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Inês Bettencourt had never been to the United States before arriving in Storrs last week.
The 17-year-old from Sao Miguel, Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, intended to leave home and play college basketball overseas, but her plans to do so looked completely different in mid-August.
“It is really crazy because I was expecting to go to another place,” Bettencourt said at her first media availability Thursday. “But when I got this offer, I couldn’t refuse it.”
In nine days Bettencourt went from plans to attend Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla., to joining UConn women’s basketball as part of the 2022 freshman class.
“She came here all of a sudden,” Nika Mühl said. “It was just a big surprise for all of us.”
Bettencourt said she first heard from UConn assistant coach Morgan Valley in mid-August. The Huskies were in need of depth at point guard after Paige Bueckers tore her the ACL in her left knee at the start of the month, and talks picked up between Bettencourt, her family of the rest of the coaching staff from there.
In the press release announcing her signing on Aug. 26, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma remarked he was “thrilled” that he and his coaching staff were able to find Bettencourt.
“Inês is a true point guard. She loves to distribute the ball and can make shots,” Auriemma said. “She’s used to playing in the European style of ball movement, ball screens, lots of 2-man game, 3-man game. I think she’s a tough kid and a great competitor.”
Bettencourt picked up more interest from college programs after representing Portugal at the 2022 FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship B Division, held in Bulgaria from July 30 to Aug. 2. The 5-foot-9 guard averaged 14.4 points, 4.6 steals, 3.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game and lead Portugal to the final against Slovenia. Bettencourt ranked fourth in the tournament in scoring and was named to the All-Star Five. She also recently played for Clube Uniao Sportiva in Sao Miguel.
When asked about her style of play, Bettencourt described herself as unselfish. She considers herself both a playmaker and scorer, confident in her ability to shoot or pass depending on what the game calls for.
“I really like to play fast,” Bettencourt said. “I know I can shoot the ball. But yeah, I think my strong move is to play fast — fast break, transitions. I mean, that’s how UConn plays basically.”
Bettencourt said she used to watch some UConn games and liked the way the team played.
Once she got the official offer and accepted, she spent days glued to her computer in Portugal in order to fill out all of the paperwork in time. The whole process came together at lightning speed. She had everything completed by Sunday, and by Monday she had flown to Connecticut.
Once she arrived in Storrs, it was not only Bettencourt’s first time in the U.S., but also her first time stepping foot on a college campus. She has been amazed at how big it is.
“It is different,” Bettencourt said. “Of course the language. I always have to speak English. The food too, it’s a little bit different. The classes, again, it’s in English, I need to study hard.”
Bettencourt said she is studying pre-sports management. She will wear No. 21 for the Huskies, which happens to be the same number Portuguese guard and Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Ticha Penicheiro wore at Old Dominion and in the WNBA. Bettencourt didn’t know it was Penicheiro’s number when she chose it, but was “really happy” when she found out.
As one of five international players on UConn’s roster, alongside Mühl, Dorka Juhász, Lou Lopez Sénéchal and Aaliyah Edwards, Bettencourt has plenty of teammates to help her with the transition.
Mühl sees a lot of herself in Bettencourt. Though she got to come to campus for a visit and had much more time between her commitment and official arrival in Storrs, the junior guard knows what it’s like to leave everything you know and move across the globe at a young age.
“Inês, I love her, she’s so cute,” Muhl said. “She looks a little bit lost. We’re trying to show her around, let her know, teach her what’s going on, how everything’s gonna be. But I’m really like super excited for her. She’s gonna be great this season. And just seeing myself in her like, I don’t know, I just want to help her as much as possible.”
Juhász feels the same way. She remembers how difficult it was during her freshman year at Ohio State, particularly adapting to speaking and learning in English instead of Hungarian.
“I think it’s always good to have somebody that can help them too the first year because it can be really hard,” Juhász said. “We’re gonna help her through. I think her English is great and she’s already coming talking to us.”
Bettencourt knows the adjustment will be hard in the beginning, but she’s confident that she’ll settle in to everything new coming her way, both on and off the court.
“I feel like mentally she’s very tough,”Mühl said.”So I’m sure she’ll do great. She has all of us older guys to lean on, we’re definitely gonna be a lot of help for her. She has nothing to worry about. She just has to work hard, which I have no doubt in that she will.”
Lila Bromberg can be reached at lbromberg@courant.com and @LilaBBromberg on Twitter.