HARTFORD, Conn. — That monster of a team everyone was envisioning during the dark, dreary days of December and January arrived.
No one had to see a shadow or adjust the clock to understand things are about to get a lot warmer around the UConn women’s basketball team.
With Aubrey Griffin lost for the season, there was just one more piece of this puzzle left to fit in, and Paige Bueckers’ arrival on the court was it. The Huskies are whole, with nine trustworthy, battle-tested players to run out there game after game.
Nine. Can you imagine? That’s like three “Big Threes.”
The Huskies made short work of St. John’s at the XL Center on Friday night, winning, 93-38, with Bueckers working in for a few minutes late in each quarter and scoring eight points, a good start to her comeback from knee surgery. A few more minutes against Providence on Sunday, then a full week to practice for the Big East tournament, and the reigning national player of the year should be good to go.
Now the Huskies (21-5), who had trouble fielding a team for some of their toughest midseason opponents, have more far more talent available than minutes. That’s a problem any coach, including Geno Auriemma, has to love to have on his hands in March.
While Bueckers was gone for 10 weeks, the supporting cast grew. Olivia Nelson-Ododa looks like a more confident, aggressive player than ever. Evina Westbrook has found her voice coming off the bench, and so has Dorka Juhasz. Nika Muhl provides edge in the starting lineup. Christyn Williams is more productive now that she does not have to carry the team as she did earlier. Caroline Ducharme can take over a game at any moment, and so can Azzi Fudd with her perimeter shooting. Aaliyah Edwards is playing the way she did toward the end of last season, which is solid.
So the Huskies not only have everything, but at the moment have almost two of everything.
“The team that [Bueckers] came back to is not the same team that she left,” Auriemma said. “The team that she came back to is a better team, with a better understanding of what we’re trying to do, has more players that can do more things than the last time she played. So she gives them confidence.”
Having clinched the Big East regular-season title, this game against St. John’s was a tune-up. The Huskies jumped out to a 17-0 lead before Bueckers made her long-awaited debut, and then it was a breeze, 51-19 at halftime. Don’t look for the conference to challenge UConn again.
Everything points now to the NCAA Tournament. It’s hard to imagine the selection committee sending them out west when they would offer a gate attraction in Bridgeport. I’m putting the metrics aside here and looking past the record. This team has earned the right to play in state as much as any UConn team has, because of what it has accomplished in light of what it has been through, all the injuries and disruptions.
Bueckers and Fudd, the back-to-back No. 1 recruits and best of friends, really haven’t had the chance to play together. Even before Bueckers’ injury, Fudd was dealing with a foot injury. Now there is the promise of them with both 100%. That’s as exciting a prospect in Connecticut as it is scary elsewhere.
Fudd, who scored 19 Friday, predicted the Huskies would be “nasty” when everyone was back. Is this what she envisioned?
“Not yet,” she said. “Not yet. We’re going to get better.”
The top of the field of 68 will be loaded, with more teams capable of winning than ever. There is no question that South Carolina, which defeated a mostly-healthy UConn team in the Bahamas, is the team to beat until it’s proved otherwise.
But South Carolina, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Oregon, the teams that caught the Huskies at a vulnerable time, knew then, and know now, that the narrative has changed. If the Huskies aren’t the best team in the country right now, it’s going to take the best team in the country to deny them championship No. 12,
“This is kind of like back in the old days now,” Auriemma said. “Because of the injuries, they feel like they’ve built up a reserve. They’re in better shape because they have played so many minutes. They’re mentally a little better because of what they went through. I don’t know what the future is going to be. Every other team is going to improve in the postseason, but we improved because of who we’ve added. I don’t know that anyone else is adding somebody like Paige.”
