McConnell brothers show pride as sister Megan carries on family tradition at Duquesne
In advance of his team’s Atlantic 10 tournament opener against St. Joseph’s on Thursday (5 p.m.), Duquesne women’s coach Dan Burt was discussing second-year guard Megan McConnell.
For Burt, the description is easy.
“Simply, she’s a McConnell,” Burt said.
For those that follow basketball in the Pittsburgh area, that succinct summation is probably enough. If you saw how her brothers — Indiana Pacers guard T.J. and former Robert Morris Colonial Matt — played at Chartiers Valley or how their father, Tim, has coached both the men’s and women’s programs, you get the picture.
But Burt painted it a little more anyway.
“She’s got an incredibly high basketball I.Q. She has a level of compete that is not normal for Division I players,” Burt continued. “She is the top rebounder amongst guards in the Atlantic 10 (6.5 per game). Ninth overall. She is not built (5-foot-7) like the ninth rebounder in the Atlantic 10. That tells you about her compete level.”
McConnell also leads the conference in steals with 71. She is sixth in assists at 4.1 per game, and she is third in assist to turnover ratio at 2:1.
Whether it’s because of genetics, pure osmosis or how they were coached and raised by their father, T.J. says it’s no surprise that her all-around floor game looks like that of her brothers.
“The way my dad coached us and instilled in us to play the right way, play that type of basketball, it kind of happens naturally,” T.J. said Wednesday. “But she is also a student of the game. She’s been to a lot of my games. And has watched up close and on TV and has probably taken a thing or two and put that on the court.”
McConnell embraces the comparisons to T.J.
“Almost after every game, someone comes up to me and says I play like my brother,” Megan said Monday. “My dad has told me I play just like him. When I watch him on TV, I’m like, ‘That’s something I would do.’ We just have many similarities. We are very much alike on the court.”
The next evolution for Megan’s game is to increase her offensive output. Something by her own admission may be taking some time to develop now that she is playing against bigger, more athletic players in college than what she faced in high school. But her brother Matt, now an assistant coach with the Central Catholic boys team, says that playing against her siblings in the driveway was a good primer for the leap in competition she is battling right now.
“I always knew Megan was a little different,” Matt said. “She could’ve been out playing with her girlfriends. But she said, ‘No. I want to play in the driveway with (her brothers).’ I truly think that helped her throughout the years. It made her a little tougher. Sometimes we sent her into the house crying to our mom because we blocked her shot too many times. … But eventually, when she started growing up, she got better and it was fun playing with her.”
Like her brothers, Megan isn’t a lights-out scorer (8.3 points per game in 2021-22). Matt averaged 9.0 points per game during his four years at RMU. Between Duquesne and Arizona, T.J. was at 10.2 points per game for his college career. Specifically, McConnell wants to improve her three-point shot and develop a mid-range, pull-up jumper. The pull-up is a club she knows that she has in her bag, but one she rarely uses in competition.
“I’ve been working on it non-stop with (assistant coach) Vanessa Able,” McConnell said. “I have it in my bag. I just feel like I’m not able to do that in a game. I’m able to. I just don’t shoot it in a game. And I should.”
Megan said that T.J.’s mid-range game is one she’d love to emulate, and she’s hoping to get some lessons this offseason once her brother’s injured wrist heals. For now, though, T.J.’s advice is not to force it.
“I didn’t really start shooting mid-ranges until I got to college. It’s all about seeing the game and seeing what your team needs,” T.J. said. “I really think her team needs a point guard to distribute the ball and shoot when she’s open. And she does a great job of that. But, as she gets older and the scouting reports get more focused on what she does great, then there is a time to add the mid-range and other stuff you haven’t had in your college career.”
Her other brother expects his sister’s offensive diversity to grow on its own.
“Early on in her high school career, she had a pull-up jumper and she didn’t use it,” Matt recalled. “As she got stronger and older, she started to use it more. In college, the game is faster. The girls are more athletic and quicker. As she gets older, I think she can develop that pull-up jump shot, get consistent with it, and that’ll take her to that next level.”
Perhaps with some more scoring sprinkled into her game next year, that could mean All-Conference consideration. Burt thought at least All-Defensive Team honors in the conference would be coming her way this year. That didn’t happen.
After a few offseason workout sessions with her brothers, though, the voters may not have an option to leave her off their ballots in 2023.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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