UConn assistant Morgan Valley had heard the name dozens of times before she finally saw it in the transfer portal early last spring: Lou Lopez Sénéchal.
For a few years by that point, Lopez Sénéchal had been tearing up the MAAC at Fairfield, just an hour and a half drive from Storrs, Conn., and coaches across the league — including one of Valley’s best friends, Iona coach Billi Chambers — had lamented the challenges of stopping the 6-foot-1 guard. As a senior, in three meetings against Iona, Lopez Sénéchal had averaged 17 points on 53 percent shooting.
“She had literally been talking about Lou for the past four years,” Valley said, “specifically how good she was.”
Valley pulled up some clips on Synergy and then full games of Lopez Sénéchal’s play. She called up Fairfield coach Joe Frager, who had known UConn coach Geno Auriemma for more than two decades and understood the demands of the Huskies’ program. She asked his opinion on Lopez Sénéchal’s fit. He quite bluntly replied, yes, Lopez Sénéchal would be more than fine at UConn.
At this point, the background work was done. Lopez Sénéchal had passed the eye test, the former coach test and the opposing coach test. Now, it was time to present all of this to Auriemma to see if he also thought Lopez…
