Sep. 24—Connecticut Sun head coach Stephanie White had just perfectly detailed what makes DiJonai Carrington what she calls “the juice” of the team. White was then asked to describe Carrington, the character, whose promise is to “keep it real all the time.”
“I think it depends,” White said. “Coaches are kind of moody sometimes, so it really depends on what kind of mood I’m in. There are days she makes me laugh. There are days she makes me cry.
“She is real and authentic and I think that’s one of the things I appreciate the most about her. People like her, not just players like her. She leads with authenticity and I wish we had more of that.”
On the court, Carrington, a 5-foot-11 guard in her fourth year out of Baylor, is having the season of her career. After coming off the bench a year ago for the Sun, she started 39 of 40 regular-season games this year, averaging 12.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists.
She had 14 points and five rebounds in Sunday’s first-round playoff victory over the Indiana Fever at Mohegan Sun Arena, coming off a 12-point, 12-rebound performance in Connecticut’s regular-season finale three days before.
Carrington is always one of the Sun’s primary defenders, plaguing heralded rookie Caitlin Clark of the Fever in her WNBA debut in May and coming up with an emphatic block of Indiana’s Temi Fagbenle in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s 93-69 win.
The third-seeded Sun face No. 6 Indiana in Game 2 of the best-of-three series beginning at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday back at Mohegan Sun with a chance to pull off the sweep. Game 3, if necessary, will be played Friday in Indianapolis.
If there’s one thing that White admires about Carrington’s effort this season, aside from her crafty celebratory move in which she feigns fastening her seat belt, it’s her consistency. Carrington made the move from sixth player to starter look seamless.
“When somebody’s relied on heavily offensively, sometimes they take a break defensively,” White said. “If they’re relied on heavily defensively, sometimes they take a break offensively. She sets the tone on both ends of the floor with her aggressiveness.
“She’s the juice and to have to bring the juice every single night is not easy and she’s done that and that is not something that has gone unnoticed by our staff, for sure.”
Carrington was drafted in the second round of the 2021 WNBA Draft with the 20th overall pick. She was an All-Pac-12 selection during her career at Stanford, where she earned dual undergraduate degrees, before reaching the Elite Eight along with Baylor during the 2021 season.
She finished her first year for the Sun with 68 points, 47 rebounds, 12 assists and 13 steals.
“She was just a baby at first,” Sun All-Star forward DeWanna Bonner said this week of the transformation. “Seeing the maturity in the role she’s in now has just been really rewarding. I’m super proud of her.”
“That’s my job, you know? Carrington said. “As a professional, that’s my job and consistency has been something that I tried to focus on this year on both sides of the ball, just to be consistent not just game in and game out but every possession.”
Carrington reminds herself to stay locked in.
“Like, don’t relax,” Carrington said. “Sometimes peoples’ players get rid of the ball and they think that’s the time to relax. But knowing the people that we’re playing and the people that I’m guarding, that’s literally the worst time to relax because they’re definitely coming to get you for something.”
During one game, Clark, the WNBA’s overall No. 1 draft pick this year out of Iowa, fell to the ground, resulting in a foul call on Carrington.
Carrington mocked Clark for what she felt was an overreaction on the rookie’s part, but drew criticism from Clark’s enormous contingent of fans.
Then, during the postgame press conference following the Sun’s victory over the Los Angeles Sparks at Boston’s TD Garden on Aug. 20 — a Connecticut victory before a sold-out crowd of 19,156 at the home of the Boston Celtics — Carrington gave an outspoken admonishment of the WNBA’s failure to promote the event, which was televised only regionally.
“The game should’ve been on a national television broadcast,” Carrington said. “You shouldn’t have to pay for any type of subscription to see a game that’s this historic, in my opinion.”
“Yeah it is,” Carrington said this week, asked if keeping it real was ingrained in her personality.
Does she ever regret any of her more colorful diatribes? No.
“I’m good with it,” she said.
Of White’s assessment of sometimes laughing, sometimes crying in response to Carrington: “That’s the way this life goes.”
Carrington laughed.
“Nai’s all energy,” White said. “She is. She’s the juice. She’s our player that can get up and down the floor. She’s got terrific athleticism. She’s just got a burst that no one else on our team has.”
“She is kind of our connector on the team. She just makes everybody laugh,” Bonner, the Sun veteran said, before praising Carrington’s unwavering effort. “She brings the oomph to our defense so it’s kind of been a blessing to have her on this team. It’s pretty mature of her to take on that role, to be our defensive stopper because it’s not easy. Every single night we rely on her a lot.”
v.fulkerson@theday,com
