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

“She’s baaaack,” Aubrey Griffin’s teammates were saying all week when they passed her in the hallways. And when she checked into Sunday’s game against Seton Hall with 4:37 left in the first half, her first appearance since being helped off the court at Creighton with a torn ACL on Jan. 3, 2024, UConn had the college equivalent of a veteran acquired at midseason for a postseason run. A difference-maker.

“It’s Aubrey Day,” Paige Bueckers told SNY’s Chelsea Sherrod as she walked off the court. “To see her, how hard she’s worked, everything she’s been through, and how it’s never deterred who she is as a basketball player and a human being. It’s extremely rewarding to see her have fun out there.”

UConn women’s basketball powered by star trio in 96-36 rout of Seton Hall as Paige Bueckers passes milestone

Griffin, entering to a loud reception from UConn fans, played about 10 minutes, scoring three points, with four rebounds and two assists. She was just getting her legs under her, and her full impact was hardly needed as UConn overmatched Seton Hall, 96-36.  (And Seton Hall came in with a 5-1 record in Big East play.)

But when Griffin, 6 feet 1, in her sixth season at UConn, gets up to full speed, her impact could be felt in games in which the Huskies will be challenged, at Tennessee and South Carolina next month and in the late stages of the NCAA Tournament.

In getting Griffin back in late January, UConn, which already has the talent and depth to go back to the Final Four, gets a large dose of some of the things it doesn’t necessarily have. The moment a fully healthy Griffin gets out there, the Huskies get longer and more athletic, can become more dynamic on offense, more menacing on defense, more experienced off the bench. In the 12 months since Griffin went down, UConn lost five out of 44 games, but was twice torched for 30-plus points by Hannah Hidalgo in losses to Notre Dame, and gave up 25 to JuJu Watkins in a two-point loss to Southern Cal last month.

Does UConn win those games if Griffin is available to guard the opponents’ best players? Could she be, even if coming off the bench, that little extra something that could make the difference? Geno Auriemma and his assistants would love to find out, when the championship is on the line.

UConn’s performance Sunday was notable for Paige Buecker’s 2,000th career point, and for the sustained look at Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong, healthy at the same time and forming an in-sync “Big Three,” something else the teams that have beaten UConn the last few years have not had to defend.

Those are big deals. But Griffin, as a missing piece of a puzzle, could be just as big. When she came to UConn in 2019, she wasn’t a top-10 recruit, but Auriemma saw something in the daughter of former NBA player and coach Adrian Griffin. She has played 111 college games, averaging 21 minutes, 8.2 points, 5.7 rebounds. Whenever a switch was somehow flipped, though, Aubrey Griffin could be far more dynamic than those stats indicate.

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

And that was beginning to happen more consistently last season, before Griffin landed awkwardly at the baseline in Omaha, when her “last season” ended.

“Her injury came right in the midst of  when she was playing the best basketball of her career,” Auriemma said.

The team was devastated for her, the postgame locker room, bus ride to the airport and trip to Washington for the next game as somber as witnesses had ever seen. When Griffin, who has missed the 2021-22 season with a back injury, announced to the UConn fans on Senior Night that she would return for her extra year of eligibility, there was hope. Like Bueckers and Fudd, she worked diligently, day by day to return once her left knee was repaired. The typical 12-month recovery leaves her with 2 1/2 months to leave the mark she came to UConn to make.

“She has put in a lot of effort, a lot of time, a lot of work into doing all this and she has to be rewarded,” Auriemma said. “Some way, she has to be rewarded. I’m grateful she’s going to get an opportunity to give it a shot.”

And maybe the UConn team, after years in a dark forest full of injuries, is about to be rewarded, too. Without COVID, without the injuries and the red-shirting, the Huskies would not have a team like it has assembled right now. Established stars and future stars in the making all together, from freshmen like Strong, 18, to Griffin, 23, who earned her degree in women’s studies nearly two years ago.

“It feels great to be back out there with my teammates,” Griffin told reporters after the game, “and it’s been a long process and every single one of them has been with me every step. I’m just so grateful to be out there again.”

Griffin said she could hardly sleep Saturday night, knowing she had been medically cleared to play, with a restriction on minutes. When she came out to stretch Sunday, the student section chanted for her. After she checked in, Bueckers immediately got her the ball.

“To let her know at that all of us believe in her and are excited to have her back was definitely the goal,” Bueckers said.

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

Griffin ended up at the line and made one. She returned for the final 6 1/2 minutes, and KK Arnold found her running down the floor with a long pass for a layup, Griffin’s first bucket bringing the UConn bench, which by then had all the starters, to their feet. The Huskies led 89-33, but the basket felt rather important. For Aubrey Griffin and her teammates, it certainly was.

“The first time I went in I was a little nervous,” Griffin said. “The second time I was a little more comfortable. I know it’s my first game and I know it’s going to take a couple of games to get to feeling like myself, but I think today was a good start.”

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

“I feel like a free throw would be pretty ironic because I don’t get many of those,” she said Friday, after the UConn women’s basketball practice. “But more like … an end-of-the-first-quarter buzzer beater. That would be cool.”

Bueckers, who has 1,994 points at UConn, will likely reach 2,000 early in the game Sunday against Seton Hall at Gampel Pavilion, in her 102nd game for the Huskies, basically 2 1/2 seasons. She will be the 12th to reach that mark for UConn, but no one, not even Maya Moore, who tops the list with 3,036 points, did it in so few games.

After investing in UConn alums’ new league, Geno Auriemma and Paige Bueckers excited for Unrivaled debut

“Being here, you are surrounded by all these greats who have been here,” teammate and long-time friend Azzi Fudd said. “I didn’t know 2,000 was coming up. It feels so fast.”

And herein hangs this tale, unique in UConn lore. We know about the injuries, both Bueckers’ and many of her teammates, through the years. We know about the excruciating losses. We know the number of UConn championship banners has remained stubbornly stuck at 11 since 2016.

But there comes a point — and this is as good a time as any — when we should stop asking “what if?” and appreciate what is, a time to begin chiseling out that place for Bueckers on UConn’s Mount Rushmore, which would have far more than four faces.

“This notion that you have to win a national championship or multiple championships in order to be considered a generational-type player or an amazing player,” Geno Auriemma said. “There are a lot of great players that have had amazing careers that have never won a national championship, never been to a Final Four. So you can’t use that as a gauge for where Paige would be. My thought process is, how much did she dominate the college basketball world during her time here, how many Final Fours would we have played in if she weren’t on our team?”

Bueckers was the national player of the year as a freshman in 2020-21, when UConn reached the Final Four in the bubble and lost to Arizona. Though she missed much of year two, she practically willed the Huskies to the Final Four in her second  year with an overtime tour de force to beat NC State in a regional final, eventually lost to South Carolina in the championship game. UConn missed the Final Four when Bueckers missed the entire 2022-23 season, but returned as she returned last April, losing to Iowa in the semifinal.

Dom Amore: Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, have one last ride to fulfill destiny at UConn

Her supporting cast, while very good, has not had the multiple All-Americans of UConn championship teams of the past, and it has often been depleted by injuries, forcing Bueckers to play unfamiliar positions — power forward much of last season.

Her natural unselfishness keeps her scoring from exploding, yet she’s averaged 19.7 points, 4.8 assists and 4.4 rebounds across 101 college games, shooting 53.5 percent from the floor, 41.9  on threes.

“To me, the most impressive thing is, she doesn’t take a lot of shots to get to those numbers,” Auriemma said. “And she took the same number of shots a player of her caliber normally would, she would have gotten here a lot quicker, too.”

Auriemma, on occasion, wonders what it might look like if Bueckers could be transported back in time to play with some of those great teams. With her all-around ability, she might not have scored as much; might have gotten more assists. She could have been the missing piece for teams that came so close in 2017, 2018, 2019. Who is to say what might have been if Bueckers and Fudd had more than a handful of games healthy together?

“But how many players can say they were the best players in the league and went to the Final Four every year they played?” Auriemma said. “Not many. Unfortunately, when you play at UConn, there’s a list.”

The list includes Moore, who played for the Minnesota Lynx while Bueckers was growing up near Minneapolis. She’s the players Bueckers most wanted to be like, but the pantheon of greats has surrounded her every time she has walked into Gampel or the Werth Center. That, along with the world-wide focus on her, has been relentless.

Never has Bueckers run from any of it, another thing that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

“Just wanting to the best is the mindset I’ve always had and a lot of people who come through these doors have,” Bueckers said. “That comes with winning championships. Breanna Stewart won four, Sue Bird and Maya Moore won plenty, and many others who won a lot. So to be the best here, you really have to win a national championship.”

And who is to say she won’t get it yet?

“I think I’ve done a lot of growing at UConn in terms of my mindset and my mentality, of staying in the present,” Bueckers said. “No past thing, no past missed shot, no past turnover affects what I’m doing right now. It only affects you if you let it affect you. Not looking forward too far into the future, just trying capture ever day as it is, be the best version of yourself each day. You can’t continue to grow in the future if you don’t grow right now.”

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“… No questions about me,” she said, when she began speaking Friday, but the 2,000th point will be about Paige Bueckers, all about her determination to write a story of her own at UConn, even if it hasn’t always been on script.

“I feel like something so Paige-like would be, I don’t know, a buzzer-beater,” Fudd said. “Something so ridiculous that, like, no one would make that except her. … Hopefully she’ll be able to take that step back and appreciate the moment for a second, too.”

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.”

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.”

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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.”