{"id":32998,"date":"2011-04-13T16:55:52","date_gmt":"2011-04-13T20:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=32998"},"modified":"2011-04-15T14:51:06","modified_gmt":"2011-04-15T18:51:06","slug":"maya-and-kemba-move-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/04\/maya-and-kemba-move-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Maya and Kemba Move On"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Kemba<\/a>
Kemba Walker with Coach Jim Calhoun at a press conference, where he announced his intention to enter the NBA draft June 23. Photo by Jessica Tommaselli<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As always, All-American Maya Moore knew where she was headed. As usual, All-American Kemba Walker knew where he wanted to go, but will have to figure out where his path will take him.<\/p>\n

Within 24 hours, Moore was selected on Monday as the No. 1 pick by the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA Draft held at ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn.; and Walker announced during a news conference on Tuesday at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion that he will give up his senior year and enter the NBA Draft, scheduled for June 23.<\/p>\n

Moore leaves UConn with two NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Championships and every major award in college basketball during her four years as the best player of her era.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got anxious, a little nervous, excited probably 10 seconds before I went up there,\u201d Moore told reporters about the moment she had dreamed of for years. Asked if she would be able to lead the Lynx to the WNBA playoffs, she answered as she did each year as a Husky: \u201cEvery year, the goal is a championship. That\u2019s what I expect.”<\/p>\n

Walker led the men\u2019s basketball team to its third NCAA title while posting the best season as a men\u2019s basketball player in a Huskies uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole state of Connecticut has been very supportive throughout my whole career here,\u201d he said. \u201cConnecticut will always be my home, regardless of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Men\u2019s head coach Jim Calhoun added: \u201cI told Kemba this morning what I thought about the idea of him going to the NBA. I just told him honestly, we don\u2019t have a scholarship for him now. I told him it\u2019s time for him to move on, just like when he completes all his school work, he\u2019ll graduate. He\u2019s graduating basketball-wise, too. He\u2019s as fine a person as I\u2019ve ever coached.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always, All-American Maya Moore knew where she was headed. As usual, All-American Kemba Walker knew where he wanted to go, but will have to figure out where his path will take him. Within 24 hours, Moore was selected on Monday as the No. 1 pick by the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA Draft held […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-32998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 08:16:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32998"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33093,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32998\/revisions\/33093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32998"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=32998"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=32998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}