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Sam Breen, the 2017 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year, began her college career at Penn State (2017-19) before transferring to UMass (2019-23), where she not only rediscovered her love for the game but also earned two Atlantic-10 Player of the Year honors on her way to becoming the highest scorer in program history. Now, she is fresh off winning the European Women’s Basketball Leauge (EWBL) with Nyon.
Swish Appeal talked to Sam about her second year as a pro, life in Switzerland and the season she’s having, averaging 22 points, 14 boards, four assists and three steals per game.
We also talked about growing up in Pennsylvania, regaining her love for basketball after transferring midseason to UMass as a sophomore and, most importantly, being allowed to travel and live with her dog. Here are a few highlight from our chat:
On her Dad and the announcer Mike Breen sharing the same name:
My dad and the announcer actually also went to the same grade school, so they know each other. It’s really weird. Dad recently has been dealing with some health stuff, and the announcer reached out to him. So it’s funny you bring that up because, obviously, they share the same name, but they also know each other, so it’s pretty cool. And even in practice and stuff, I think I subconsciously say “Bang!” [Breen’s catchphrase] when one of my teammates makes a 3.
On former UMass head coach Tory Verdi seeing something in her that even she didn’t see:
At the point when I visited, I was really down and really not enjoying basketball. And that’s one thing I forgot to mention with why I chose UMass is … he wanted to work on my confidence. No other coach had mentioned that. My confidence was absolutely destroyed and that was the main thing he wanted to work on, so that was also a big part of why I chose there, because it really opened my eyes to which coaches cared about which things. Yes, we are players, but we’re also humans … I think he must have seen the potential, which I’m very grateful that he did. I like to work hard and I don’t like to cut corners, but at the time, I don’t know how he would have known that. Because at that point in my life, I wasn’t liking basketball enough to do the extra work.
A special thank you to Isabelle Rivier of Nyon Basket Feminin for arranging the interview.
