UPDATED: Delle Donne says 'homesickness' drove her from UConn

By Jonathan Tannenwald
Philly.com

Hey folks,

Mel just called me with the breaking news that former star Connecticut recruit Elena Delle Donne, now at Delaware, will announce today that she will join the Blue Hens' women's basketball team for this coming season.

This news was reported earlier this morning by the Wilmington News-Journal, but Mel has confirmed this independently.

There have been rumors about this for some time, but today marks the first official confirmation that it is going to happen.

Delle Donne transferred to Delaware, whose campus in Newark is a short drive from her home town of Wilmington, Del., after not quite fitting in with the Huskies for a variety of reasons. She played varsity volleyball this past academic year.

Mel is rushing around to get more details of this as fast as he can and you should expect more details soon.

UPDATE: Mel just got off the phone with Delle Donne herself, and she admitted that it was actually "homesickness," not burnout, that drove her from the sport of her passion a year ago and from Connecticut to Delaware.

"In the recuritng process I didn't make homesickness a high priority," Delle Donne said. "Homesickness wasn't even a thought at that time."

Then Delle Donne added, "If I had to do it again, I would" have prioritized differently.

Mel told me as well that Delle Donne will receive a basketball scholarship beginning in September and will have four full years of eligibility in basketball.

More coming.