There was so much more to this comeback than the monotony of it all.
Sure, Charlisse Leger-Walker had to teach her quadriceps muscle to fire again, the UCLA point guard sitting in her room connecting her mind to her body so that her thigh would tense up, strengthening it just a bit more.
She had to learn how to walk again, run again, jump again, often rising two hours before her teammates so that she could get the work in on the anti-gravity machine and other weight training devices that would put her one step closer to playing again after a devastating knee injury.
Focusing on all those muscle groups eventually left the graduate transfer feeling stronger than ever. She spent so much time on her shooting, hoisting one three-pointer after another, that she developed the most consistency on her touch she’s felt during a decorated career in which she was an All-Pac-12 player at Washington State before going down on that terrible late January day inside Pauley Pavilion.
Washington State guard Charlisse Leger-Walker shoots during a game against Washington on Dec. 11, 2022, in Seattle. Leger-Walker has transferred to UCLA and is poised for a big season after recovering from an injury.
(Stephen Brashear/AP)
Maybe the biggest benefit of being sidelined for almost 1½ seasons came in her new grasp of the game. Watching from the bench allowed her to develop a more nuanced understanding of coach Cori Close’s system and which spots on the court gave each teammate a higher chance of scoring.
“I knew coming back this season,” Leger-Walker said, “that’s going to be a big part of my role on the team is making sure people are in the best positions to succeed and really understanding how I can make the individual pieces of our team come together better collectively.”
The long-awaited payoff starts Monday night at the Honda Center.
A team already filled with talent could overflow upon the return of a player who intends to help put it all together during what the third-ranked Bruins hope is a championship run beginning with their season opener against San Diego State.
It’s conceivable that Close could have four All-Big Ten players by season’s end in Leger-Walker, center Lauren Betts and guards Kiki Rice and Gianna Kneepkens. Leger-Walker gives UCLA another elite point guard and veteran presence alongside Rice, their games complementing one another instead of providing redundancy.
“One’s more of a downhill driver, going to put pressure on the defense with her aggression and off the bounce,” Close said of Rice, “the other is more of a surveyor, pass-first kind of point guard, and isn’t that great that they’re both on our team?”
Leger-Walker tormented her coach before she joined her cause, helping seventh-seeded Washington State make an improbable run in the 2023 Pac-12 tournament. Dominating across the board with 23 points, seven rebounds and three assists, Leger-Walker helped the Cougars hold off the Bruins in the championship.
“She sort of took over the game,” Close said. “It was Charlisse Leger-Walker’s world, and we were just living in it.”
Nearly a year later, having scored 17 points in 19 minutes with her team on the way to another victory over the Bruins, the 5-foot-10 guard crumpled to the Pauley Pavilion court in the third quarter. She briefly rose to test her injured knee before giving up, the pain unbearable.
It was a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Her season was over.
The timing was especially cruel given that she had been scheduled to play for the New Zealand national team the next week, helping the Tall Ferns try to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in something of a family tradition. Her mother, Leanne Walker, had played point guard for their home nation in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Games, but with Charlisse sidelined the Tall Ferns failed to qualify in 2024.
“There were a lot of disappointing things in that moment,” Charlisse said, “involving more than just the injury itself.”
With one season of eligibility remaining, Leger-Walker sought an upgrade — with encouragement from Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge, who realized that her star player had maximized her potential with a team that didn’t have realistic national title aspirations.
What happened next remains a playful dispute between Leger-Walker and her new coach.
Pouncing on the opportunity to pursue Leger-Walker once she entered the transfer portal, Close said she had trouble getting the point guard to return her messages. Informed of her coach’s claim with Close standing nearby at Big Ten media day, Leger-Walker expressed mock exasperation.
“Oh my gosh, that’s her biggest thing,” Leger-Walker said. “I did — you can check the text message receipts.”
As Close broke into laughter, Leger-Walker added, “I did. Maybe it was a couple of hours later, but I definitely returned her messages. She exaggerates that.”
Once she agreed to become a Bruin, the sidelined star became a de facto coach, not only learning about her teammates’ tendencies but also encouraging them during practices and games.
By last February, having completed her lengthy rehabilitation, Leger-Walker faced a difficult decision: Should she return to help the Bruins contend for a national title or wait to come back for a full season?
She chose the latter path, making everyone grateful for the extended opportunity to play together long before she dazzled with 11 assists and only two turnovers in a recent scrimmage.
Said Rice: “To now be able to be in the backcourt with her, to learn from her, she’s brought a lot of new things.”
Said Betts: “I mean, everybody knows she’s like one of the best guards in the entire country.”
Of course, being surrounded by so many skilled teammates could make things incredibly easy for the Bruins’ new ballhandler. Leger-Walker knows there will be moments when she can almost reflexively help her team.
Just get the ball to Kneepkens beyond the three-point line, where her shots are a coin flip.
“That’s probably an assist,” Leger-Walker said.
Just throw a lob to Betts in the post, where she makes almost everything.
“That’s probably an assist,” Leger-Walker said.
Labeled one of the best passing guards that her coach has ever seen, Leger-Walker has been primed for this moment. The monotony over, those muscles firing again, it’s time to start winning.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: latimes.com
