Around the Sun

Always Ready: The Sun’s Reserves Balance Body and Mind

Lindsay Allen talks at a press conference in May 2025. Photo: Anthony Price

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​Making it into the WNBA is no small feat. But for reserve players, the real challenge often begins after they’ve made the roster—finding minutes to earn playing time while keeping their heads in the game. 
 
That’s the puzzle facing the Connecticut Sun, a franchise caught between a losing season and the promise of tomorrow. With four drafted rookies—Leila Lacan, Saniya Rivers, Aneesah Morrow and Rayah Marshall—the Sun are investing in their future, even as growing pains dominate the present. 

Head coach Rachid Meziane, a French import with an untested European style of play, has been shuffling lineups all year, trying to find the right grouping of players to unlock wins. So far, the results have been dismal.
 
The Sun are 10-29, after losing 94-70 at home to the league-leading Minnesota Lynx on Saturday night. The Lynx, 31-8, who clinched home-court advantage throughout the playoffs with the win, appear destined to be in the Finals, after losing to the New York Liberty last season. 

Ups and Downs 
 
By the midpoint of the season, Meziane had settled on an eight-player rotation. Early on, Haley Peters and Lindsay Allen were part of that rotation—and both started games. 
 
But as the losses piled up at an unprecedented rate, including a 10-game losing streak, the franchise shifted its focus squarely to its rookies. Almost overnight, Peters and Allen were out of Meziane’s rotation. Such is the harsh reality of an unsympathetic business. 
 
For younger, less seasoned players, the sudden benching might have been crushing. But not Peters and Allen, who refused to let it undo them. 

Life as a reserve, called a low-minute or no-minute player, is a grind. 

​Life as a reserve, called a low-minute or no-minute player, is a grind. The Sun rarely practice during the season, due to the crowded, byzantine schedule. To stay ready, the reserves must scramble to stay in shape. 
 
This reporter has witnessed Peters, Allen and others put in extra work in an empty Mohegan Sun Arena. Long after the red lights on the TV cameras are turned off, and while the cleaning crew sweeps away debris scattered like the aftermath of a college fraternity party, the reserve players are still on the floor. They are united on the court by their desire to stay ready. 

Leila Lacan, left, and Haley Peters warm up. Photo: Anthony Price

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​Real Talk  
 
Before Monday night’s exciting game in Brooklyn—an 81-79 loss to the New York Liberty—Allen and Peters talked to this reporter about life as reserves. 
 
Allen, now in her eighth year in the league, focuses on her pregame warmup. “Just trying to be mentally ready. You can’t really control anything else,” she said. “I try to focus on what I can control.” 
 
She paused, then added what the league means to her: “This is what I worked for my whole life. This is a dream that I wanted to achieve, so I’m super grateful for every opportunity I get in this league, against the best players in the world.” 
 
During her pregame workout, Allen was determined to improve her pull-up jumper and shooting threes. Shot after shot, she was focused, then summed it up simply: “Just staying in shape, really. Trying to stay in game shape, when I don’t play.” Moments later, she disappeared into the cavernous Barclays Center shadows.

Peter’s pregame routine doesn’t change. The undrafted veteran with three years of W experience works with the player development staff on an individual workout, strength and conditioning, and warming up. Just like Allen, Peters knows pregame is important. She shoots three-pointers and works on her moves in the low post before a game, ready to make those shots in the game. 

Lindsay Allen with Alanna Smith, after the Minnesota Lynx game. Photo: Anthony Price

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This is what I worked for my whole life. 

​Peters knows the challenge is mostly mental. “Yeah, it’s not easy,” she admitted, her tone dipping. When on the bench, she stays engaged in the game and remembers what the team talked about in film sessions or practice. She watches for those details of the game plan. “When you see stuff that’s going on the court, when people come off, you try to talk to them, and understand what they are seeing, and tell them some of the stuff you’re seeing from the bench,” she said.  
 
Peters dreamed of playing professional basketball when she was a little girl, “especially playing in arenas like the Barclays Center (with a maximum capacity of 19,000), it’s really cool,” she said.  
 
 Off the court, Peters believes in herself. “There’s a lot of mental work to be done,” she says. “It’s not an easy role (coming off the bench) to play. It’s one of the harder roles to play in sports, I think. You just have to deal with your frustration (when not playing) to understand that you still have to be a good teammate, and I really like all of my teammates. So, I want to be a good teammate to them regardless of how I feel, individually.” 

Haley Peters at a press conference in May 2025. Photo: Anthony Price

It’s not an easy role (coming off the bench) to play.

Mamignan "Migna" Toure goes through her pregame routine. Photo: Anthony Price

Rayah Marshall at a fan event earlier in the year. Photo: Anthony Price

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Bad News
 
Starting Sun guard Bria Hartley missed the Liberty game with an injury, and by Sunday the news worsened: she would miss the remainder of the season with a meniscus tear in her right knee.
 
In her absence, Allen started, playing for 22 minutes. Peters came off the bench to play for nine minutes. Rookies Marshall and Mamignan Toure—who began her career in the France’s Ligue Feminine back in 2012—also saw action. 
 
Just one game earlier, against the Dallas Wings, Peters, Allen and Toure all played fewer than five minutes. Meziane used them to send a message to their teammates, and the Sun won 101-95. 
 
That is the paradox of reserve life in the W: minutes are scarce, but the call can come at any time.  And so they stay ready because they never know what will happen in a league that is both expanding and unrelenting, testing not just the body, but also the mind. For Connecticut’s reserves, the toughest opponent isn’t across the court. It’s the waiting game.

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Anthony Price is an entrepreneur, author and publisher of CT Hoops Magazine. Around the Sun is a weekly column about the Connecticut Sun.