“The hardest worker I’ve ever coached”: Chit-Chat Wright settling in at her new home

It didn’t take long for the Iowa coaching staff to sell Chit-Chat Wright on becoming a Hawkeye. With her former assistant coach LaSondra Barrett already hired onto the Iowa staff, Wright recognized almost immediately that Iowa City was the place for her.

“On my official visit, it just felt like home. They say, when you know, you know, and I just knew that I didn’t want to take any more visits. I knew this is where I wanted to be,” Wright told reporters after practice on Tuesday. “Everybody knows Iowa. This is where you come to get your name branded, to play on the highest level and play with great teammates.”

The Atlanta native built a strong connection with then-assistant coach LaSondra Barrett, who played a key role in recruiting her to Georgia Tech, where Wright spent her true freshman season a year ago. At the conclusion of last season, Nell Fortner announced her retirement prompting Wright to enter the transfer portal and Barrett to enter the coaching portal. It didn’t take long for the two to reconvene together in Iowa City.

“I’ve known Chit-Chat since she was in ninth grade,” said Barrett. “She plays outside of her frame and her height and she’s probably the hardest worker I’ve ever coached.”

“With Coach Barrett coming here, I had an idea, like okay, that’s somewhere I could see myself fitting in,” said Wright. “The program is really nice, the teammates, coaches and the legacy behind the name Iowa is pretty good…When you make a decision to commit to a school, you have to have a coach that’s like a leader. (Coach) Jan’s very communicative and she really expresses her feelings and emotions to you.”

As a true freshman at Georgia Tech last season, Chit-Chat appeared in 33 games, including 12 starts, averaging 7.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 25.3 minutes per game. She was effective in the minutes that she got and will get more opportunities within the Iowa offense, after ranking seventh in usage rate last season for the Yellow Jackets.

”I always said (when recruiting her at GT), if anybody really sees past her size, every team in the country will want her,” said Iowa assistant coach LaSondra Barrett on the HawkeyeReport podcast back in May. “She’s relentless. There is no challenge she’ll back down from and I think a lot of that comes because of her size, but she plays with a chip.”

How does Chit-Chat describe her game?

“I would say, like a quiet assassin.”

“I would say I was a very quiet, kind of shy kid (at GT), but then also somebody who was able to score, get buckets, pass, facilitate,” said Wright. “Playing style was definitely a big factor and a reason why I came (to Iowa). Playing fast, especially with my speed and quickness, that’s something that I like.”

For any underclassman, nothing is more valuable than time on the court and Chit-Chat got plenty of that last season. She ranked third on the team in minutes played, tallying 25+ minutes in 16 games, while she was also a starter for the final 12 games of the season. Chit-Chat says that getting to play in the NCAA Tournament was a valuable experience in her first year.

“I would say that getting that experience was great. Some people don’t even make it to the tournament, and also, I started some games and as a freshman that was great. But also, just taking on a leadership role on the collegiate level, that was different from high school,” said Wright. “Just having that knowledge of what it takes to get to that point, I feel like that’s good to have coming in as a sophomore now, I feel like I can tell the freshman, okay, you’ve got to pick it up, that’s not going to win us games.”

With a year of collegiate experience under her belt, Chit-Chat feels like she is in a position where she can speak up more. Talking to the media after practice on Tuesday, she was willing to answer every question thrown at her, including some about her nickname. As it turns out, the nickname, which was given to her during her AAU days, was not because she had a talkative personality.

“It came from my first AAU team,” said Wright. “I was very quiet, so it’s ironic that I got the name Chit-Chat and it’s very unique, so I stuck with it and now everybody calls me Chit-Chat. I feel like I own it now.”

The nickname fits her now more than it ever has and there’s little doubt that many fans at Carver-Hawkeye Arena this coming season will be dawning Chit-Chat shirts. The number of shirts will only grow if she comes in and makes an impact for a Hawkeyes team that is looking to go further than their second-round exit at the NCAA Tournament last season. However, just a couple of days into July, she says it’s all about figuring out how she fits with this team.

“Right now, I’m just trying to figure out my role on the team,” she said. “What the team needs me to do, what they need me to bring and then incorporating that into winning games.”

“I’m excited to see her on the court. I’m also excited for the fandom that she’s about to receive, but it’s well-deserved,” Barrett said. “I told her, Hannah’s going to be really happy with her being able to deliver that ball and get it to her in the running lanes. Hopefully we’ll see a lot of that this year.”