When Breanna Stewart returned to the University of Connecticut this fall for her senior year, she joined the crowd of students going back-to-school shopping. But the 6-foot-4 basketball star was far from incognito.
"I was in Walmart and people were like, 'Stewie!'"
There's Madonna, Beyonce and Bono, and now, at least in Storrs, you can add Stewie to the list of single-moniker celebrities.
"I feel like once I came to Connecticut, it's my new name," Stewart says.
She made quite the entrance when she first arrived in the women's basketball-crazed state. As a freshman, she said she wanted to win four national championships while at UConn -- a feat no Division I women's basketball program has accomplished.
"When I was saying it, I wasn't trying to get a reaction from anyone," says the native of North Syracuse, New York. "I was just being realistic. You come to Connecticut and see all the other national championships people win. It's not like it's a rare thing."
So far, Stewart's three for three; UConn has won the past three national championships, and she was named the Most Outstanding Player in the three Final Fours in which she's played. She was also named national player of the year the past two seasons.
This year, Stewart knows she'll be taking on even more of a leadership role, which involves taking a page out of the playbook of her outspoken coach, Geno Auriemma.
"I'm not allowed to just lead by example. I have to talk," she says. "I'm not a super-shy person. I talk when I feel it's the right occasion. But when you're on the basketball court, you have to talk all the time. That's something the coaches have pushed out of me. It's become natural."
Fitness is key for Stewart's success as well. Along with lifting weights and individual workouts on the court with coaches, the entire UConn team does yoga once a week together to improve players' flexibility and mobility.
In addition, recovery has become an integral part of Stewart's training regimen and helps her stay healthy throughout the long stretch of a basketball season.
"We do a lot of recovery treatments in the training room like the cold tub, hot tub, NormaTec [compression boots] or stretching," she says.
Stewart has also made improvements to her diet, trying to eat healthy and clean.
"I'm starting to do a lot more cooking and a lot less ordering out," she says. "[My roommates and I] make pork chops with broccoli or steak. Snacks are good sometimes, but you can't have a lot of them."
One daily dose of healthiness comes courtesy of the team's strength and conditioning coach, Amanda Kimball. "After every workout, we get a fruit smoothie," Stewart says.
Being committed to keeping game-ready is just part of what makes Stewart so special. On the brink of leading her team to history, Stewart's also becoming the new model in women's basketball. She can use her size to dominate in the paint and also nail 3-pointers as if they were layups. Then there's the video of her dunking. She hasn't pulled it off in a college game -- yet.
As it stands, Stewart could walk away from the game today and be considered one of the best college basketball players of all time, though in her mind, she's just getting started.
"One of my goals is to be on the Olympic team and I'm hoping I'll be able to get on this team in Rio," she says. "I want to be as prepared as possible for the next level and that's what I've talked with Coach [Auriemma] about."
But first, Stewart has every intention of fulfilling the goal she set out to achieve three years ago.
"To be able to win four would be unbelievable," she says. "I wouldn't want to do it with any other team than the one we have this year."
