The Belgium women’s national basketball team head coach leads a roster with Mystics ties. Now, it will be interesting to see what happens to Julie Vanloo, Nastja Claessens, and even Emma Meesseman.
On Wednesday, the Connecticut Sun announced that Rachid Meziane, a French national, will be their head coach. Meziane is currently the head coach for Villeneuve D’Ascq in Lille and the Belgium women’s national team.
This is an interesting move by new Sun General Manager Morgan Tuck. Meziane is a European and has only coached European squads to this point. I know this isn’t a Washington Mystics piece, but his hiring still could influence what happens to their roster because of their Belgian influence.
As of today, it is unclear whether Meziane will remain the Cats’ head coach, according to a release by Basketball Belgium.
Meziane has led the Cats since 2022, where they won a Gold Medal in Women’s EuroBasket 2023 and made the semifinals in the 2024 Olympics. He also had two players with Mystics ties on the Olympic roster this past summer with Julie Vanloo and Nastja Claessens. At the time, then-General Manager Mike Thibault was keen on them. Now, he’s no longer in D.C.
Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger is poised to move in a different direction, and it’s unclear what Vanloo and Claessens will do with their WNBA futures. Vanloo enters the 2025 WNBA offseason as a reserved player. If she’s going to play in the WNBA again, she has to negotiate with the Mystics and no other team. But it also doesn’t mean that she will play for Washington. Now that Meziane is in Connecticut, wouldn’t it be possible to see Tuck make a call to Winger (or the new Mystics GM) on bringing her to Uncasville?
Claessens, who has yet to play in the WNBA, is still only able to play for Washington because she was drafted this past year. It’s also possible that a future Mystics-Sun trade could involve her.
And I didn’t forget. Emma Meesseman, the former Mystics great, is still in her prime. I don’t know if she wants to come back to the WNBA. But if she does, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Sun be a possible preferred destination.
In short, the Sun hiring Meziane could kill any future chance of Belgians playing on the Mystics for awhile. Alternatively, it could increase the number of players who want to be in the WNBA as well.
Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below.