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A’ja Wilson talks about her ESPN broadcast with Sue Bird

By Howard Megdal

COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 3: A'ja Wilson of the 2018 USA Basketball Women's National Team talks to the media after training camp at the University of South Carolina on September 3, 2018 in Columbia, South Carolina. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Travis Bell/NBAE via Getty Images)
COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 3: A'ja Wilson of the 2018 USA Basketball Women's National Team talks to the media after training camp at the University of South Carolina on September 3, 2018 in Columbia, South Carolina. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Travis Bell/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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An alternate way to watch UConn-South Carolina.

Obviously, nobody should be asking themselves whether or not to watch Monday night’s game between Connecticut and South Carolina. The only question is, how to do it?

Will you head to the XL Center in Hartford and check it out in person (recommended)? Will you watch the traditional excellence on ESPN2?

Or will you flip over to ESPN3 (available via the ESPN app), where A’ja Wilson and Sue Bird will provide all the fireworks you could want from the event?

For her part, Wilson won’t come in with any preconceived bits, and doesn’t know exactly how much she plans to mix in the trash talking of Bird with the talking up of her alma mater.

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“I’m not sure,” she told High Post Hoops in a phone interview. “I think I’ve probably got to get in the heat of the moment to honestly distinguish the two. But I think it’s going to be a good mixture of both. Of course. I’m going to talk my talk about my team and also trash talk Sue, of course. But I think it’s going to be a good mixture. I think we both know and I think we both love our teams, of course. And so I think we’re gonna have a lot of fun with it.”

Wilson assured High Post Hoops that, at least of as Friday, she’d received no pregame talking points from Dawn Staley, her former (but really, her forever) coach. She doesn’t expect that silence to last.

“Nothing. Nothing,” Wilson said, laughing. “She hasn’t really told me anything. But I’m pretty sure when I go to the shoot around she’s gonna tell me a few little things.”

This is a different South Carolina team than the paint-centric group that won a national title with Wilson, or even last season’s Gamecocks, who lost in the Elite 8 to, that’s right, Connecticut.

“I think it just goes to show how great a coach Coach Staley is because you can pretty much just put anything out there and she’s going to make it work,” Wilson said. “I think it really shows who she is as a coach. And I think we really look at her as just a human being and a person that we love and the things that she’s done with this game. But when it comes down to X’s and O’s, she’s a great coach in that matter, too.”

Anyone who has experienced Wilson on the SEC Network, or Bird’s previous work broadcasting as well, isn’t going to want to miss this.

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