After Courtney Paris dominated college basketball for four years, it was easy to assume she would do the same in the WNBA. One person who didn't plan on that was Paris.
It hasn't been a dominant season for Paris. She's had two head coaches while trying to adjust to the speed and nuances of the WNBA game. She's scored in double figures only four times and has yet to grab 10 or more rebounds in a game.
The 6-foot-4 center averages 4.8 points and 3.8 rebounds. Paris, however, doesn't see this season as a disappointment. She said her confidence isn't shaken, and she won't enter her sophomore season with modest expectations.
"My mentality will be completely different," Paris said. "And I will put that pressure on myself, and I will want to do certain things because I kind of got my feet wet, and I know what it takes."
Paris was accustomed to being the biggest and strongest player on the floor. She wasn't expecting to carry the Monarchs the way she did at Oklahoma, where she was a four-time All-American.
"I know what it feels like to be that player where the team counts on you to get 20 and 10, or you don't have a chance at all," Paris said. "I put that pressure on myself with the whole double-double thing for 112 (consecutive) games. Everyone expected me to get that done, and I expected to get that done. I wanted to come into the professional game, take my time and just learn."
There has been plenty to learn. Paris learned to adjust to a midseason coaching change when Jenny Boucek was fired in July.
Fitting her skills into the Monarchs' system has been the proverbial square peg in a round hole. The Monarchs want Paris to defend away from the basket. She's used to playing inside.
That's one reason Paris hasn't played much. She averages 13.3 minutes a game.
"I'm a player who plays around the basket," Paris said. "I'm big, I fight, and here we say, 'Don't wrestle with them – get in front of them.'
"It's playing a different kind of basketball, but I think it's good for me. It forces me to get out of my comfort zone and add that element to my game, where I don't know if I would have done that anywhere else."
Monarchs coach and general manager John Whisenant drafted Paris in April knowing the adjustment wouldn't be easy. Since taking over after firing Boucek, he said some of Paris' struggles have been mental.
"We've had her thinking too much and not reacting," Whisenant said. "We're asking her to play a position she's never played because she spent her whole life being the biggest kid on the team. … And it's been hard."
Whisenant said those problems are compounded because Paris isn't as fit as he needs her to be. But Whisenant isn't giving up on Paris.
"She's got a lot of natural tools," he said. " She's just got to continue to work on her conditioning and get to where she knows the system."
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