WNBA DRAFT

April 10, 2023

Alexis Morris

Connecticut Sun

Q. How excited are you to be joining the Connecticut Sun?

ALEXIS MORRIS: I'm super excited. God is good. I got the opportunity to play professional. I appreciate the Connecticut Sun offering me and giving me the opportunity. I'm going to take full advantage of it. I'm super thankful and grateful.

Q. Champion, now you're in the W. Describe it in one word.

ALEXIS MORRIS: Remarkable.

Q. This league is filled with players who have been drafted later than they expected, some didn't get drafted at all and making it into the league and using it as motivation. Did that happen for you tonight and how are you going to use it as motivation?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Absolutely. I also have history, so I understand why teams may have been skeptical to pick me at first, but like I said earlier, I'm super grateful for the opportunity. I'm going to take full advantage. You've seen me do it with Coach Mulkey and I came out a national champion and I plan to do that in the WNBA. My will to win is incredible, and my competitive nature is unmatched. Can't be matched. I'm just grateful, man.

Q. So the Lex Luthor Twitter handle, is that superhero related?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Yeah, he was a super villain of Superman. He was the archenemy, so yeah.

Q. So you're a super villain?

ALEXIS MORRIS: I'm not saying that. The picture has been painted that way, so I kind of just like to have fun with it and embrace it.

Q. What is the last eight days been like for you since winning a title last Sunday to now being drafted eight days later?

ALEXIS MORRIS: There's only one champ, right? There's only one champ in the room. I've been overwhelmed, but it's with positive energy, love and support. Everybody wants me to know how proud they are of me. I'm just so happy. Now I can just breathe. I can take everything all in and start preparing for what's to come.

Q. Your name came up a lot as people were talking about players who improved their draft stock during the tournament. What do you think it was about your play during March and April that made that happen?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Just showing my ability to score at this height and to be a three-level threat, not just by shooting the mid-range but knocking down threes, getting to the paint, facilitating, leading my team, and I also think by winning it helped my draft stock a lot, too. I'd just say scoring. I'm considered to be undersized, so there's more expected out of me being a smaller guard. I played up to some expectations.

Q. You've obviously been involved in what was such a mainstream moment for your team and LSU. I'm just curious how you think that energy from the college season and your championship can transfer over to the W, and what's so special about the group you were drafted with that sort of allows you all to take that energy and transfer it over?

ALEXIS MORRIS: I'm just going to start with Coach Mulkey. I'm just going to drag along her principles, her discipline, her structure that she supplied for the team, like being on time, being early, being the last one in the gym, tuck my jersey. The little things, I'm going to carry those small things over into the league. Because that's what's been keeping me successful this far. So if it's not broke, I don't want to -- there's nothing to fix. I'll just carry the little things over to my new organization, the Connecticut Sun.

What was the last part?

Q. I guess this is a huge moment for women's basketball, how you think that energy that's around the sport from the National Championship can sort of transfer now to the WNBA season.

ALEXIS MORRIS: Well, hopefully some of those followers just follow me along, and that's not to be cocky or anything, but I am a national champion, so hopefully that can bring some more attention and viewership to the league. My ultimate goal is to grow this game, and whether I'm a part of it or not, I want to make an impact on the league for the younger generations, for the women coming up under us. It's bigger than me.

Q. When you played in the SEC, obviously you guys play in a tough conference, playing against a majority of the players that went drafted come from the SEC. How has that prepared you for the next level? I know a lot of people always overlooked -- you were kind of looked at as the underrated player, but when I saw you play in person I realized your game is far above some of the other players on the floor. What elevation will you bring to the next level? Because I think that you can contribute to the team right away when you get there.

ALEXIS MORRIS: Okay, as far as the SEC and playing in that conference, the SEC is one of the toughest conferences I've ever played in. I've been in the Big 12, the Big Ten, and it's the physicality, the pace of the game, and just the competitiveness. The league is just special. The SEC is different.

What I've learned is -- you said I'm underrated. I've never really cared about ratings, so it's just people's opinions, right? My opinion of myself is kind of like all that matters when I look in the mirror and when I put in my own required hours, that's how I rate myself. I don't rate myself based on other people's performances or any of those things that's not conducive to what I'm trying to get done on my basketball journey.

What I plan on bringing to the league is speed, IQ, passion, leadership, being coachable, listening to my vets, learning from my vets, going to play under Skylar. Skylar is a vet in the league. I can learn a lot from her. Not Skylar, sorry, Courtney. I'm going to play under Courtney. I'm just super excited to go learn from them. I get them oranges mixed up, y'all. Sorry.

Q. We've heard and seen you do so much since being at LSU and everyone wants to keep asking you about you being underrated and stuff. Are you keeping tabs like all the good ones do of how many players were picked before you in this draft or extra motivation? Is this whole night more motivation for your perseverance of your basketball career?

ALEXIS MORRIS: As a competitor and in order to keep myself motivated, you have to find little things like that. I like to find little things that keep me fueled and keep a chip on my shoulder because I feel like that's when I perform at my best.

Like I said, as far as being underrated, I really just don't care about the opinions. I know the time that I put in towards my craft.

Some people will never give me credit just for my height. She's 5-6, she's little, she's tiny. They'll never give me credit for that. They can't see past the height thing. So it's like, I don't really get into the ratings. I'm going to congratulate all of those young ladies who went before me and after me. We just made a huge accomplishment. We're living our dreams right now. But when it comes down to spots, we're all competing for one.

Q. Can you also comment on LaDazhia getting drafted tonight?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Oh, yeah, big day, congratulations. Go Tigers. That was one of my fellow seniors, and I'm super happy and I'm super proud for Day. She's mild, she's quiet, she's laid back, and a lot of people didn't really get to say Day perform because she was in the shadow of Angel, but I think y'all seen later on down the stretch that she was a key piece to our puzzle, and I'm so happy that she got this opportunity, of course. Thank you, Day.

Q. What was the biggest lesson for you this season, this special season for you at LSU, and what does it mean for you to be part of the best league in the world?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Leadership. Like learning how important leadership is in order to win at the highest levels.

I've been playing the point guard position my whole life, but I wasn't under Coach Mulkey my entire college career, and she pushes and she pulls certain things out of us that we don't even know we have in us sometimes, and I appreciate Coach for that because I value the small things. Yeah.

Q. Wondering if you have talked to Darius Taylor or Coach White anytime before the draft or after you got drafted tonight?

ALEXIS MORRIS: I didn't speak to them before the draft but they did FaceTime me and congratulate me and I thanked them for picking me and giving me an opportunity to live my dream. I plan on calling them after I'm done with all the media and stuff just to get to know them. This is fitting to be my new home.

Q. Just knowing that the Sun roster, most of it's shored up for training camp, what's your approach coming into training camp this season and standing out and making an impression?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Go hard every day, be coachable, listen to my vets. Just go in there and compete and leave it all out there and let the pieces fall where they fall. I believe in God. I don't think He'll ever set me up to fail. He didn't bring me this far to just leave me hanging. I know He didn't do that.

I'm going to leave it all out there in training camp and let the pieces fall where they fall.

Q. You now join a long list of LSU athletes who have been taken in the W draft and I think it's four now in the Kim Mulkey era. Can you speak about what it means to join those legends, and how many more do you expect to see coming out of Baton Rouge?

ALEXIS MORRIS: I mean, you've always got to give credit to the legends and the people who came before you because they paved the way for me so I wouldn't have been able to see this day if they weren't my leaders and my role models. So I give a lot of credit to them. It means a lot to me. Like now I'm in that position, so now I have people looking up to me and I just am going to take what I learned from them and apply it in my own way and be a leader.

Coach Mulkey got a lot. Her pro list is about to extend. She has them coming in. Easy, yeah. She got them come in. She's going to get them.

Q. I don't think it's any secret the WNBA is a tough league to get into and a harder one to stay in. You mentioned your history earlier and your resilience, obviously, to get to this point. I'm curious how you think that prepares you for this fight to join the league, stay here and have a fruitful pro career?

ALEXIS MORRIS: Because I'm hungry. I think I said this in Dallas. Like I'm just super hungry, and everything I lost, like I'm going to get it. I'm going to take it. With all respect, I lost so much from my freshman year. I know it's still out there for me to gain. That's just how I approach everything.

But always respectful, though. Always respectful, yeah, and with love.