NEW YORK — The UConn women’s basketball team has dominated the Big East since rejoining the conference in 2020, winning every regular-season and tournament title over the last four seasons. After going 18-0 in 2023-24, the once-iconic conference may provide even fewer challenges for the preseason No. 2 team in the country this year.
The Huskies are runaway favorites to win the Big East again in 2024-25, receiving 10 votes to finish first in the preseason coaches’ poll. While the Big East is still a perennial power in men’s basketball with five teams receiving votes in the preseason AP Top 25, the conference has weakened on the women’s side. Villanova guard Lucy Olsen transferred to Iowa after finishing runner-up for Big East Player of the Year in 2024, and Marquette lost three All-Big East players to the transfer portal after former coach Megan Duffy was hired to lead Virginia Tech.
While UConn’s program is as prolific as ever, Creighton is the Big East’s only other ranked representative at No. 21, and even the Bluejays are down a key piece after All-Big East forward Emma Ronsiek transferred to Colorado State.
“We just have to be as good as we can be in our conference. The Big East has been dominant in men’s basketball in spite of all the other stuff, the Power Five or Four and all that … so what does that mean for the Big East women?” Auriemma asked Wednesday at Big East Media Day in Manhattan. “I think we have to invest in it more, and if we don’t, then the same thing that’s happened to a lot of other people that don’t invest in it is going to happen to our league.
“We’re going to keep investing in it at UConn, so I’m not worried about that part. … When you think you can make a return on your investment, you start to invest in it more. But how do you know if you can make a return if you don’t invest in it first?”
Auriemma is entering his 40th season at UConn under a college sports landscape that looks dramatically different from the one he signed up for in 1985. Superstar Paige Bueckers has one of the highest name, image and likeness valuations in the country, participating in NIL deals with companies that range from Gatorade and Nike to hair color brand Madison Reed and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The transfer portal, while less impactful on UConn than the rest of the Big East, has dramatically changed how coaches manage their rosters, and the carousel of conference realignment adds yet another layer of complication.
Auriemma believes the best solution at this stage is to do away with the “charade” of the amateur student-athlete and establish the NCAA as a semi-professional athletic organization.
“Teams wouldn’t be going 3,000 miles to play conference games if it had anything to do with student-athlete welfare, that’s No. 1, so we obviously threw that in the garbage can,” Auriemma said. “So let’s just call it what it is. We’re going to pay these guys to play basketball or play football or pay them to play any sport at a university, and then let’s make it a business and figure out how do we manage this business?
“Other sports have done it. … They sign kids to contracts, and you’re bound to your contract, and let’s honor the terms of the contract. Let’s do it.”
Updating UConn’s preseason injury report
UConn continues to battle the injury bug after three years plagued by major losses, but the Huskies are still on track to have their complete 14-player roster available by the time Big East play begins in earnest in January. Star guard Azzi Fudd is slowly getting back up to speed after suffering an ACL and medial meniscus tear last November: She said she is beginning to participate in some contact drills and 5-on-5 play, but the former No. 1 recruit is still managing her workload in hopes of maximizing her longevity.
Sophomore guard KK Arnold was a new addition to the injury report on Wednesday after Auriemma said she rolled her foot making a cut during practice this week, but he doesn’t expect the injury to keep her out for an extended period of time. Redshirt junior Ayanna Patterson is also “on hold” due to a shoulder injury sustained during practice as she continues her long-term rehab from patellar tendonitis surgery she underwent last December.
Bueckers embracing leadership role
Bueckers’ classmates Aaliayh Edwards and Nika Muhl both entered the WNBA Draft after last season, leaving her as the only fully healthy upperclassman on the team entering 2024-25. Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen is a graduate student, but she is dealing with her own adjustment period as she settles in with the Huskies. That leaves the brunt of the leadership responsibility on Bueckers’s shoulders, but it’s a challenge she is enjoying conquering.
“Right now, most people on the court are new to the game, or second-years in the game … so it’s challenged me in different ways to grow as a leader with how to talk to people, who responds to what, who’s receptive to things and who’s not receptive to things,” Bueckers said. “It makes you grow in your relationship with them as well off the court, because you get to know them as people and how they respond to things and how you can communicate with them … It brings me a lot of joy, because I’m just continuing to grow as a leader and as a teammate.”
Fudd, Bueckers’ best friend, said she sees the fifth-year superstar taking her role as a leader incredibly seriously this season.
“She’s trying to really fill in that void that Nika left us with, being a stronger vocal leader and just trying to do more of that kind of stuff, which I think has been really good. I’ve been able to really see that shift in her” Fudd said. “Paige is very, very disciplined, and her goals and standards for herself are extremely high, so she is always holding herself to the highest standard.”
An urgency to win in 2025
It has been nearly a decade since a UConn team last hoisted the trophy at the end of an NCAA Tournament, and Auriemma frequently reminds Bueckers that she doesn’t want to be the best player to come through the program without leaving a national champion. It’s a pressure Bueckers is already feeling acutely with weeks to go until the regular season officially begins, but the fifth-year superstar has committed herself to her mental preparation entering her final ride with the Huskies.
“It’s so easy to get caught up in wanting to win a national championship, so bad that you get so caught up in that that and you’re not worried about winning today,” Bueckers said. “You can’t win a national championship overnight. You win it in October, November, December, and all the habits that you build up until that point, so for me right now, it’s winning every single day of practice, winning every single day in the weight room, winning every single day in my training, in my rehab, and conquering every day in front of me and just going one step at a time.”
Auriemma said he wishes the team had more veteran presences around Bueckers, but he also has no qualms about placing the fate of his team into her capable hands.
“You look at our Final Four last year and how we got there and that we were two points away from playing in the national championship game, that was a testament to just how much that kid can do for a program, a team, and how far she can take you,” Auriemma said. “Not by herself, but putting a player like like Paige on your team automatically makes you a national championship contender … We have nine players at all can contribute. The big thing is they contribute really good when they’re on the floor with Paige, so we’ve got to find a way to be really good when she’s not on the floor.”
