Georgia’s Gabby Connally gets to finish college journey at home

Georgia women’s basketball coach Joni Taylor was scouting a AAU tournament in Texas when Gabby Connally first caught her eye.

Connally, fresh off a breakthrough freshman season at Brandeis, was running off screens and shooting. Again and again.

“I was like ‘Who is she?’” Taylor said. “And I got up from the game I was watching to go watch Gabby.”

Taylor scanned the sideline and noticed a familiar face — Clarissa Davis-Wrightsil, the former Jay star who led Texas to the 1986 NCAA title under coach Jody Conradt. Davis-Wrightsil was coaching Connally for TeamXpress.

“That got me excited because Clarissa does things the right way,” said Taylor, selected as the 2020-21 Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year. “She has coached and played at the highest level and was one of the best players in Texas basketball history. … I know she was going to be hard on her. I knew that Gabby was going to be tough and was going to be prepared from a scouting report, and she was going to be able to come in and play immediately and be a really good point guard for us.”

The last four years have proven that. Connally, a 2017 Brandies graduate who is nearing the end of playing career at Georgia. Connally has been a steady force for the Bulldogs, having played in 119 games over the last four seasons.

Connally didn’t start as a freshman but played in 33 games and has been the Bulldogs’ starting point guard the last three seasons.

“Gabby Connally has been someone who will sit here and tell you, I am sure, that I have been hard on her,” Taylor said. “As a point guard, there is different expectation, there’s a different level of responsibility that I place on that position. I knew that she was someone who could handle it. For her not to flinch when I am just on her, on her, on her speaks to her resilience and her toughness.”

This is exactly where Connally had hoped to be.

“It’s a been a dream come true ever since I was a little girl and I was just starting out playing basketball,” Connally said. “It was all fun at first, but as I got older in late elementary school, it set in my mind that this is where I wanted to go. I wanted to play basketball and earn a scholarship. I feel like I ended up at the right place playing under Coach Joni.”

With the entire NCAA Women’s Tournament being staged in the San Antonio area, Connally’s college journey ends at home. The third-seeded Bulldogs face No. 14 Drexel at 11 a.m. Monday at St. Mary’s Bill Greehey Arena in a first-round game.

“There are no words for it,” Connally said. “Just the way it all happened is really crazy, and obviously, I’m super-excited to be heading back home.”

Connally is averaging 11.9 points and 2.8 assists this season. She had a season-high 29 points in an 82-64 victory against Missouri on Feb. 14. Her season highlight was a buzzer-beating 18-footer that lifted the Bulldogs to a 77-75 win over Arkansas on Jan. 25.

Over the last three seasons since becoming the starting point guard, Connally is averaging 12.3 points and 3.1 assists.

Connally has built on a stellar high school career. The Express-News selected her as Co-Player of the Year along with Kiana Williams, a Wagner alumna and senior point guard at Stanford in 2017. Before that, she was the Express-News Newcomer of the Year in 2014 and selected to the Super Team three times after that.

On ExpressNews.com: Wagner’s Williams, Brandeis’ Connally lead E-N All-Area teams

Brandeis’ Jennifer Brewer, who coached Connally in high school, said she always has been an impressive basketball player.

“I knew she was special from the time I saw her in the seventh and eighth grade,” Brewer said. “She’s always had that drive and that right and that natural, raw ability.”

Connally signed with Georgia over 22 other Division I offers. She committed to the Bulldogs in October 2014 after taking an official visit to the Athens campus.

Brewer has enjoyed seeing Connally blossom in college.

“She gets better every single season, every single year,” Brewer said. “It’s hard coming in, being a star player in 6A basketball in Texas and then going to college where you are playing with the same caliber of player as you are. I thought she did really well making the transition.”

In college, Connally earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and currently is pursing a master’s in public administration. Last summer, she interned with the University of Georgia Police Department. This summer, she’ll intern with the United States Secret Service.

“This is more than I imagined when I was a kid,” Connally said. “I’m living it now. You don’t think about it when you are just going day to day, but reflecting on it, it’s been a great accomplishment. Obviously, we’re not finished yet and my career isn’t over, but I’m blessed to be here, and I appreciate every day that I have. I’m excited to be playing in what’s going to be my last NCAA Tournament and my last go around.”