Former WSU standout Charlisse Leger-Walker returns as member of UCLA, still waiting to come back from ACL tear

As the UCLA players warmed up Thursday afternoon on the Arena floor, Charlisse Leger-Walker looked ready to play in the Sweet 16.

Her moves were fluid, the shots were falling and she was smiling. But when the Bruins tip off against Ole Miss on Friday afternoon, Leger-Walker will take a seat on the bench and do what she’s always done – make everyone else better.

Leger-Walker has done that most of her life. At 16, she played for the New Zealand national team in the Commonwealth Games.

Two years later, she led Washington State to its first NCAA Tournament in 30 years. Then she did it twice more.

All the while she raised everyone’s game. That’s a point guard’s job, to be sure, but Leger-Walker did it better than almost anyone else in WSU history.

By her senior year, the Cougs were on the cusp of a fourth consecutive trip to March Madness. But midway through the season, Leger-Walker was on the way to an easy layup at UCLA when she tore the ACL in her right leg.

Three months later, she transferred, coincidentally to UCLA, for her final season of college ball.

That didn’t happen this year. She’s ready to play, but Leger-Walker and her coaches reasoned that a full season next year would be preferable to half a loaf this year.

Eight games into the season, UCLA announced that she would take a medical redshirt this season.

That a big dose of delayed gratification, but Leger-Walker has embraced the situation.

“I’ve been playing since I can remember … and you don’t really get a break like this,” she Thursday outside the UCLA locker room. “And so if I just to have a sit back and kind of reassess, it took a lot of pressure off and I’m very grateful for that.

“And although I can’t play with them at this moment, I still love just to be a part of this program … just watching and hearing and you figure out how to be a bit of a leader.

“Physically, I feel really good. It’s been a long process, just to get back. But I wanted to go in not being scared when I finally got back onto the court.

“I didn’t want to be limited or be thinking about, you know, ‘Should I cut like this, can I slide?’ So, right now, I’m at a point where I am feeling really good about, how strong I am, the movements that I’m doing, and I’m just so excited to be out there.”

That point hasn’t been lost on Leger-Walker’s coaches and teammates.

“She’s had such an incredible impact, and she’s never played a game yet,” UCLA coach Cori Close said at Thursday’s news conference.

“We have the potential to have everybody back next year,” Close said. “And I’ll tell you, one of the motivating factors of that, is everybody is excited to play with Charlisse Leger-Walker.”

For her part, Leger-Walker is excited for the fresh start. That’s one reason she left Pullman.

“It was a really hard decision for me,” Leger-Walker said. “I love Pullman. It was my home for four years. I love the girls, I love the coaches and it was just one of those things, you know.

“That was my original plan … . four years and go to the (WNBA) draft, you know, and they only changed because I got injured, so I kind of reassessed my options. And I had graduated and my class was leaving, so I put all those things put together and I decided to leave and go to L.A.”

That, and a chance to make everyone else better.