Rizzotti Learns To Lose Connecticut All-American Finds Pro Basketball Tougher

Her knee pads, intensity and vocal presence are still her trademarks. But one thing has changed this season for Jennifer Rizzotti: She’s learned what it’s like to play for a loser.

During her four years at the University of Connecticut, the 22-year-old Rizzotti played on teams that lost only 18 games and none at all during the 1994-95 season, when the Huskies won the national championship while going 35-0. Now, Rizzotti is winding up her first season as a professional with the New England Blizzard of the American Basketball League, a team that is in last place in the Eastern Division with a 15-24 record going into Wednesday night’s final home game.

Despite that record, the Blizzard is leading the ABL in attendance in the league’s inaugural season, largely because of Rizzotti’s popularity in the Connecticut area. The team has averaged almost 7,500 fans for its eight games at the Hartford Civic Center, and about 3,200 for its 11 games in Springfield, Mass. That averages out to about 5,000 a game, substantially above the league average of 3,400.

As a draw, then, no one is better than Rizzotti. On the court, however, it is a different story. Though she has been a solid point guard and started for the East in the league’s first All-Star game in December, Rizzotti is far from being the best at her position.

Indeed, she has been overshadowed, and usually outplayed, in head-to-head meetings with the Richmond Rage’s Dawn Staley, who was the point guard for the women’s Olympic team that won a gold medal last summer; with the Atlanta Glory’s Teresa Edwards, the league’s leading scorer and a member of the Olympic team, and with Debbie Black of the Colorado Xplosion.

Staley, Edwards and Black all played professionally in Europe before the ABL was formed. Now Staley leads the league in assists (8 per game), followed by Black (7) and Edwards (6.5), while Rizzotti is fifth with 5.6.

In other words, it has been a learning experience for the 5-foot-5-inch Rizzotti, a homegrown product from New Fairfield, Conn., who has probably been the state’s most popular athlete, male or female, in the last two years.

“Jen is the glue that holds us together,” said Cliffa Foster, the coach of the Blizzard. “She doesn’t turn the ball over, she plays phenomenal defense, and she has a great work ethic.”

Rizzotti is the youngest player on the team. She still employs that gung-ho, cheerleader style of play, raising the question of whether she might, at times, be alienating some teammates who played overseas for years.

“That’s not been the case at all,” Foster said. “The veterans respond to her leadership very well because they see how hard she works, how intense she plays and how well she knows the game. You’d never know she was just out of college.”

Rizzotti, the only member of the Blizzard to have started every game, admits her first season as a pro has had its tough moments.

“It’s been frustrating at times, and I feel that my level of play has not been up to where I think it should be,” she said before last weekend’s victory over the Seattle Reign, a game in which she missed all six of her shots but did compile eight assists, four rebounds and four steals.

“The level of play has been more physical than in college, and, at the beginning of the season, I felt like I was a freshman all over again,” said Rizzotti, who graduated last May with a degree in biological sciences. “I knew what to expect when I came into the league, and it’s not been easy. In college, I might go up against a very talented player once in, say, three games, but here it’s every night.”

Perhaps because she has been unaccustomed to losing - either at Connecticut or at New Fairfield High School, which won two state titles when Rizzotti was there - this season’s defeats have forced her to re-examine herself as a basketball player.

“Sometimes after a loss, I’d say to myself, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ I’d be pretty miserable, and I’d call my parents or Geno to talk things over with them.” (Geno is Geno Auriemma, who coached Rizzotti at Connecticut and is again presiding over an undefeated team.)

And at times, Rizzotti would cry. “I’d be talking to my parents, and, yes, I would start to cry because of how things were going,” she said. Auriemma, she said, would tell her: “Hang in there. If anyone can do it, you can.”’

One thing Rizzotti knows she must do next season is to score points. Going into the final week of the regular season, she was averaging seven points a game, having made 93-of-229 shots, including 44-of-118 3-point attempts.

“Jen’s got to go to the hole more often,” Foster said. “Usually when we’ve won, Jen has scored between eight and 12 points.”

Rizzotti agrees. “The team needs me to score more. And this summer I plan to play a lot of one-on-one to improve my shooting.”

Meanwhile, league officials say the ABL’s first season - a rival league, the NBA’s women’s league, begins this summer - has been a resounding success, so much so that all eight teams are scheduled to return next season. Steve Hams, the league’s chief operating officer, says the league plans to add two teams, and one might be based on Long Island.

“We feel great about the attendance,” Hams said, “and the fans love the intensity of the players.”

And no one is loved more than Rizzotti.