Tiffany Hayes

Tiffany Hayes
WNBA's Atlanta Dream  – No. 15
Guard
Born 20 September 1989
Fort Polk, Louisiana
Nationality American
Listed height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Listed weight 155 lb (70 kg)
College Connecticut
WNBA draft 14, 2012
WNBA career 2012–present
Profile WNBA player profile
WNBA teams
Atlanta Dream (2012–present)
Awards and honors
2x NCAA Champion (2009, 2010)
WNBA All-Rookie Team (2012)

Tiffany Kiara Hayes (born 20 September 1989 in Fort Polk, Louisiana) is an American professional Basketball player, currently playing for the Atlanta Dream.[1] Hayes played college basketball for the Connecticut Huskies, playing for the 2009 and 2010 NCAA National Champions.

Early life

Hayes was born 20 September 1989 in Fort Polk, a town in western Louisiana to Dorothy and Renard Hayes.[2]

High school

Hayes played basketball for Winter Haven High School in Winter Haven, Florida. The team compiled a 117–9 record during her career, and won the state championship in 2004 and 2007.[2] She was the leading scorer on her team, scoring an average of 18.3 points per game.[3]

Hayes helped lead the AAU team Essence to the 2007 National Championship.[2]

Hayes was invited to the 2007 Youth Development Festival, a USA Basketball sponsored event for elite sophomores and juniors in high school, biennially at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. The 2007 event featured three teams from the USA and a team representing Brazil. Hayes was leading scorer of the White USA team, which won of five of its games to clinch the gold medal.[4] Hoopgulrz.com named Hayes the outstanding player of the Festival.[5]

Hayes participated in the 2008 Nike SPARQ Training 'My Better' Championship event. She finished the preliminary round as one of the top twenty-two out of the 3,000 high school athletes competing. The top finishers were flown to Nike World Headquarters for the finals.[6] Hayes finished second among all females competing.[7][8]

College

Hayes played for the University of Connecticut Huskies. She knew about the program when she was a little girl, and had interest in UConn since childhood. UConn became interested in Hayes in 2006, when an assistant coach, Tonya Cardoza, saw her playing AAU ball. Despite heavy recruitment by many other schools, UConn made an offer when Hayes was a junior, and Hayes committed to attend Connecticut.[9]

She asked to wear number 3, the number most recently worn by UConn legend Diana Taurasi. Hayes was not a starter at the beginning of the season, but after teammate Caroline Doty was injured, she stepped into the starting line-up. Her career high scoring game was against California in the regional semifinal of the NCAA Championship. Connecticut would go on to win every game of the season by double digits, but found itself in the unusual position of being eight points behind in the California game.[10] Hayes scored 28 points to help lead the team to a victory.[11]

Hayes was invited to the tryouts for the USA Women’s World University Games Team. She made the team, as the youngest player on the team, and the only freshman.[12] She would help the team to a 7–0 record and a gold medal in Belgrade, Serbia.[13]

On the fifth of February 2011, the Connecticut Huskies beat DePaul 89–66. This game was the 100th win in Hayes' college career, and occurred in her 101st game, making her the fastest player in NCAA basketball history to reach 100 wins.[14] Hayes scored 35 points against Syracuse on January 26, setting a career high, and followed that up with 33 points against South Florida, two days later. The 68 combined points in back-to-back games is the highest point total in consecutive game by any Connecticut player in history.[15]

Professional career

Hayes was selected by the Atlanta Dream as the second pick in the second round, the 14th overall pick.[16] She was named to the All-Rookie team.[17]

Awards and honors

University of Connecticut statistics

Tiffany Hayes Statistics[23][24] at University of Connecticut
Year G FG FGA PCT 3FG 3FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A TO B S MIN PTS AVG
2008–09 39 109 238 0.458 46 123 0.374 63 83 0.759 156 4.0 102 57 15 44 1002 327 8.4
2009–10 39 130 296 0.439 45 140 0.321 91 124 0.734 129 3.3 116 85 15 40 1028 396 10.2
2010–11 38 167 383 0.436 51 146 0.349 134 173 0.775 174 4.6 139 91 15 52 1203 519 13.7
2011–12 38 186 370 0.503 44 108 0.407 143 177 0.808 221 5.8 126 98 10 87 1148 559 14.7
Totals 154 592 1287 0.460 186 517 0.360 431 557 0.774 680 4.4 483 331 55 223 4381 1801 11.7

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Tiffany Hayes". UConnHuskies.com. Retrieved 2010-04-30.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Tiffany Hayes". UConnHuskies.com. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Tiffany Hayes". HoopGurlz.com. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  4. ↑ "USA WOMEN'S YOUTH DEVELOPMENT FESTIVAL -- 2007". USA Basketball. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  5. ↑ "Prospect Watch - Aug. 3". Hoopgurlz.com. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  6. ↑ "Nike Hosts Nationwide Search...". PR-Insider.com. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  7. ↑ "My Better Championship". Nike. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  8. ↑ "Girls Basketball Testing Protocols". Nike SPARQ. Retrieved 2009-11-08.
  9. ↑ Fuoco, Roy (March 2, 2007). "Tiffany Hayes, UConn Are Each Other's First Picks". The Ledger. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
  10. ↑ "Freshman Hayes' 28 points power UConn to rout". ESPN. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  11. ↑ Clark, Jim. "Tiffany Hayes: (Leave) Open at Your Own Risk!". Scout with Foxsports.com. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  12. ↑ "2009 Women's World University Games Team" (PDF). USA Basketball. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  13. ↑ "TWENTY-FOURTH WORLD UNIVERSITY GAMES -- 2009". USA Basketball. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  14. ↑ "Maya Moore's 34 points, 11 rebounds lift UConn in rout of DePaul". ESPN. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  15. ↑ Hays, Graham (29 January 2012). "Tiffany Hayes steals the headlines". ESPN. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  16. ↑ "2012 WNBA DRAFT". WNBA. Retrieved 7 Oct 2012.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Nneka Ogwumike, Glory Johnson Headline 2012 All-Rookie Team". WNBA. Retrieved 7 Oct 2012.
  18. ↑ "2008 McDonald's(R) All American Basketball". Thomson Reuters. 2008-02-20. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  19. ↑ "Preseason Wade Watch list announced". NCAA. Aug 5, 2010. Retrieved 3 Jul 2014.
  20. ↑ "WBCA Announces Preseason Selections for the 2009-2010". WBCA. July 30, 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2011.
  21. ↑ Adamec, Carl (March 4, 2011). "Primed for more". Journal Inquirer.com.
  22. ↑ Fuller, Jim (March 4, 2011). "UCONN WOMEN: Hayes joins Moore as first team All-Big East selection". New Haven Register. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  23. ↑ "Season Statistics". UConnHuskies.com. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  24. ↑ "UCONN Season Statistics". University of Connecticut. Retrieved 11 April 2010.