By R.L. Bynum
Italian basketball fans found out what Carolina fans already knew — Alyssa Ustby is a talented and versatile player, and proved it by piling up the postseason awards.
In her first professional season, the 6–1 Ustby earned Eurobasket.com Player of the Year honors in Serie A playing for Panthers Roseto after averaging a double-double over 24 games last season.
In addition to Defensive Player of the Year, Import Player of the Year, Guard of the Year and Best Prospect of the Year, she also made the first-team all-league, All-Imports, and All-Defensive teams.
Ustby, 24, won the Serie A scoring title, averaging 19.5 points per game, with 14 games of at least 20 points and 15 double-doubles in 24 games.
The four-time All-ACC pick and UNC’s all-time leading rebounder (1,269) finished third in the league with 10.3 rebounds per game. Her season high was 31 points against Campobasso.
Ustby’s season ended last month, and she will play for Venezia for next season in two leagues: the EuroLeague on Wednesdays and Serie A on weekends. She is back in the Triangle and training in Chapel Hill. Training camp starts in September, and the season begins in October.
Former UNC center Stephanie Mavunga played for Venezia last season and made the Serie A Second Team.
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Photo courtesy of UNC Athletics
How is she not in the W
Awesome. And nice for R.L. to give her this recognition. Women’s sports at UNC are also awesome. Sad the refs took the Natty from the LAX team and unreal that Madison Taylor got the Tewaaraton Award, but she IS a senior. The stats and the impacts do not merit Chloe not getting it again. Keep up all the good works, R.L. Thanks.
Thanks for reading!