Over the final 12 days of 2018, each day we will look back at the year that was for a WNBA team, reminiscing over some of the best moments from the past year and looking ahead to the upcoming year as well. Up next is the Connecticut Sun, who once again found regular season success in 2018, but were unable to translate it to the playoffs.

Season Recap

Record: 21-13, same record as 2017
Finish: 3rd in Eastern Conference, 4^th overall
Postseason: Eliminated in second round (following a first round bye) for the second consecutive year
Awards: Jonquel Jones, Sixth Woman of the Year; Jasmine Thomas, First Team All-Defense; Chiney Ogwumike, All-Star
Leaders: Points (Chiney Ogwumike, 14.4); Rebounds (Alyssa Thomas, 8.1); Assists (Jasmine Thomas, 4.8); Steals (Alyssa Thomas, 1.2); Blocks (Jonquel Jones, 1.2); 3-Pointers (Shekinna Stricklen, 1.7)

Key Offseason Questions

Is 2019 the year that the Sun breaks through in the postseason?

2017 was a breakthrough season for Connecticut as the Sun jumped from 14 wins and a ninth place finish to 21 wins and a top for seed in the WNBA Playoffs.

After catching the league by surprise in 2017, the 2018 Sun entered the season with expectations. But rather than taking the next step in their progression, the Sun had the exact same result – 21 regular season wins, the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, a first round bye and a second round exit in a single-game elimination round.

Will any major changes be made to the roster for 2019?

With one of the youngest rosters in the WNBA – the Sun have no players that hit age 30 yet – there remains room for development both individually and as a collective. Will another year of experience help Connecticut make a deeper playoff run? Or will head coach and general manager Curt Miller look to make any roster changes headed into the 2019 season. The Sun hold the No. 9 pick in the draft for the second straight season. Last April, they used the No. 9 selection on Lexie Brown, who played sparingly during her rookie campaign.

Best On-Court Moment

Stricklen’s Game-Winner in New York

When was the last time you saw a game-winning four-point play at the buzzer? If you’re a Sun fan, you won’t soon forget Shekinna Stricklen’s amazing shot to defeat the Liberty in New York.

With the Sun trailing 86-84, Jasmine Thomas drove the lane and forced the defense to collapse on her. She found Stricklen open in the right corner and the league’s fifth-leading 3-point shooter (43.0% at season’s end) let it fly as the defense scrambled to try to contest the shot. Stricklen was fouled on the shot, but it didn’t matter because the ball found the bottom of the net and gave the Sun the win, even before Stricklen went to the free throw line to add the cherry on top and give the Sun a two-point win, 88-86.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjvzCTFDTaV/

Chiney Ogwumike Returns to All-Star

In 2014, Chiney Ogwumike was not only the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft, she would earn her first All-Star selection and eventually be named Rookie of the Year in what looked like a perfect beginning to a long and successful career.

Those plans were derailed by a pair of season-ending and career-threatening injuries. Ogwumike missed all of 2015 after having microfracture surgery on her right knee. She returned in 2016 and was named the AP WNBA Comeback Player of the Year. But the story didn’t end with that one hurdle. Ogwumike would miss the entire 2017 season after tearing her left Achilles tendon.

After another surgery, another year of recovery and countless hours of rehabilitation work, Ogwumike once again returned to the court for the Sun in 2018. And midway through her second comeback season, she got the call from then-WNBA President Lisa Borders that she had been named an All-Star for the second time in her career.

Jasmine Thomas Named to All-Defensive Team

Jasmine Thomas has established a reputation as one of the league’s top defenders and for the second straight season was named to the WNBA’s All-Defensive First Team. She was a Second Team selection in 2016.

Best Off-Court Moment

Chiney Ogwumike Signs Deal with ESPN

While she was rehabilitating from the injuries discussed above, Chiney Ogwumike kept busy as a basketball analyst and SportsCenter co-host for broadcasts in Africa.

On May 1, just weeks before tipping off her third WNBA season, ESPN announced that they had reached an agreement with Ogwumike on an expanded role that would run concurrently with her playing in the WNBA. That meant that Chiney had to pull double duty on some days – practice in the morning, analyst in the evening – and had very few days off from at least one of her two full-time jobs.

The Newest Member of the Sun Family

In April, the Sun acquired Bria Holmes in a trade with Atlanta for Connecticut’s second round pick (No. 15 overall) in the 2018 WNBA Draft knowing that Holmes would not play for them in 2018 as she was pregnant.

The Sun will welcome Holmes back to the court in 2019, but got a chance to meet the newest member of the Sun family – Diona D’ior Lawhorn – this past summer. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmBOz25DoYG/

Miller’s 12 All-Star Campaign

The Sun put together a fun campaign to encourage fans to vote for Connecticut’s players to head to Minnesota for the All-Star Game. Take a look at the clips below to see how it played out over the course of the season. In the end, the Sun were represented at All-Star by Chiney Ogwumike.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkgNUKXjonq/

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

GIF of the Year

If there was a theme to some of the best Connecticut Sun GIFs, it would be dancing as you can see from Lexie Brown, Chiney Ogwumike and Rachel Banham or a couple of them together. But for the GIF of the Year we have to go with the enthusiastic reaction from Chiney Ogwumike during pregame warmups of Connecticut’s season opener at home against Las Vegas. That introduction marked the culmination of months of rehabilitation to make it back to the court from her second career-threatening injury. It was a great moment to see not only for the Sun fans in attendance but all WNBA fans as well.

New Year’s Resolution

Connecticut’s last playoff win came back in 2012 when they entered the playoffs as the top seed in the Eastern Conference, swept New York in the first round, but fell to the eventual champion Indiana Fever in the Conference Finals in three games. That was followed by four years of not making the playoffs, then the last two years that saw the Sun knocked out in single-game eliminations in the second round following an opening round bye.

The resolution for 2019 has to be making the playoff breakthrough and climb into title contention. The Sun were one win away from the semifinals in each of the last two years. Can they get there – or beyond – in 2019?