When the UConn women’s basketball team took over Sacred Heart’s Pitt Center for an open practice on Sunday, the sold-out event set a record for the most fans ever inside the 2,000-seat arena.
Head coach Geno Auriemma has experienced the reactions that follow an NCAA championship run more often than any other coach in the history of the sport, but he still finds himself surprised by the excitement from fans after bringing home title No. 12 in April.
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“It just goes to show how much people care about UConn basketball,” Auriemma said at the Southern Hoops Tip-off Talk in Prospect on Wednesday. “They were lined up at 9 o’clock in the morning. It was shocking to me — I know it shouldn’t be — how incredibly passionate people are.”
The Huskies begin official practice Monday, and this year’s squad will look different from the one that hoisted a trophy in Tampa. UConn brings back three starters from its championship team — sophomore phenom Sarah Strong, star guard Azzi Fudd and redshirt sophomore Jana El Alfy — but juniors Ashlynn Shade and KK Arnold are the only returners besides Fudd and Strong who averaged at least 20 minutes a game last season.
Auriemma is also managing more players than he has in decades with a full 15-member roster for the first time since 1998-99. The team is still looking for clear leadership on the floor to fill the void left by Paige Bueckers, the recently-crowned WNBA Rookie of the Year, who was both a superstar on the court and the voice of the team for five seasons.
“We lost a national player of the year, we have five new players, and a lot of them are young, so it’s a lot to put together,” Auriemma said. “I think as the days go on and as leaders start to emerge, and as people start to assert themselves, it’ll be fun to see how it grows.”
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Optimism certainly isn’t Auriemma’s strong suit, and the head coach said he’s dreading the start of official practice for his 41st season at UConn. The preseason always comes with frustrating growing pains, but Auriemma anticipates this year will be uniquely challenging due to the sheer amount of inexperience on the floor.
The Huskies have three freshmen and signed two transfers for the first time since the transfer portal was established in 2018. Senior forward Serah Williams is a college basketball veteran, but the Wisconsin transfer is still struggling with the jump to a program of UConn’s caliber after spending the past three years at the bottom of the Big Ten. USC transfer Kayleigh Heckel played for a team with championship expectations last season, but the sophomore guard wasn’t a major contributor averaging 6.1 points in 17 minutes per game.
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“I’m dreading it going into it like, this can’t look good, it just can’t work,” Auriemma said. “Some players looked good at Sacred Heart. We had some players, they look like they’ve made progress, and some of those we haven’t seen yet. But I thought Kayleigh looked good … Serah Williams, it’s hard coming in here after you played three years of college and all of a sudden you have to change with some of the ways that we do things. So the young guys are intriguing.”
Huskies ‘counting on’ Caroline Ducharme
Along with Fudd, redshirt senior Caroline Ducharme is the most veteran member of UConn’s roster, but it’s been a long time since the guard made it through a full season. She played 31 games as a freshman in 2021-22, missing four with a head injury, and head and neck issues have plagued her career ever since. She was sidelined by a concussion for 14 games as a sophomore, then missed all but four games as a junior after experiencing neck spasms early in the season. She returned to the court for the first time in 461 days at the end of the 2024-25 season, appearing for limited minutes in nine games including the national championship.
Head injuries are notoriously unpredictable, and Auriemma said Ducharme’s participation is still on a day-to-day basis. But on her good days, Ducharme still looks like the version of herself that came to UConn as the No. 5 recruit in the Class of 2021. She was one of the Huskies’ most reliable pieces before the concussion her freshman year, averaging 18.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and two assists over a 10-game stretch while Bueckers was out with a knee injury.
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“Compared to where we were last year at this time, it’s a total 180,” Auriemma said. “How long can we keep that going, I think that’s going to be the challenge for her and for us. I’ll tell you what, I’m kind of counting on her being available. How much I don’t know, but I’m counting on her being available.”
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Strong was an immediate superstar in her freshman season, but the rest of the Huskies’ frontcourt was a frequent point of concern. El Alfy and redshirt junior Ice Brady both took turns in the starting lineup, but neither was as productive as Auriemma hoped, and he preferred to lean on a smaller lineup with Strong playing the five.
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Brady made notable improvements last year on the defensive end, but the team needs her to find more confidence offensively especially with the absence of Bueckers’ prolific scoring. Brady averaged just 3.6 points on less than three field goal attempts per game in 2024-25.
El Alfy went through a major adjustment period in her first collegiate season, returning to the court after an Achilles tear in July 2023 ended her freshman campaign before it began. She averaged five points and 5.1 rebounds per game but often struggled with foul trouble and turnovers. Though she didn’t participate in the team’s open practice, Auriemma wants to see El Alfy reach another level with a year of experience behind her.
“Ice, we need her to be better, and Jana when she gets back on the court,” Auriemma said. “We need guys to get better. I know what we’ve got, and I like the guys that we’ve got, but we need some of these other guys to get better.”
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