Anna Makurat finding her comfort zone
With just over four and a half minutes to play in UConn women’s basketball’s rout of Tulsa, freshman Anna Makurat threw her hands up in the air, calling for the ball. Aubrey Griffin found her at the top of the key and Makurat immediately drained a three.
Makurat ran back down the court without outwardly showing much emotion, so her teammates celebrated for her. The bench exploded when the shot went in and began mimicking NBA sideline celebrations.
“The kids got a kick out of some of the shots that she made and some of the shots that she took,” Geno Auriemma quipped after the game.
It was a breakout performance for Makurat, who finished with 21 points, going 4-of-7 from three along with six rebounds and five assists. It was the type of showing that the coaching staff expected out of her when she was recruited over from Poland -- an experienced, instant-impact offensive addition.
But through sixteen games, Makurat hadn’t lived up to that billing. The most points she had ever scored was just 10, a mark she only reached twice prior to Sunday.
However, since the loss to Baylor, Makurat’s arrow started pointing up. Since the new year began, she had made 45.8 percent of her shots from three entering Sunday and Auriemma spoke about how she was getting better with each game, even if the stats didn’t show it.
Makurat decided to stop worrying about the points and instead, just go out on the court and play.
“I just trust the process. Just don’t overthink stuff and play the game of basketball and I think it started to work for me,” Makurat said. “I hope it’s going to get better and better so I just want to stay confident.”
From the first 30 minutes, there wasn’t much to suggest this was about to be “The Anna Makurat Game.” It was similar to her prior games -- she was playing well but nothing from the box score stood out. Entering the final quarter, Makurat only had five points.
Then suddenly, the “old Anna” from Europe made her first appearance of the season. Makurat drained back-to-back threes before going on her own personal 8-0 run a few minutes later. The final buzzer sounded with the freshman scoring 16 of UConn’s 23 points in the final quarter.
“In the fourth quarter, I was in a mood to score,” she said. “After timeouts, coach told us to slow down, play together a little bit more, pass the ball a little bit more. I was like, ‘Eh.’ I was back to the old Anna but I think it ended up good.”
Back home, Makurat would feel like she couldn’t miss at times. She would throw any shot up and somehow, it would go through the cylinder. That feeling didn’t follow her to the U.S. though, until that moment in the fourth quarter when she put her hands up in the air to get the ball.
“Sometimes you just have this feeling that the ball is going to go in, whatever shot you take,” she said. “I had it for a moment. It was pretty cool because it was the first time here. It was a great feeling.”
For one quarter, Makurat finally looked the player that she was back home. When she had the ball, she knew exactly what she wanted to do and she did it. Makurat played with the European confidence that Auriemma talks so often about but she exhibited so little. The coach expected this day to come. But after starting the season “0-for-America” from three point land, Makurat just needed to rebuild her confidence.
“She’s looked more comfortable each day. She’s finding spots on the floor where she can be successful. She feels better shooting the ball, she’s getting better defensively,” he said. “I’m not surprised, she just needed to see the ball go in a lot and that’s what happened.”
