“This means somethin to me fr. i’ve overcome a lot,” were Dijonai Carrington’s words after she was named as the midseason pick for the Most Improved Player by ESPN. This season has brought newfound energy to the WNBA players who have been looked over all this time. The same is the case for Carrington as this year, she has gone on a strong defense, limiting some of the big names from Caitlin Clark to Arike Ogunbowale to only 2 field goals with her impressive guarding skills.

In the 2021 WNBA draft, every team had the opportunity to draft Carrington. However, they rather passed on, with some doing it multiple times. Even though she was aware of her skills, the WNBA underestimating her potential perhaps made her walk straight into an ally of self-doubt. However, when Connecticut arrived at the opportunity, a ray of hope was ready to enlighten her path, as Curt Miller decided to take a chance on her.

Meet Dijonai Carrington, who made huge strides in high school

Born in January 1998, the San Diego native is the daughter of former NFL star Darren Russel Carrington, while her mother Vickie ran track in Northern Arizona. She played four seasons at Horizon Christian Academy in San Diego, California, before going to Stanford. Throughout those 4 seasons, she remained the captain of her high school basketball team.

Statistically speaking, she amassed 2061 points, 1467 rebounds, 456 assists, and 361 free throws made in her high school basketball career by averaging in double digits in at least 2 aspects like points and rebounds every season. Hence, her potential met its reward when she was rated a 5-star recruit and one of the best top 40 players in the county by ESPN HoopGurlz.

It was her versatile ability that led her to two of the most reputable honors in high school, namely McDonald’s and Jordan Brand’s Classic All-Americans. However, it was not only the success that she tasted in high school. Turns out, the owner of more than a dozen high school records was hit by a couple of ACL injuries that limited her time to only two and a half seasons.

But she steadily made up for it in the coming years.

When she donned the Stanford Cardinal #21 jersey

In her freshman season at Stanford, Dijonai Carrington didn’t see that much action, but she wasn’t off of her game though. Played in all 35 games. Coming off the bench, she averaged 2.5 points, 2.3 rebounds, and shot 35-of-79 from the floor in 7.8 minutes per game. She blended into the team as a role player, dishing out 14 assists and had 19 steals (at the rate of 1 steal in every 14 minutes).

As a sophomore, she was 4th on the team in scoring with 8.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game. Her rebounding prowess placed her 19th in the Pac-12 conference and 13th in steals. She dropped her first career 20+ point game against No.1 UConn and pulled a career-high 22 rebounds against UC Riverside. Making her way to the lineup, she started 7 consecutive games, however, off the bench wasn’t that bad either as she was the 4th leading scorer in the Pac-12 conference off the bench.

By the time her junior season came by, Carrington had successfully paved the way to the lineup as she started all 36 games and averaged 14 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists within 28.9 minutes in every game. She shot 180-of-397 from the field, made 37-of-112 beyond the arc, and 108-of-157 from the free throw line. Now that’s an impressive lot of stats for a college basketball junior.

She put a historical double-double career-high of 33 points and 13 rebounds in a 95-85 win over Tennessee and became the program’s second player in 20 years to do so against a ranked opponent. As a result, her impeccable performance throughout the season earned her several conference honors.

However, her senior year wasn’t as glorious as her previous three as she was sidelined by a season-ending knee injury after only 5 games into the season. Still, she managed to score a season-high 16 points with 8 rebounds against San Francisco before that. Because of this injury, she was awarded a medical hardship.

But, what’s made her stand out from the others was her ability to beautifully maintain her game with her academics for which she was named 2x Pac-12 All-Academic Honorable Mention and received the Pac-12 Academic Honor Roll besides winning two Pac-12 conference tournament championships.

But she was still not done. Coming off from an injury, Dijonai Carrington had it in her to go another year and make it better before she leaped to be a pro. Hence, she decided to play one more season, only it was not with the Stanford Cardinal, but with the Baylor Bears. In a single year at Baylor, she amassed 382 points, 133 rebounds, 70 assists, 56 steals, and 15 blocks in all 27 games she played.

She may not be the all-star this time but the feat doesn’t seem to far. As she puts it, “I promise this is just the beginning tho for me.” So stay tuned!

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