No. 6 UConn hasn’t been tested much in the Big East, averaging a 35-point margin of victory, but the Huskies’ schedule is a grind. The team played four of its first five games after the holiday break on the road, and it will also finish the season with four of its five ranked non-conference matchups played at neutral or road sites. Even the XL Center doesn’t bring the same home-arena feel for the team, which stays overnight at a hotel before games in Hartford, and it was clear in Sunday’s 96-36 rout of Seton Hall how much the Huskies benefit from playing in Storrs.

“We’re mentally tired, we’ve been on the road a lot, and I think the Georgetown game especially and the St. John’s game, for long stretches both of those games were played at a pace that doesn’t necessarily suit us,” Auriemma said. “Then we get back home a couple days, and now we’re on our own court, in our crowd, and we’re flying up the floor … I really am happy for them. They looked like they were having fun. Sometimes this time of year right before school starts back up again, these are like the dark days.”

UConn (17-2, 8-0 Big East) will embark on another brutal stretch of away games after facing the Wildcats (10-9, 4-3), facing four of their next six opponents on the road including No. 17 Tennessee and No. 2 South Carolina. Knowing that things aren’t going to get any easier from here for his inexperienced roster, coach Geno Auriemma said the coaching staff made a decision to simplify the offense dramatically following a 71-45 win at St. John’s last Wednesday.

“The last couple days of practice (we) kind of slashed our offensive playbook a lot. I think there were way too many things to choose from,” Auriemma said after beating Seton Hall. “We gave them a bar menu instead of the whole dinner menu. We just scaled it down to four or five things that we wanted to do and just stick with those the entire game, and I think that the confidence and the flow comes from that. We were consistent in shooting the ball, and that’s where it all comes from.”

The more straightforward game plan was an instant success against the Pirates. UConn’s superstar trio of Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong accounted for 59 points shooting a combined 68.7% from the field and 64.7% from 3-point range playing less than 25 minutes apiece. Bueckers also had her second-best passing performance of the season with a team-high seven assists, and the team finished with all 12 available players scoring points for the first time since 2008. UConn’s 60-point margin of victory was also its largest since a 103-35 rout of Butler when Bueckers was a freshman in 2021.

“I think less is more sometimes in terms of our efficiency and what we can get out of certain sets,” Bueckers said Sunday. “There’s a certain amount of sets that we have, but there’s a million options in each set, so (we) just narrowed it down, make sure we get really good at what we want to run and have the other stuff there in the back pocket when you need it. So I think it made strides for our offense.”

Geno Auriemma sees championship path after UConn women’s basketball’s vintage dominance vs. Seton Hall

The Huskies will look to keep the momentum rolling when they return to Gampel Pavilion for a rematch with Villanova. UConn earned a comfortable 67-46 win when the teams last met on the Wildcats’ home court Jan. 5, but that victory was overshadowed when Bueckers suffered a left knee sprain in the third quarter that sidelined her for the Huskies’ next two games.

Bueckers put up 15 points, nine assists and three steals playing just 25 minutes in the first meeting with Villanova, and sophomore KK Arnold stepped up after her injury with a season-high 15 points behind Strong’s team-leading 21. Now with Bueckers back on the court, the Huskies are getting even more dangerous: Fudd is quickly returning to the best version of herself averaging 18.8 points shooting 61.2% and 56.5% on 3-pointers, and redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy continues to build confidence logging six-plus rebounds in each of the last three games plus a career-high four blocks at Georgetown on Jan. 11.

“We’re getting better at the things that that you need to be better at to win come NCAA tournament time: Keeping people off the free throw line, not giving up uncontested and open threes, uncontested drives to the basket, second shots,” Auriemma said. “There were a lot of things that happened (Sunday) that we need to clean up, but we’re getting better at those things and and that’s a great sign. I keep forgetting they’re so young still and it drives me crazy, but they’re still young.”

How to watch UConn women’s basketball vs. Villanova

Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs

Time/date: 7 p.m., Wednesday

Series record: UConn leads 45-18

Last meeting: 67-46 UConn, Jan. 5 in Villanova, Pa.

TV: SNY

Streaming: SNY.tv, FOXsports.com

Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9

Sporting the iconic white jerseys the Huskies wore from 1998-2002 in front of a sold-out crowd, Paige Bueckers took down a 15-year-old program record, becoming the fastest player to score 2,000 career points in her 102nd game. The redshirt senior superstar placed herself among an elite tier of UConn legends by surpassing the milestone, joining four-time NCAA champion Breanna Stewart and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Maya Moore as the only players to log 2,000 points, 400 rebounds, 400 rebounds and 200 steals in their careers.

But in Sunday’s 96-36 rout of the Pirates, it was the dominance from all three former No. 1 recruits on the roster — Bueckers, redshirt junior Azzi Fudd, and freshman Sarah Strong — that felt most reminiscent of UConn dynasties past. Bueckers and Fudd scored 18 points apiece each hitting four 3-pointers, and Bueckers added a team-high seven assists. Strong put up the fourth double-double and seventh 20-point game of her young career with 23 points and 11 rebounds plus two assists and two steals. The entire trio shot 60% or better from the field, and they accounted for 59 of UConn’s 84 points over the first three quarters before resting the entire fourth.

“We’re on our own court, in our crowd and we’re flying up the floor, and that’s giving Paige a lot of targets. It’s like a quarterback back there trying to find everybody,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “When we have that, then she’s really, really dangerous with the ball. Then having Azzi over here, Sarah over there … it’s a lot going on for the other team to have to guard, and play like that has to be the goal. The standard has to be at that pace. It’s something to build on, and it’s great for them to see that.”

It was Auriemma who pointed out that part of the reason Bueckers hit 2,000 points in record pace was her underwhelming supporting cast — by UConn standards, at least. Stewart, the most decorated player in program history, played alongside eight other AP All-Americans and took 117 games to reach 2,000 points from 2012-16. Moore, the fastest to the milestone before Bueckers in 108 games, shared a roster with Naismith Player of the Year Tina Charles and two-time All-American Renee Montgomery from 2007-10.

Bueckers has played with just one other All-American, 2024 graduate Aaliyah Edwards, who earned third-team honors in 2023. Being UConn’s best option any time she’s on the floor has been a double-edged sword for Bueckers, Auriemma said: A boon for her production, but arguably the biggest obstacle to her ultimate goal of winning the program its long-awaited 12th national championship.

“Life doesn’t always put you in position you want to be in, and you’ve got to function in the time that you’re in, but I would think that the better the starting five is … that you put her in the middle of, the even better she’s going to be,” Auriemma said. “When you look at those banners on the wall of the best players ever to play here and you look at the years, you start going wait a minute, (those five) were all on the same team. How’d they do that year? Oh, they won two national championships … Those two things are so connected.”

The 2024-25 season began with Bueckers once again bearing a heavy load for the Huskies. She was the only player in the starting lineup with more than a year of college basketball experience, and the team played its first three games with 10 available players while Fudd and sixth-year forward Aubrey Griffin recovered from ACL tears suffered last season. Fudd was briefly sidelined for three more games by a knee sprain in December, and Bueckers herself missed two with a knee sprain in January before returning Wednesday with 12 points against St. John’s.

Dom Amore: Maybe it hasn’t been on script, but Paige Bueckers, on brink of 2,000 points, has fashioned a tale of her own at UConn

Though they currently have just one ranked win on the season over No. 13 North Carolina, the preseason No. 2 Huskies have always known how high their ceiling could be with a fully healthy roster. Strong was a revelation for UConn as soon as she arrived on campus, leading in the team with 7.9 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game on top of her 16.9 points and 3.6 assists. Fudd is quickly unlocking the best version of herself since returning from the sprain averaging 18.8 points on 61.2% shooting from the field and 56.5% beyond the arc over UConn’s last four games.

Sunday’s 60-point victory showed all the pieces finally coming together the way Auriemma imagined it could at the start of the season. There are still major tests left on UConn’s schedule in No. 17 Tennessee and No. 2 South Carolina, but the longtime Huskies coach saw shades of title teams past from his squad that he hopes will continue to build momentum down the stretch.

“I do think that if the three of them are playing at a real high level and executing their stuff the way they did today, we have an opportunity. We have a chance,” Auriemma said. “We put ourselves in the chance to win most of the games that we’re going to play the rest of the season. What that leads to I don’t know, but I think the confidence those three have in themselves and in each other is a huge factor. … When it’s clicking like that, it’s really fun to watch.”

Dom Amore: Aubrey Griffin’s return could be a game-changer for UConn women

The Huskies swept their pair of Big East matchups last week, beating St. John’s 71-45 on the road before dominating Seton Hall 96-36 at home on Sunday. UConn has been the only ranked representative of the Big East since Week 2, though Creighton was the second team out of the top 25 this week, receiving 28 votes behind Nebraska’s 35 and No. 25 Baylor with 37. UConn (17-2, 8-0 Big East) faces Creighton (15-3, 7-0) in Omaha, Neb. on Saturday looking to remain undefeated and take sole control of first place in the conference.

Huskies star Paige Bueckers earned her fourth Big East Player of the Week honors after becoming the fastest player in program history to score 2,000 career points against the Pirates in her 102nd game. Bueckers, who returned last week from a two-game absence due to a knee sprain, averaged 15 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists across the two victories. Sarah Strong also earned her seventh Freshman of the Week recognition after averaging 14.5 points and eight rebounds shooting 75% from the field. UConn players have swept the conference’s weekly honors four times in 2024-25.

Dom Amore: Maybe it hasn’t been on script, but Paige Bueckers, on brink of 2,000 points, has fashioned a tale of her own at UConn

UConn is set to face two more ranked opponents before the end of the regular season, beginning with No. 17 Tennessee on Feb. 6 in Knoxville. The Lady Vols dropped two spots after a loss to Vanderbilt, marking the first win in the in-state rival for UConn alum Shea Ralph as head coach of the Commodores. The Huskies will also take on No. 2 South Carolina on the road Feb. 16 looking to end the reigning national champions’ 68-game home winning streak. The Gamecocks received their first first-place this week vote since losing to No. 1 UCLA in November, and No. 3 Notre Dame also claimed two first-places votes.

AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll: Week 12

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. USC
5. LSU
6. UConn
7. Texas
8. Maryland
9. TCU
10. Kansas State
11. Kentucky
12.  Ohio State
13. North Carolina
14. Duke
15. Oklahoma
16. West Virginia
17. Tennessee
18. Georgia Tech
19. Alabama
20. NC State
21. Michigan State
22. California
23. Minnesota
24. Michigan
25. Baylor

How UConn reporter Emily Adams voted in Week 12 AP poll

1. UCLA
2. South Carolina
3. Notre Dame
4. USC
5. UConn
6. Texas
7. Maryland
8. LSU
9. TCU
10. Ohio State
11. Kansas State
12. Kentucky
13. North Carolina
14. Duke
15. Oklahoma
16. Tennessee
17. Alabama
18. Michigan
19. West Virginia
20. Georgia Tech
21. Michigan State
22. California
23. NC State
24. Minnesota
25. Vanderbilt

Bueckers officially became the 12th 2,000-point scorer in program history early in the second quarter, pulling up for a midrange jump shot to surpass the milestone. She is the fastest player in program history to reach 2,000 career points in her 102nd game, breaking a 15-year-old record set by Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer Maya Moore in her 108th game. Kerry Bascom, UConn’s first-ever 2,000-point scorer from 1987-91, was also in attendance to witness the victory and Bueckers’ historic accomplishment.

“To be able to put that many points on the board in that short period of time is one tremendous accomplishment,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “To be able to do it in spite of the ups and downs and the missing an entire season and a third of another season, to stay mentally locked in and to stay positive and to still be committed to putting the work in, there’s a lot that goes into being able to be out there and make the shots that she makes, given what she’s been through. I don’t know too many people that work at the game as hard or as often as she does, so I’m glad that she she’s being rewarded.”

Strong was practically unstoppable for UConn from the opening whistle, logging the third 20-point double-double of her first 19 collegiate games. The freshman phenom shot 9-for-11 from the field and 100% from 3-point range for 23 points, adding a team-high 11 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. Fudd and Bueckers finished with 18 points apiece, and Bueckers led the Huskies with seven assists. The trio shot a combined 11-for-17 from 3-point range and 68.8% from the field.

Dom Amore: Maybe it hasn’t been on script, but Paige Bueckers, on brink of 2,000 points, has fashioned a tale of her own at UConn

UConn dominated the first quarter on both ends of the floor, holding Seton Hall to just 3-for-18 from the field and 1-for-7 on 3-pointers while shooting 55.6% and starting 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. Strong was already more than halfway to a double-double in just eight minutes with 13 points and seven boards, and the team held the Pirates scoreless for the last three minutes the first quarter to open a 26-7 lead. Seton Hall star Faith Masonius started 0-for-6 from the field and entered halftime with just four points despite averaging more than 17 per game.

UConn kept its foot on the gas in the second as Bueckers put up six points in three minutes to reach her milestone. Fudd had one of her best halves of the season with 15 points shooting 6-for-10 from the field and 3-for-7 beyond the arc, and Strong stayed hot finishing the first half with 16 points and 10 rebounds for her third career double-double. Bueckers, Fudd and Strong combined for 43 of the Huskies’ 56 points before halftime.

“It was a full team effort today, and I think that’s huge in terms of continuing to build the chemistry and continuing to build what we look like as a unit,” Bueckers said. “It’s been hard. Obviously, Azzi had a period of being out. I had my period of being out, but just with more reps, more games, and just continuing, even in practice, getting more reps in I think is really huge. This is more of what we want it to look like every single night.”

Sixth-year forward Aubrey Griffin made her first appearance for UConn since suffering an ACL tear on Jan. 3, 2024 late in the second quarter, and she was welcomed back to the court with a standing ovation from the sold-out home crowd. Seven different players including Griffin logged points for the Huskies in the first half.

For the first time in more than a year, Aubrey Griffin is in the game for UConn! Gampel absolutely going crazy for her. pic.twitter.com/OainZlZZZA

— Emily Adams (@eaadams6) January 19, 2025

Bueckers, Strong and Fudd continued their shooting streak into the third quarter with all three putting up a 3-pointer in the first three minutes of the second half. Seton Hall had its best offensive performance in the third with a game-high 10 points, but the Pirates still struggled to score with efficiency around UConn’s stifling defense. Masonius ended 3-for-15 with eight points, just her second game finishing with less than 10 this season, and she gave up a game-high nine turnovers. The Huskies forced 19 turnovers and capitalized consistently with 27 points off of them, and they allowed just 11 points off 13 turnovers to Seton Hall.

UConn ended the third quarter on another 8-0 run to lead by nearly 60 points entering the fourth. The Huskies played all 12 of their available players in the victory, and all of them finished with at least two points. Freshman Allie Ziebell hit her first 3-pointer since going 5-for-9 against Xavier on Jan. 8, and sophomore Ashlynn Shade added eight points shooting 100% both from the field and 3-point range while leading the team with three steals.

With its superstar trio off the court for the entire last quarter, UConn’s younger lineups struggled to produce points going nearly five minutes without scoring to start the fourth. Ziebell ended the drought with her second 3-pointer, and KK Arnold dished an assist to Griffin seconds later in transition for a layup that marked her first field goal in over a year. Despite playing just 12 minutes, Ziebell finished with nine points shooting 50% from beyond the arc.

“We’re getting a little bit better individually, but we’re somewhat challenged at certain positions individually, so we we have to be really good team defense-wise,” Auriemma said. “We’re getting better at the things that that you need to be better at to win come NCAA Tournament time: Keeping people off the free throw line, not giving up uncontested open threes, uncontested drives to the basket, second shots. There were a lot of there were a lot of things that happened today that we need to clean up, but we’re getting better at those things and and that’s a great sign.”

But for the ultra-competitive Bueckers, who steps into a practice gym every day surrounded by NCAA championship banners and photos of Hall of Famers, the moment doesn’t feel particularly worthy of celebration. She didn’t even realize she was just six points away from the major milestone until after UConn’s 71-45 victory at St. John’s on Wednesday night.

“I had no idea it was such a big deal,” Bueckers said. “I think when you come here you kind of put (aside) individual milestones and achievements. … Wanting to be the best is the mindset I’ve always had, and a lot of people who come through these doors have, but that comes with winning championships. … In order to be the best here, you really have to win a national championship, so that’s always the goal.”

The accomplishment would be a ‘big deal’ under any circumstances, but Bueckers’ is particularly impressive because she has done it in record time. Sunday’s is game is just the 102nd of Bueckers’ career, and if she breaks the threshold against Seton Hall she will become the fastest player in program history to reach 2,000 points. The current record has stood since 2010, when Huskies legend Maya Moore surpassed the milestone in her 108th game as a junior.

“It’s kind of crazy to hear, but then I’m talking to Coach yesterday and Maya’s got 3,000 (points), so you look everywhere around and it’ll humble you,” Bueckers said with smile. “But obviously I’m grateful and extremely blessed, and it’s kind of surreal to think about all of the people that have passed through here and my journey and how I came to be where I am.”

Bueckers began her college career in historic fashion, becoming the first freshman to ever win the Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award and Associated Press Player of the Year, but the redshirt senior has played just two complete seasons with the Huskies nearly five years later. A tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear limited her to just 13 starts as a sophomore in 2021-22, and she missed her entire junior year after suffering an ACL tear in the same knee. Even this season has come with bad injury luck for Bueckers: She just returned to the court Wednesday from a right knee sprain that sidelined her for two games.

But despite the adversity she has faced, coach Geno Auriemma hasn’t seen his superstar lose a step. Bueckers is averaging a team-leading 19.4 points plus 4.4 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.1 steals this season in under 30 minutes per game. The redshirt senior has also gotten more efficient over time, shooting a career-best 56% from the field in 2024-25. Her career average, 53.5%, ranks third among UConn’s 2,000-point scorers behind forwards Napheesa Collier and Kara Wolters.

Where is Paige Bueckers in player of the year race? Midseason award predictions for UConn women’s basketball

“She’s been fortunate and unfortunate — fortunate when it comes to points — to be on a team without a lot of other amazing All-American type scorers, so she got to benefit of that. The unfortunate thing is, it’s hard to win national championships unless you have those guys,” Auriemma said. “To me the most impressive thing is she doesn’t take a lot of shots to get to those to those numbers … It’s never hard. It’s not a struggle for her to get her shots off, get the points she wants. … Every time the ball leaves her hand, I think it’s going in, and when it doesn’t the reaction is shock. How many players do you know like that?”

UConn has leaned on Bueckers heavily whenever she’s been on the floor over the last four years, and she has almost always risen to the challenge leading the team to at least the Final Four in all three NCAA Tournaments she has appeared in. The Huskies have never lost a Big East matchup with Bueckers playing, and they will look to extend a 30-game conference winning streak against the Pirates on Sunday.

“There are a lot of great players that have had amazing careers that have never won a national championship, that have never been to a Final Four, so you can’t use that as a gauge,” Auriemma said. “My thought process is, how much did she dominate the college basketball world during the four years that she played here, and if you took her off our team, how many Final Fours would we have made? How many national championship games would we have played in? … I don’t think we would have anywhere close to the success that we’ve had during her four years if it wasn’t for her and her ability.”

Dom Amore: Maybe it hasn’t been on script, but Paige Bueckers, on brink of 2,000 points, has fashioned a tale of her own at UConn

How to watch UConn women’s basketball vs. Seton Hall

Site: Gampel Pavilion, Storrs

Time/date: 1 p.m., Sunday

Series record: UConn leads 59-10

Last meeting: 83-59 UConn, Jan. 17, 2024 in South Orange, N.J.

TV: SNY

Streaming: SNY.tv, FOXsports.com

Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9

Stewart and Collier are two of the most successful players to ever come through Storrs, both in their collegiate and now professional careers. Stewart led the Huskies to four consecutive national championships from 2012-16 and has since won two WNBA MVP awards and three league championships. Collier was a freshman on Stewart’s 2016 NCAA championship squad and went on to earn three straight All-American selections before graduating in 2019. She was the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and has earned four All-Star selections in five complete seasons.

“Everywhere they go and everything they do, it’ll always be mentioned that they played at UConn,” Auriemma said. “For the rest of their lives, everywhere they go, everything they accomplish, we’re going to be a part of that. I couldn’t be prouder if it was my own kids at home. When I met both of those kids, they were 17 years old and just hoping to get a chance to play basketball at a high level, and now they’re incredibly accomplished gold medal winners and incredible human beings. I’m as excited as anybody to watch (Unrivaled) this weekend.”

Auriemma was one of the first major investors in Stewart’s and Collier’s Unrivaled league, which tips off its inaugural season Friday at its new state-of-the-art facility in Miami. He has since been joined by dozens of other icons across sports, business and entertainment, including U.S. women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan, actor Ashton Kutcher, former NBA star Carmelo Anthony and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley.

Unrivaled will compete in a modified version of the traditional 3-on-3 basketball that has grown in popularity since it was added to the Olympic Games in 2021. The league will play on a shortened 72-foot full court rather than the half court used in FIBA competitions, and teams will play to a ‘winning score’ in the fourth quarter rather than for a set period of time. Unrivaled also has its own shot clock and free-throw rules that aim to accelerate the pace of the game and replicate playground-style basketball.

“The easiest and most truthful answer for me is that my confidence is in Stewie and Pheesa, those two people as people, and their character, who they are, and the people that they’re involved with,” Auriemma said. “When they came to me and said, ‘Hey, this is what we want to do,’ I’m investing in the two of them as opposed to, ‘This league has the ability to just skyrocket and become the biggest thing in all of women’s basketball’ — but it may. We don’t know … The world likes that right now, that fast pace, and 3-on-3 has been really good at the Olympic level, so I think the league is going to be fantastic.”

Unrivaled features 36 active WNBA players divided across six teams for its first season headlined by Stewart and Collier, but the star-studded rosters include 13 WNBA champions, 22 All-Stars and 16 Olympians. The league also loaded with UConn alumni: Stewart will play alongside 2024 graduate Aaliyah Edwards on Mist BC, and former teammates Tiffany Hayes and Stefanie Dolson reunite on Laces BC. Three-time All-American Katie Lou Samuelson and Azura Stevens round out the group representing Phantom BC and Rose BC, respectively.

Unrivaled has also secured more than a dozen major corporate sponsorships on top of its individual investors, ranging from Wilson as the game ball manufacturer to Miller Lite as the league’s official beer partner. TNT Sports signed a multiyear media rights deal to exclusively broadcast every Unrivaled game this season across its networks, and Ally Financial is the league’s jersey-patch sponsor with Under Armour as the official uniform partner.

“Personally, I was investing in Pheesa and Stewie, but when I found out how many other people and at what level were also investing in it, I felt like, wow, I made a good decision,” Auriemma said with a grin. “I think they’re going to knock it out of the park.”

Stewart and Collier launched Unrivaled to provide WNBA stars a stateside option to play during the offseason with the goal of making it player-owned. All 36 players competing in 2025 receive equity league in addition to an average salary of more then $200,000 — the highest average in women’s professional sports.

UConn superstar Paige Bueckers signed an name, image and likeness deal with Unrivaled in August that gives her an ownership stake in the league and comes with the expectation that she will join as a player once she begins her professional career. Bueckers and LSU’s Flau’jae Johnson are the only college athletes on NIL agreements with Unrivaled, but USC star JuJu Watkins also joined the league as an investor in December.

“I think really the investment, the partnerships, how much they’re pouring into those women who are part of the league and have stakes in the league (stands out),” Bueckers said. “And just how important they’re treating it. It’s not just a fun league for the offseason for them to make money and have an opportunity to play. It’s really an opportunity to grow the game, and they’ve poured everything into it … so it’s a great start to the league, and I’m excited to watch.”

The decision was approved unanimously by the NCAA membership at its annual convention in Nashville, addressing a major disparity between the men’s and women’s tournaments that was highlighted bythe  2021 Kaplan Report. Men’s basketball teams have long received “units” — multimillion dollar allotments of revenue — for each game they play in the NCAA Tournament, and in 2024 the NCAA paid out roughly $264 million across the 64-team field with each unit worth approximately $2 million. Units for the men’s tournament are paid out over six years, while the women’s will be over three years, and go directly to teams’ conferences, which can divide the revenue among their membership as they see fit.

The women’s pool for revenue distribution won’t be nearly as large as the men’s in 2025 at approximately $15 million, but that will grow to $25 million by 2027-28. After reaching the fully funded amount of $25 million, the funds would grow at the same rate as all other Division I funds, which is approximately 2.9% each year.

The addition of units for this year’s tournament comes after the NCAA signed a new eight-year, $920-million dollar media rights agreement with ESPN that includes 40 championships including women’s basketball, and the deal values women’s March Madness on its own at approximately $60 million annually. The women’s national title game between South Carolina and Iowa also outdrew the men’s championship in television ratings averaging 18.7 million viewers compared to 14.8 million for the men’s matchup between UConn and Purdue.

“I think that’s huge, just for women to continue to capitalize on what we brought to the sport and what we do for sport in general and entertainment,” UConn’s Paige Bueckers said Wednesday. “Just to be able to be a part of that, we’re extremely grateful. I think it’s continued to grow as the sport grows, and so it’s a step in the right direction.”

The move was considered long overdue by many women’s basketball advocates, including UConn coach Geno Auriemma. The Huskies have reached at least the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for 30 consecutive seasons under Auriemma, and the team has played in the Final Four 23 times with a record 11 national championships to show for it — but without a dime of financial payout from the NCAA. In 2025, UConn could earn more than $1.2 million for the Big East with a Final Four appearance.

After leading his No. 6 Huskies to a 71-45 win at St. John’s on Wednesday night, Auriemma said the NCAA’s vote helped solidify the value of women’s basketball as college sports move into a new era.

“There is money being put on the table for broadcast rights and any other corporate investments, and the schools are going to be the beneficiary of that, as it should be,” Auriemma said. “Certainly it’s a statement that they made today about where women’s basketball fits into the big picture of college athletics.

“I think the onus is on the coaches and the players to keep getting better, because once you get the spotlight on you, now there’s an expectation, and we just have to keep meeting those expectations. Players like Paige can do a lot to to push this thing forward even more so.”

Like Bueckers, Auriemma sees the new financial incentives as a way to capitalize on the rapid growth of women’s college basketball over the last four years. Units have provided program-changing additional revenue for conferences outside of the Power 4 on the men’s side, and Auriemma said the opportunity to have a second team contribute will hopefully lead to increased investment from smaller athletic departments in their women’s programs.

“A lot of the small schools, this is their livelihood,” Auriemma said. “They count on their men’s team making the NCAA Tournament, trying to go deep into the tournament. That is a huge, huge chunk of their revenue as a department, so to have another team within the department that can theoretically earn that, it’s great for the schools. It’s great for the future of the game, of the sport. It’s another step in the right direction based on what’s happened the last couple of years.”

“It’s like, to learn to swim, you have to go to the swimming pool, so I’m getting in the pool as much as possible,” Meziane joked at his introductory press conference Thursday.

Meziane was hired as head coach of the Connecticut Sun on Dec. 4, becoming the first international coach in the franchise’s 27-year history. Meziane has spent 19 years coaching in the French Ligue Feminine including the past five with Villeneuve d’Ascq, leading the club to a league championship in 2024. He has also coached Belgium’s women’s national team since 2022, and the team had its best-ever Olympic finish coming in fourth at the Paris Games this summer.

Though Meziane’s English is still shaky and he had never set foot in the state before this week, the opportunity to join the WNBA was one he couldn’t pass up.

“The WNBA is the best league in the world, and the W has the best players, so I cannot understand who (would) not be interested to join it,” Meziane said. “I knew that it could be a big challenge. It will take lot of hard work, but I’m ready for that … For me, the WNBA was something I had to do. I have to be here to compete against the best teams, the best players, the best coaches in the world.”

The Sun went through a long interview process to find the right replacement for Stephanie White, who left the team after two seasons to serve as head coach of the Indiana Fever. General manager Morgan Tuck, who was officially promoted the day before Meziane’s hire was announced, helped spearhead the search alongside president Jennifer Rizzotti and former general manager Darius Taylor — who is remaining in the Sun front office under a new title. Rizzotti said the trio worked in equal partnership to identify and vet candidates, and Meziane eventually checked every box the team was looking for.

“Me, her and Darius did everything together pretty much. We all reached out to our networks, we identified a list, and we met very regularly, every couple days, about the list,” Rizzotti said. “I set up a lot of initial interviews to kind of vet candidates, and then if I felt like they were the right fit, we then immediately set up an interview for the three of us, and then they would usually follow up with an interview just the two of them, so all three of us had a chance to talk to each candidate multiple times in different settings … It was a very much a combined team effort, like literally 33.3% that each of us put into this process, because we felt like it was really important that we had the perspective of all three of us, and we chose the right person that we all believed would fit.”

hard work, discipline, and communication #BringTheHeat | #CTSun pic.twitter.com/Eb0lmSxVkI

— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) January 16, 2025

Meziane plans to officially move to Connecticut in February, and his wife and children will join him after they finish their school year in July. Meziane has a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter, who he said attended nearly all of his games in France, and he expects they will become the Sun’s biggest fans as soon as they arrive.

One of the Sun’s biggest requirements in their hiring process was finding someone willing to relocate to Connecticut full time. The team has not had a head coach live year-round in the state since Mike Thibault was fired in 2012, and Rizzotti felt the team needed a full-time presence as the WNBA expands with fewer players leaving to compete overseas during the offseason.

“That was honestly one of my first questions to everyone. That’s why I talked to everybody first, because I didn’t want us to interview somebody who wasn’t willing to be a Connecticut native,” Rizzotti said. “I felt like it was important — as we’re going to continue to invest in the team, we’re going to have facilities that match what (players) want, we’re going to have players here in the offseason — that their coaches needed to be here and they needed to be all into that … We needed to have our entire staff feeling invested in that Connecticut future.”

Meziane is also an elite basketball mind, aiming to marry the more team-oriented European game with the aggressive style of the WNBA. He originally played soccer growing up but quickly switched to basketball after developing a fascination with the Xs and Os of the game, and his knowledge immediately endeared him to Rizzotti and Tuck as former players.

“The WNBA has more physicality and some rules are a bit different, but the basketball is universal,” Meziane said. “I moved to basketball because I think in basketball we have more tactics, so it’s something I’m very interested by, and for sure my experience (will help). I’ve coached many players, and many of them are very smart, so I’ve learned from them … It’s easy to talk with Morgan because she is a former player. She played basketball at the top level, so I think that she’s able to really evaluate my skills. We felt our passion, and that’s why I’m here.”

The Sun did not retain any of the assistant coaches from White’s staff and are looking to fill two more positions after hiring former New York Liberty assistant Roneeka Hodges on Jan. 10. Hodges played for 10 years in the WNBA across six different teams, and she also played multiple seasons overseas in France before retiring in 2019. Hodges spent the last three years working under Australian national team coach Sandy Brondello and helped the Liberty to their first WNBA Championship in franchise history in 2024.

Rizzotti said Meziane’s input will be important in rounding out his coaching staff, but she is also prioritizing women and former players in the hiring process to complement his international experience.

“Obviously he wants people that he’s comfortable with, so he had his list of people he wanted us to interview, and for us, having former players on the staff was important to us,” Rizzotti said. “I wanted to make sure, not only do we have former players on staff, but that we are also grooming the next generation of WNBA head coaches in our league … I’ve always felt that you hire the best person for the job — I played for the best coach in the United States (UConn’s Geno Auriemma) who happens to be a man — but it’s not lost on me that women being able to put successful women in leadership roles needs to be a priority.”

Bueckers was sidelined last week by a left knee sprain but resumed her spot in the starting lineup against the Red Storm and logged 12 points, five rebounds and two steals playing less just under 23 minutes. Bueckers is now six points away from becoming the 12th UConn player to reach 2,000 career points, and she can become the fastest in program history to hit the milestone when the No. 6 Huskies host Seton Hall at Gampel Pavilion on Sunday in her 102nd career game.

“I’m just glad to be back out there obviously,” Bueckers said. “The first game getting back from anything you just want to get your feet wet, get the feel of playing basketball again, they physicality of it, the pace of it. But I’m feeling good.”

The Huskies looked completely comfortable in the first quarter with Bueckers back on the floor and Bueckers immediately made her presence felt with an off-balance jump shot to score UConn’s first points of the game. Bueckers kicked off an 6-0 run for the Huskies over the first three minutes of the quarter, and they held St. John’s to just 3-for-10 from the field amid a red-hot shooting streak. UConn shot a combined 71.4% from the field, 50% from 3-point range and 100% at the free throw line in the opening quarter, and sophomore Ashlynn Shade sealed the dominant start with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer that sent the Huskies in the second leading 25-10.

UConn’s offense slowed in the second quarter up against a St. John’s defense that ranks No. 2 in the Big East in points allowed. The Huskies, who have the top scoring defense in the conference, still held the Red Storm to just 11 points in the quarter, but they went more than five minutes without scoring a field goal and shot just 4-for-10 from the field. Auriemma did his best to restrict Bueckers’ playing time, keeping her on the court for just over 16 minutes in the first half, and it took the redshirt senior some time to find her shot starting 1-for-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3-point range.

“The way the game started, she looked like she just picked up exactly where she left off, but there you start to see her drift, and she doesn’t have the stamina to keep her foot on the gas like she normally would,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “She spent part of the first half just wandering, and we couldn’t get her enough shots … I never doubt what Paige can do to impact the game because I’ve seen her do it so many times, but I also know she’s not a robot where you just put her in, push a button and everything happens automatically.”

Where is Paige Bueckers in player of the year race? Midseason award predictions for UConn women’s basketball

The bright spot for UConn in the first half was star guard Azzi Fudd, who shot 50% both from the field and beyond the arc for a team-leading nine points. Fudd’s first 3-pointer ended the Huskies’ field goal drought, and she accounted for five of the team’s 11 points in the second quarter. Redshirt freshman center Jana El Alfy also had a statement half with six points going 3-for-4 from the field, and she added three rebounds and an assist without a single foul.

“We’ve always prided ourselves in having big kids that could impact the game a lot of different ways, going back to Kara Wolter and Rebecca Lobo,” Auriemma said. “So as it relates to Jana, there’s a lot of growing that she has to do. There’s a lot of learning that she has to do … She’s learning little by little, and every day she’s having more of an impact, little by little.”

Bueckers quickly hit her stride in the second half, putting up six points in the first five minutes of the third quarter. She combined with Fudd for eight points that put the Huskies on a 10-2 run, and UConn held St. John’s without a field goal for nearly five minutes after the Red Storm opened the half with back-to-back made layups. Both Fudd and Bueckers ended the third quarter scoring in double digits, and Bueckers improved to 4-for-7 from the field.

UConn’s 3-point struggles continued into the second half, going the entire third quarter without a make from beyond the arc, but the team put together a balanced offensive effort with 10 different scorers. Fudd led the way with 13 points shooting 6-for-11 from the field in just 25 minutes, marking her third consecutive game with at least 10 points. Ashlynn Shade also added 10 for her second straight game scoring in double figures, and the sophomore guard accounted for two of UConn’s four made 3-pointers missing only a single attempt from beyond the arc. The rest of the team went a combined 2-for-12 on threes.

The Huskies also kept up their stifling defensive effort through the third quarter, though UConn’s less-experienced lineups struggled to limit St. John’s down the stretch. The Red Storm had 14 points for their highest-scoring quarter of the game in the fourth, but they finished shooting just 33% from the field and 21% from 3-point range. The Huskies only narrowly won the turnover margin 15 to 13 with eight steals, but they were far more successful in capitalizing on those possessions with 17 points off turnovers to just six for St. John’s.

“I’m trying to give players an opportunity to see who fits with who and fits with what, so that first quarter, we kept that (starting) group intact and we scored 25 points against one of the best defensive teams in the Big East,” Auriemma said. “Then as the substitutions come and as new lineups come in, it just gets really confusing out there … Once you take Paige out of the game and you take Azzi out of the game, you’ve got a lot of kids that have not played a lot of basketball, and it’s going to look bad.”

UConn women’s basketball star Paige Bueckers is one of three superstar contenders headlining the race, alongside Hannah Hidalgo at No. 3 Notre Dame and JuJu Watkins at No. 4 USC. Bueckers is one of the most efficient guards in the country, averaging 19.9 points on career-high 55.9% shooting from the field, also hitting above 40% from 3-point range. The redshirt senior also averages 4.3 rebounds, four assists and 2.1 steals per game, and she ranks top-10 in the country in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Hidalgo has the best numbers among the trio, averaging 25.7 points, six rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, and she is shooting 50.4% from the field and nearly 46% beyond the arc. The sophomore point guard is also one of two players in the country averaging more than four steals per game. Watkins is just as productive logging 25.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists, though she is not nearly as efficient as Hidalgo or Bueckers shooting 46.5% from the field and 35.3% from three.

Bueckers was an almost-unanimous player of the year in 2020-21, becoming the first freshman to win the Naismith Trophy, Wooden Award and Associated Press honor. The only award missing from her collection was the Wade Trophy, which freshmen were not eligible for until the 2021-22 season. Hidalgo and Watkins were both first-team All Americans and Naismith Trophy finalists as freshmen in 2023-24, and Watkins was the first freshman finalist for the Wade Trophy since the change in eligibility requirements.

The biggest obstacle to Bueckers’ case in 2024-25 may be UConn’s head-to-head losses against the other two candidates. Hidalgo, the betting favorite for the Wooden Award, had a career performance in Notre Dame’s 79-68 victory against UConn in December with 29 points on six 3-pointers plus 10 rebounds, eight assists and three steals. She also powered the Irish with 24 points, six rebounds, eight assists and five steals in their November win over Watkins’ Trojans in Los Angeles. Watkins also had one of her best 3-point performances of the season going 3-for-4 in USC’s 72-70 win in Hartford, leading the Trojans with 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and three blocks.

Bueckers could use a statement performance in at least one of the two blockbuster games left on UConn’s schedule to solidify herself in the national consciousness, especially after missing two games in January with a left knee sprain. The Huskies continue their historic rivalry series with No. 15 Tennessee in Knoxville on Feb. 6, then look for their first win against No. 2 South Carolina since 2021 in Columbia on Feb. 16.

Is Sarah Strong a lock for Freshman of the Year?

Sarah Strong arrived in Storrs with high expectations as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2024, and the freshman has already lived up to everything that her pedigree promised. Strong is averaging 17.2 points, a team-high 7.9 rebounds and 3.6 assists, also leading the Huskies with 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks, and she has put up three double-doubles with two coming in ranked matchups against No. 14 North Carolina and USC. She is all but guaranteed Big East Freshman of the Year with six Freshman of the Week recognitions from the conference — the same number 2024 winner Ashlynn Shade earned across the entire season.

Strong’s top challenger in the national race is Syla Swords, who was No. 4 in the 2024 class and is now averaging 15.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists at Michigan. Swords has shined in the biggest moments with 27 points against South Carolina and 30 at No. 1 UCLA, but the Wolverines star hasn’t played with Strong’s level of consistency. The UConn rookie has scored at least 10 points in every game of her college career so far, and she is the only freshman that ranks inside the top 30 nationally in both assist-to-turnover ratio and field goal percentage.

Who’s in the mix for Big East awards?

On top of Freshman of the Year, Strong could easily make a case for Big East Defensive Player of the Year as the only player in the conference averaging at least two steals and one block per game. She also leads the league in defensive rebounding, anchoring a UConn defense that ranks first in the Big East in both points allowed and turnovers forced. The Huskies also hold opponents to a conference-low 35.6% shooting from the field.

Sophomore KK Arnold has spent the start of conference play establishing herself as a contender for Sixth Player of the Year after earning All-Big East honors as a freshman last season. Arnold had a slow start in 2024-25 but is averaging eight points, 3.5 assists and two steals against Big East opponents in just 23 minutes off the bench for the Huskies. Shade has started 12 games but could also have a case for Sixth Player by the end of the season once Bueckers rejoins the lineup and moves her back to the bench. She is averaging 8.4 points per game while shooting a team-best 41.5% from 3-point range, and she has also been one of the team’s strongest perimeter defenders.

Star guard Azzi Fudd was a preseason All-Big East selection, and she is on track to secure her first conference honor since her 2021-22 despite appearing in just 11 games so far. Fudd was limited to start 2024-25 recovering from ACL and medial meniscus tear suffered last season, and she missed another three games in December after spraining her right knee, but she has hit her stride in recent Big East matchups with back-to-back 20-point performances. Fudd is averaging 13.6 points shooting 46.4% from the field in conference play, and she also ranks third in 3-point percentage hitting 43.8%.