Elena Delle Donne to Return to Basketball for Delaware

Elena DelleDonne, the former high school All-American superstar, announced Tuesday that she will play basketball for the University of Delaware this season.

DelleDonne originally signed her letter-of-intent for the eventual 2009 national champion University of Connecticut, but after spending just 48 hours at the school, she left school and returned to her home state of Delaware. She announced that she was giving up basketball and was going to enroll at Delaware and play volleyball, her other varsity sport.

DelleDonne will have freshman eligiblity in basketball and earned a spot on the Colonial Athletic Association's All-Rookie team in volleyball.

DelleDonne, a 6-foot-5 guard, was the 2008 Naismith National High School Basketball Player of the Year, a McDonald's All-American, and was considered the best player in the nation overall when she was a just junior.

During her career at Ursuline (Wilmington, DE), she was first-team all-state for five consecutive years, won four straight state titles, set a national record by converting 80 straight free throws as a sophomore and scored 50 points in the state championship game at the University of Delaware’s Carpenter Center as a sophomore. Her career 2,818 points were the most in Delaware high school basketball history­ (boys or girls).

"I guess if I were to sum the whole thing up, if I were to say what it is that I learned during the year, it's that I mistakenly put the blame for my feelings on basketball, when in reality it was homesickness," she said, according to the Courant. "Once I was able to get home and play another sport for awhile, once I was able to enjoy things again, I was able to realize that Delaware was where I wanted to be. I love my home and I love the university. I'm thrilled to be here."

She said that UConn head coach Geno Auriemma originally diagnosed her with a strong case of homesickness, but she blamed her feelings on being burnt out from basketball. She now recognizes that he was indeed correct.

"He said to me at that point, 'Elena, I guarantee that it's not burnout, that it's all about missing home,'" she said, according to the Courant. "He said a player like myself, who had done so well in the sport and worked so hard, that burnout didn't make sense to him.

"I told him, 'No, you are wrong, coach, you have no idea how I'm feeling.' But you know what? Now that I look back on it, he was really right; he usually is," she said, according to the report.

DellaDonne joins a Blue Hens team that went 15-15 last season that returns its entire starting lineup, its top nine scorers and top seven rebounders next season, including third-team All-CAA guard Tesia Harris (13.6 ppg), guard Vanessa Kabongo (10.8 ppg), guard Corininthia Benison (9.3 ppg) and forward Ariene Jenkins (8.1 rpg).

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