Excuse Breanna Stewart if she needs a second to catch her breath.

The newest member of the Seattle Storm has been going nonstop as she transitions from superstar college student-athlete to WNBA rookie.

Let’s do a quick recap of the last five weeks, shall we:

• Led UConn to an unprecedented fourth straight NCAA title and won her fourth Final Four Most Outstanding Player award, as well
• Attended the 2016 WNBA Draft, where she was selected with the first overall pick to the surprise of absolutely nobody on earth
• Selected as one of the 12 members of the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in the 2016 Games in Rio this summer
• Signed a contract with Nike
• Moved to Seattle
• Threw out the first pitch at a Seattle Mariners game
• Completed her senior thesis (school didn’t stop because she got drafted)
• Attended her first WNBA training camp
• Made her highly-anticipated preseason debut for the Storm
• Attended her graduation ceremony at UConn one week before her regular season debut

Once a husky, always a husky!! Thank you UCONN! #ClassOf2016 pic.twitter.com/PCsAvOui4A

— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) May 8, 2016

And that doesn’t even touch on the countless interviews and appearances that come with being one of the most recognizable faces and names in women’s basketball and the future of a league that is set to begin its 20th season.

The WNBA is unique in that a player is drafted and then begins her professional playing career in a matter of weeks after finishing her college playing career. The transition can be a bit of a whirlwind and a bit overwhelming at times.

But so far, Stewart has taken everything in stride, including the ultimate rarity for a basketball game in which she played: a loss. The Storm lost their preseason opener to Phoenix as Stewart finished with 11 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and a block in 28 minutes in front of her new home fans at KeyArena.

Stewart lost only five games during her entire four-year career at UConn and now joins a team coming off a season in which it went 10-24. In all likelihood, Stewart will lose more games during her rookie WNBA season than she did in her entire college career. In the Storm’s 16-year history, the best record they have posted in a season was 28-6 in 2010 when they won their last championship.

Championship – a word that has been synonymous with Stewart over the past four years and will be part of the conversation as she begins her WNBA career. Mainly:

• How long until Breanna Stewart can bring a championship to Seattle?
• The last time the Storm had back-to-back No. 1 picks, they went on to the win the championship just two years later.

Stewart’s historically great collegiate career brings incredibly high expectations to her professional career. Of course, Stewart wouldn’t have it any other way, saying that no one has higher expectations of her than she does for herself.

But are the lofty expectations being heaped upon her fair? In the big picture, sure, since No. 1 overall picks are seen as franchise saviors. But there has to be a fair amount of time given to achieve that ultimate success.

Stewart is the latest in a line of “new face of the WNBA” players that have entered the league over the past decade. While many of those players have won championships, they all took varying amounts of time depending on their circumstances, and there are some that are still on the quest for a WNBA title.

• Diana Taurasi entered the league in 2004 after her own storied career at UConn, where she won a trio of championships. She has gone on to win three titles with the Phoenix Mercury, but it took three years to break through.

• Candace Parker made history in her rookie season, becoming the only WNBA player to ever win Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player in the same season. But Candace and the Sparks have yet to make the Finals since she entered the league in 2008.

• Maya Moore had a unique set of circumstances when she entered the WNBA in 2011. She was drafted by a Lynx team that was loaded with talent, but had been ravaged by injuries the season before drafting Moore, which allowed them to fall into the lottery and score the top pick. Think of San Antonio drafting Tim Duncan and immediately pairing him up with a healthy David Robinson. Championships ensued. Replace Duncan and Robinson with Moore and Seimone Augustus (and throw in Linsday Whalen too) and you have the Lynx winning the title in Moore’s rookie season. The Lynx have made four Finals appearances and won three titles in the five years Moore has been in the WNBA.

• Brittney Griner has followed a path similar to Moore’s, joining a loaded Phoenix team that was ready to compete for championships the day she arrived. The Mercury scored the 2014 title in Griner’s second year, while fellow “Three To See” pick Elena Delle Donne made her first Finals appearance in 2014 before winning MVP honors last season.

Moore — the last No. 1 pick out of UConn — won a title in her first WNBA season. But instant success is the exception, not the rule, for hyped rookies.

The Moore and Griner scenarios don’t come along that often. The more likely route to go is joining a struggling team that needs to work its way up the standings and into the playoff picture before becoming a championship contender. It took Tamika Catchings 11 seasons to win her first WNBA title, while others are still in pursuit of theirs.

So which path lies ahead for Stewart? She joins a team that has missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons, but has a solid core of young talent – including last year’s top pick and Rookie of the Year Jewell Loyd – to go with the veteran presence of Sue Bird.

Bird and Stewart will be teammates in Seattle and in Rio this year, as both were selected for the Olympic team. The rookie left a good impression on the veteran when the Storm opened training camp last week.

Maybe it’s Bird’s path that Stewart follows in Seattle. Bird was the second of back-to-back top picks for the Storm, who along with Lauren Jackson became one of the top point guard-post player combos the league has ever seen. It was in their third year together that Bird and Jackson brought a WNBA title to Seattle. Can the Storm replicate that path with Loyd and Stewart as the new dynamic duo?

Championship expectations will not escape Stewart as she embarks on her WNBA career. A player with her pedigree is expected to win simply because that’s all she’s ever done.

So catch you’re breath, Stewie — it’s time to get to work.