get more arc.
“My teammates all laugh at my shot,’’ she said, but nobody’s laughing at the results.
“Elena has her own scientology on her shot,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said. “Someday, [she’ll] make a lot of money off a book. When you have somebody like Elena, you get her as many touches as you can get her. The only thing I say to her is if she doesn’t shoot, I’ll sit her down.’’
Delle Donne sat herself down, stepping away from basketball first in high school and again in June 2008 when she dropped out of summer school at UConn after just two days in Storrs.
But unlike Bird, who was left powerhouse Indiana and took tiny Indiana State to the 1979 NCAA final, it wasn’t the size of the school, but the distance from her sister, Lizzy.
“My family means everything to me,” said Delle Donne, majoring in early childhood education with a focus in special education. “For me to be happy I needed to be around my family and Delaware was the perfect school for that. It took going to UConn to figure that out … Lizzy is a huge part of that.’’
Like her mom, Elena wants to work with kids with special needs — perhaps needs like Lizzy’s.
Elizabeth Delle Donne, who suffers from autism and cerebral palsy, is blind, deaf and has had more than 30 operations. Lizzy has a full-time caregiver, spending much of her time in bed and some at the Mary Campbell Center, a local home for the disabled Elena frequents on her weekly trips home.
“She doesn’t speak, she can’t see,” Elena said. “Lizzy doesn’t know I’m a basketball player, but she knows when I’m there. When I kiss her, give her a hug, it makes me happy to see her get this huge smile.
“It was more for me than Lizzy, because she impacts my life far more than I impact hers.’’
Perhaps, but Delle Donne has the ability to make an impact with nearly everything she does. She averaged team-highs of 15.7 points and 8.5 rebounds for the U.S. this summer, and Team USA coach Bill Fennelly said she could make an Olympic team, setting another bar for her to reach.
“I always knew I was able to play at that level, but lot of people weren’t sure because I play at Delaware and they say we don’t play against the best in the country,’’ Delle Donne said. “That was a statement of being the caliber I was playing with on the U.S. team. Playing with that type of player raises everybody’s game. We were all playing at a different speed, a different pace. It’s helped me.
“Wearing that USA uniform, there isn’t a word to describe that feeling. It makes me think about the next Olympics in 2016 and maybe I can make that team.’’
And even if she has one eye on Rio de Janiero, chances are she’ll keep another on her home, where her heart is.