Jahmyl Telfort, who scored nine of the Bulldogs’ 10 points in the second half, cut their deficit to two with 10 seconds to go but his game-winning attempt hit off the top of the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.

The 80-78 victory helped the No. 19 Huskies improve to 14-5 on the year and 6-2 in Big East play. It was their ninth game this season decided by five points or less, and their fifth victory in such games.

UConn is now 11-0 in its all-time series against Butler (8-11, 1-7 Big East).

Ball, who made a 3-pointer that felt like a knockout blow with 1:39 on the clock in overtime and then missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Telfort another shot at the end, finished with a career-high 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Alex Karaban scored five of his 19 points in overtime and added seven rebounds, six assists and three blocks.

Centers Samson Johnson and Reed scored 14 points a piece.

Five minutes in, Reed, who was challenged by Dan Hurley after a stretch of rough outings, ripped away an offensive rebound and scored a layup, igniting the crowd and elating his coach, who ran over and embraced Aidan Mahaney at the scorer’s table. On the defensive end, Karaban swatted a 3-point attempt from Patrick McCaffery and passed ahead to Ball for a layup in transition, prompting Hurley to smack the scorer’s table in celebration.

That series, which put the Huskies up by nine less than six minutes in, set the tone for most of the first half.

Ball scored 15 points in the opening period, knocking down 3 of 7 attempts from beyond the arc. He rebounded a couple of his own misses and was able to salvage those possessions with points, as well. UConn continued to show off its transition offense, forcing three turnovers in a two-minute span and capitalizing to grow the lead to 15 with four and a half minutes until the break.

The Huskies didn’t make another field goal for the rest of the half and allowed a 9-0 Butler run, but Ball got to the line after a second-chance layup attempt to send UConn into the break with a 39-31 advantage.

In an inspired defensive effort early, UConn blocked seven shots in the first half and held the Bulldogs to 40.7% shooting from the field.

Butler’s Jahmyl Telfort denied any opportunity for the Huskies to pull away through much of the second half, powering to the rim as he scored 10 points after the break. He cut UConn’s lead to four around the eight-minute mark, but Jayden Ross finished a tough layup through contact and Ball nailed his fourth 3-pointer of the night to bring the Huskies’ advantage back to nine.

But UConn’s defense slipped from the first half. In another three-minute offensive slump, the Huskies got sloppy and let Butler back into it again. The Bulldogs took advantage of the miscues and put together an 11-1 scoring run, giving them their first lead of the game after a 3-pointer and a layup from Finley Bizjack (17 points) with four minutes to go.

The Bulldogs didn’t make another shot from the field in regulation but got enough from the free throw line to have the score tied in the final seconds. Hassan Diarra, who missed a desperation shot on what appeared to be UConn’s final possession, stole Butler’s inbound pass with 2.5 seconds left in regulation and came inches away from nailing a half court heave for the win.

UConn is back on the road this weekend, meeting Xavier in Cincinnati for an 8 p.m. tip on Saturday. The Musketeers took the Huskies to overtime at the XL Center when they met on Dec. 18, a 94-89 UConn win.

The Bobcats have won the festival of top-tier state teams three years in a row, and have proven that Connecticut’s answer to Boston’s Beanpot can be a springboard for bigger things.

“I love the time of year that we do it,” Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said. “You’ve got your team set, you’re getting ready. You’re not fully into playoff mode but you’re getting there, and any time you can play for a trophy, better that it’s late in the year, it is a great springboard to get us ready for an ECAC run and hopefully for all four of us, an NCAA run.”

Dom Amore: With Hudson Schandor’s rock-steady leadership, UConn hockey striking for new territory

The Bobcats knocked off UConn in 2023 and carried that momentum all the way to the Frozen Four, where their will to survive and advance culminated in a national championship. They knocked off the Huskies again last January at the XL Center to skate back to Hamden with the trophy, and again played deep into the NCAA Tournament.

This fifth staging of CT Ice, rotating to Fairfield and Sacred Heart’s lavish new Martire Family Arena this weekend, finds all four teams with varying degrees of tournament hope. UConn and Quinnipiac start off at 4 p.m. Friday, with Yale vs. Sacred Heart to follow.  The winners meet Saturday night. The $70 million arena has 3,600 seats and a full house, or near to it, is expected.

For UConn, getting over the in-state hump could be the springboard to a breakthrough to the national stage. The Huskies have had a productive start to the second half, sweeping New Hampshire at home Jan. 11-12 and getting a win and a tie, four of six points, in a weekend series at Maine last week. They are No.9 in the all-important PairWise ratings, which is well into at-large territory for the NCAA Tournament. With Hockey East stacked with five of the top nine teams, none of its contenders would want to have to win the conference tournament to move on to the big one.

The NCAA Tournament has eluded UConn since it joined Hockey East in 2014, as has the CT Ice trophy.

“I have always said, from my years of coaching in the Beanpot (while at Boston College) and this tournament, I think it’s a great dress rehearsal for what’s to come,” UConn coach Mike Cavanaugh said. “When you’re playing in a game where there’s a trophy on the line, it’s single elimination, it prepares your team to play a little bit differently. It’s different from the following weekend, we play Providence and if you lose the first, it doesn’t mean your chances of winning anything are gone.”

Quinnipiac (14-7-2), at No. 14 in PairWise, could push itself back up onto familiar territory with another Connecticut crown, or at least better position itself for the ECAC Tournament. Yale (5-11-1) beat Boston University on Dec. 29, indicating the Bulldogs can be a dangerous underdog. Sacred Heart (14-8-4), which snatched the first CT Ice title in 2021, is in first place in its conference, Atlantic Hockey America, and has impressive out of conference wins over Cornell and UMass.

“We’ve played some really good teams during the year and have had some ups and downs,” Pioneers coach C.J. Marottolo said. “But you pull experiences. We’ve come from behind, we’ve had good third periods, we’ve had good starts. There are a lot of things that create experiences for your team. On any given night, any team can beat anybody. The three teams in this tournament, it’s unbelievable competition.”

UConn has risen on the shoulders of veterans Hudson Schandor, who has more than 100 career points, and John Spetz, who returned for a fifth season. Heroics have been coming from a variety of players. Joey Muldowney scored four goals in the win at Maine last Friday and Avon’s Jake Percival came up with a goal late in the third period to force OT in the second game.

“Maine’s a very tough  place to play,” Cavanaugh said, “one of the best atmospheres in college hockey, a tough place to get points. I was proud of the team’s effort, but there’s a long way to go. From week to week, it can change very quickly. In tournaments like this, we’re going to have to play our very best. Quinnipiac’s a three-time champion and they’ve got a lot of pedigree.”

Freshman Claire Murdoch brings a mature game to UConn women’s hockey

Quinnipiac has lost four of five games earlier in the season against Hockey East opponents Maine, New Hampshire and Northeastern, but is unbeaten in its last five games. Sophomore Mason Marcellus (five goals, 18 assists) leads the team in scoring, and has 59 points in 62 college games. Senior Jack Ricketts leads the Bobcats with 10 goals.

Junior Felix Trudeau, with 13 goals and 14 assists, leads Sacred Heart with 27 points in 26 games.

Ronan O’Donnell, a first-year player from Fairfield, leads Yale with nine goals and five assists. The Bulldogs’ captain is senior Will Dineen, from the famous hockey family, including his father, Kevin, the Whalers captain in the 1990s, and grandfather Bill, who coached the Whalers in the 1970s.

“I came into the year expecting a lot,” Yale coach Keith Allain said. “We had a good, big freshman class, our seniors are great. We’ve been pretty banged up all through the fall. So I went into Christmas break not really sure what we had, but we’re getting healthier and since we’ve come back we’ve played well. We’re a better hockey team than we were Dec. 1, that’s for sure, and we’d like to use a tournament like this to make sure we’re a better team Feb. 1 than we are right now.”

Dom Amore’s Sunday Read: CT Sun staying put, charting new course into WNBA future; On Titans’ Will Levis, Coach K’s idea

But Dan Hurley, increasingly frustrated with his team’s lack of will and intensity, remains optimistic that the return of the star freshman can bandage some of his team’s exposed wounds.

Hurley said he saw hints of “vintage UConn basketball” in the game against Georgetown on Jan. 11, where defensive stops and transition offense helped build a lead of as many as 23 points in the second half. But that lead dissipated and the Huskies didn’t show the same fight when they returned home after a week without games and lost to Creighton.

“We haven’t been able to get there just because of the defensive end of the court and your ability to, across the board, rebound the ball,” Hurley said Monday night. “I think that’s why it’s so frustrating. Because it’s such a big season for us, too, and to not be where you want to be because you didn’t play with the life or death urgency that you need to in such an important year, it’s frustrating.”

The buzz before the year, part of the reason both Hurley and captain Alex Karaban turned down the NBA to stay in Storrs, surrounded the unique opportunity to compete for a third national championship in a row.

The word “three-peat” hasn’t been used very much lately.

“I got a lot going on in my mind right now. I’m thinking about a lot of things,” Hurley said, speaking candidly to local reporters before the team took over the press room at the XL Center for another film session before Tuesday’s game against Butler. “Has the success softened us? Has my intensity dropped? Have I lost my edge? Have we gotten soft with our success and feel entitled to it, and don’t have the will to earn it? We do have a lot of people though that haven’t won championships with us or weren’t integral parts of our championships, so I don’t know…”

Can a freshman be counted on to fix that? Can McNeeley be the magical sealant that, with one coat, can make a screen door float above water?

He will certainly help.

McNeeley was the Huskies’ second-leading scorer when he went down on New Year’s Day against DePaul. He was the team’s second-leading rebounder and was improving as a defender, two areas of which the team is in desperate need. McNeeley also played with a fire and an intensity, like Cam Spencer, that Hurley has been searching for.

The one-and-done type prospect “moved around” to test what movement felt like on his ankle during Monday’s practice, though his status hasn’t changed. Hurley’s initial hope was to have McNeeley back toward the end of January, before the team faces a February gauntlet with two games against both No. 10 Marquette and No. 20 St. John’s, as well as a road trip to Creighton, where the program has never won.

“His absence has affected multiple players negatively,” Hurley said.

A player like veteran point guard Hassan Diarra, who started the season coming off the bench, has logged too many minutes and has been drained by the end of games. Production from the center position has suffered, too, without a player like McNeeley drawing some of the attention in the paint and creating opportunities for easy buckets.

McNeeley’s absence takes away a lot of the lineup flexibility that had been so valuable to UConn’s last two national championship teams.

Solo Ball has been a tough player to take off the court with his offensive production, which has proven absolutely critical in keeping the Huskies among the top 10 most efficient offensive teams in the nation. But he’s been exposed, targeted, on the defensive end.

“With Liam in there, it would give you more flexibility to put in a defensive-minded guy if someone was struggling on the perimeter defensively. But with Liam out, obviously you need Solo’s offense, you need Alex’s offense and then obviously you need a point guard and yeah, you could afford to have another guy out there that maybe isn’t a great offensive player but brings intangibles and things like that with one of the centers,” Hurley said.

Ball, shooting 44.6% from beyond the arc, 19-for-36 (52.8%) since he made seven 3s at DePaul, entered Tuesday’s game ranked 18th among qualified Division I shooters in 3-point percentage.

“For guys like Jordan Hawkins, sophomore year I think as we got into like this point in the year, he really became sturdy defensively. I just think that Solo’s got great intentions, it’s not like one of those guys that’s like, ‘Hey, I’m a bucket and I’m one of the best shooters in the country, screw you guys.’ That’s not it with him,” Hurley said. “He feels the stress, the pressure to become a better defensive player for our team and it bothers him as much as any of the coach when he has defensive struggles. But it’s literally at every position. It’s well beyond Solo.”

UConn was projected as a No. 6 seed in Joe Lunardi’s early March Madness bracketology for ESPN, which was released Tuesday morning. In his projection, the Huskies would still have a favorable path of playing the first two rounds in Providence and then, should they advance to the second weekend, making another short trip to Newark, New Jersey.

Right now, the Huskies have a good enough offense to make a run. But the defensive end is what determines this team’s ceiling.

“I think just our defense, our rebounding and our overall toughness, we’ve become a finesse offensive team that runs a lot of good stuff on offense, but we’ve got to get our toughness back,” Hurley said.

How do you do that?

“That’s a tough one,” he said, stumped at the question that’s surely been asked dozens of times in coaches’ meetings.

“You do it with honesty, you do it with evidence, you do it with video. You’re told that with modern athletes or kids these days you have to be careful with how you talk to them, you know? But here, we go with honesty. We go with accountability. We go with, ‘Here’s what the film says, here’s what the numbers say. When you’re on the court with us, here’s your role in how we’re failing defensively,'” Hurley said. “Obviously you’ve spent a lot of time, too, trying to think if there’s a scheme change you could make defensively. But the way we’ve guarded has been really effective for a long time.”

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

It was the program’s first loss in Connecticut in nearly two years as its 28-game home winning streak came to an end.

One of those close wins came at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Dec. 21, when Butler cut down an 11-point deficit midway through the second half and fought back to get within two in the final seconds, but couldn’t overcome Alex Karaban‘s clutch shooting in a 78-74 Huskies’ victory.

Karaban has been up-and-down since, notably scoring eight points on just 3-for-12 shooting as the streak of nearly two calendar years came to an end on Saturday. He tweaked his ankle in the second half of the game and will be a game time decision, coach Dan Hurley said, on Tuesday.

“He didn’t practice (Monday), but he shot, so we’ll see how he feels with that ankle,” Hurley said. “It’s a sprain, I don’t think it’s as bad as the one he had last year against Providence, where he didn’t play in the St. John’s game at MSG.”

Tuesday’s game will be UConn’s fifth without standout freshman Liam McNeeley, who scored 17 points with five rebounds and seven assists in the first matchup against the Bulldogs. His absence has been critical as the Huskies continue to struggle on the defensive end, on both backboards and with their tenaciousness, which Hurley called out over the weekend.

Dom Amore: For Dan Hurley’s Huskies, the grace period has expired. It’s time for tenacity

“We’ve given up close to 47% from the field in Big East or high-major games this year. Our past teams, those numbers, even years when we had early exits in the tournament, we were holding people to 40% from the field,” Hurley said. “I think just our defense, our rebounding and our overall toughness, we’ve become a finesse offensive team that runs a lot of good stuff on offense, but we’ve got to get our toughness back… (Liam) will fix a lot of our issues when he gets back, but our defense overall, you’re not going anywhere doing that. You can’t compete for anything when you’re 126th.”

UConn, which is ranked No. 7 on offense and No. 127 on defense by KenPom, has never lost to Butler in the 10-game all-time series between the programs, which met for the first time in the 2011 national championship game.

The December loss for Butler came in the middle of a nine-game losing skid, which ended Wednesday as the Bulldogs claimed their first Big East win of the year against Seton Hall. They’ll come into the XL Center on Tuesday after six days without games.

It was the Bulldogs’ frontcourt that gave UConn the most trouble in their previous matchup, as 6-foot-9 forward Patrick McCaffery and 7-foot-1 center Andre Screen scored 17 points a piece. Screen grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked four shots as Butler claimed a 32-31 advantage on the glass – one of four times UConn has been outrebounded in its six Big East matchups. The last three have come in four games without McNeeley, who was the team’s second-leading rebounder when he went down.

Hurley will look for a bounce back game from Tarris Reed Jr. – one of the players who possesses the “nice guy” trait that he is trying to weed out – after he fouled out with just seven points in the previous matchup against Butler. Reed was minus-17 in 16 scoreless minutes on Saturday.

“We’ve got to play better across the board, especially the center spot,” Hurley said, reiterating that Reed needs to play with more force and ferocity. “(Butler is) hard to guard, with (Pierre) Brooks and (Jahmyl Telfort), McCaffery, it tells you just how hard it is to still win Big East games, no matter what the NET says, no matter what the KenPom says or any of the analytics. It’s a tough league to win games in, especially if you look at some of the firepower that they’ve got at the wing there and two pretty good centers and good guard play – and a great coach in Thad (Matta).

“It’s gonna be a hard game for us. We’re gonna be coming in banged up, short rest – they’ve had a week off – and we’re gonna need a great crowd and a real pick-me-up from playing in XL after the haunting experience at Gampel the other day… In an instance where you just lost one at one place, I kind of like the fact that I’m going to my other place.”

As the team continues to find its identity, more will and force across the board, those close games will persist. For now, especially if Karaban joins McNeeley in street clothes, the Huskies just need to find a way to win.

“These games are tougher, they’re grittier, it’s good to be a part of. It’s fun. You want to be in close games, you want to be in these Big East battles,” fifth-year point guard Hassan Diarra said. “We have to continue to do the right things so we can come out on the right side of them.”

UConn announces plan for Coaches vs. Cancer

Dan Hurley’s wife, Andrea, will again lead her memorial button initiative as the Huskies host their annual Coaches vs. Cancer game on Jan. 29 against DePaul. Fans will be able to find Andrea at a table on the XL Center concourse near section 124 when the doors open at 6:30, where they will be able to have a printed out photo (3″ or smaller) turned into a memorial button. Fans can also pre-submit photos by email at UConnHuskies.com/CvC. Cancer awareness ribbons will also be available at the table for fans to wear.

New this season, doctors from the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health will be set up on the concourse to offer free cancer screenings and education, as well as skin cancer checks prior to the game in the atrium. Patients from the Connecticut Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders will be honored on the court during the game.

What to know

Site: XL Center, Hartford.

Time: 7 p.m.

Records: No. 19 UConn: 13-5 (5-2 Big East), Butler: 8-10 (1-6)

Series: UConn leads, 10-0.

Last meeting: Dec. 21, 2024 – No. 11 UConn 78, Butler 74 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

TV: FS1 – Jason Benetti, Bill Raftery

Radio: Fox Sports 97-9 – Mike Crispino, Wayne Norman

Pregame reading:

• Dom Amore: For Dan Hurley’s Huskies, the grace period has expired. It’s time for tenacity
• UConn men’s basketball drops to No. 19 in AP Poll following second loss in three games
• UConn men’s basketball notes: Consistency is key for Jaylin Stewart as Huskies await McNeeley’s return
• UConn commit Darius Adams fits the mold of a future Husky, shows potential at Hoophall Classic

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 athletic 6-6 guard isn’t necessarily known for dunking, but he can throw down– having officially rocked the rim 25 times this season.

Castle has impressed in his rookie season, averaging 11.6 points, 3.6 assists and 2.5 rebounds and shooting 40 percent from the field. He’s started 23 of the Spurs’ 41 games.

San Antonio made Castle the fourth overall pick in the NBA Draft last June after the former Husky helped lead UConn to a second straight national title in his one and only season in college.

The Slam Dunk contest is one of the NBA’s most popular events during All-Star weekend, but it has lost some of its shine in recent years. Some of the game’s greatest-ever players have participated, including Michael Jordan, Dominique Wilkins, Kobe Bryant and Vince Carter, but increasingly the contest has been reserved for young, up-and-coming players.

Mac McClung, who’s played just a handful of NBA games and has spent most of his four-year career in the NBA G League, won the event each of the past two years. Recent winners also include Obi Toppin, Anfernee Simons and Hamidou Diallo.

The Slam Dunk contest is set for Saturday, Feb. 15 at 8 p.m. at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

The Huskies are 2-2 since losing standout freshman Liam McNeeley to a high ankle sprain on New Year’s Day, and his absence proved critical as the team failed to get over the hump down the stretch against the Bluejays. Coach Dan Hurley sent a message to his players through the media after the game as he called for “tenacity” both on the defensive end and on the backboards, again calling out his group of “swell guys” after they couldn’t find a way to get the win.

Designated as a Quad 3 loss, the team’s third of the season, UConn fell to No. 32 in the NCAA’s NET rankings. Continuing to struggle on the defensive end, where Hurley said “the bar is so low,” UConn enters Week 12 ranked No. 30 by KenPom’s efficiency metrics, where its offense is ranked No. 7 and its defense No. 128.

The AP voters ranked UConn just above St. John’s, which reentered the Top 25 at No. 20 this week, giving the Big East three ranked teams for the first time since Week 4. Marquette, which suffered a two-point loss at home to Xavier on Saturday, came in at No. 10 with its 15-3 overall record.

The Johnnies and the Golden Eagles are the only two Big East teams with only one loss in league play.

Auburn, at 17-1, held onto its top spot in the AP Poll after receiving all 62 first place votes. Duke and Iowa State flipped spots at No. 2 and 3, respectively, after the Cyclones suffered their second loss of the year at West Virginia. Alabama and Florida held in their spots to round out the top five.

Of UConn’s nonconference opponents, Memphis was the only team to remain ranked as it fell to No. 24. Both Gonzaga and Baylor dropped into the receiving votes category.

AP Top 25 men’s basketball poll: Week 12

1. Auburn (62 first place votes)
2. Duke
3. Iowa State
4. Alabama
5. Florida
6. Tennessee
7. Houston
8. Michigan State
9. Kentucky
10. Marquette
11. Purdue
12. Kansas
13. Texas A&M
14. Mississippi State
15. Oregon
16. Ole Miss
17. Illinois
18. Wisconsin
19. UConn
20. St. John’s
21. Michigan
22. Missouri
23. West Virginia
24. Memphis
25. Louisville

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

Diaco, who Huskies fans will remember for creating the ‘Civil ConFLiCT,‘ and for coming up with the idea for football games to be broadcast on Nickelodeon (which actually happened), spent last season as a defensive analyst at LSU.

The 51-year-old has bounced around since his time as head coach at UConn from 2014-16, working as defensive coordinator at Nebraska, Louisiana Tech and Purdue and as a defensive assistant at Oklahoma. He also spent the 2022 season as a defensive line coach with the New Jersey Generals in the USFL. Diaco went 11-26 at UConn and led the Huskies to the St. Petersburg Bowl in 2015.

Though often thought of as eccentric, Diaco is well-respected as a defensive coach, having won the Broyles Award as the top assistant while at Notre Dame in 2012. He reunited with former Irish head coach Brian Kelly at LSU in 2023.

Diaco will work under Bill Belichick’s son Steve, a former assistant with the New England Patriots who was named the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator.

Earlier this month, UConn lineman Pryce Yates, who won Defensive MVP at the Fenway Bowl in the Huskies’ 27-14, announced he was transferring to North Carolina next season.