For the first time since the 2020-21 season impacted by COVID-19, the UConn women’s basketball team got to spend Thanksgiving at home this year.
The Huskies almost always travel to play in a tournament during the holiday week — they celebrated Thanksgiving 2024 in Nassau, Bahamas while competing in the Baha Mar Women’s Championship. This year the team had the luxury of a full week off after picking up a pair of wins over No. 6 Michigan and Utah at the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase last weekend. Coach Geno Auriemma said he likes to get the extra experience of playing in a Thanksgiving event, but it’s not always practical in the modern era.
Advertisement
“I think it’s great to be able to go to a tournament during this week. I don’t remember the last time we were home for Thanksgiving, and it was quite nice, to be honest with you,” Auriemma said after practice Friday. “I don’t know how you can add a trip to some place in today’s environment … unless all your expenses are paid for and there’s money involved.
“Because of the changing world that has happened to college basketball, I think it’s going to make these trips much more difficult in the future unless they don’t impact — except in a positive way — your financial situation.”
UConn picks back up after the holiday on back-to-back road trips, beginning with its Big East opener at Xavier on Sunday. The Huskies will have a quick turnaround, traveling straight to Tampa, Fla., to face USF on Tuesday, but Auriemma said preparation during the break hasn’t focused much on either opponent. The biggest priority was adjusting the team’s mindset and avoiding lapses in games where they jump out to an early lead.
“How can we better get our message across, be better prepared for some things that happened, not relax when you get a big lead?” Auriemma asked. “We’ve tried to get better at what happens in the situations when you are ahead; some things that I thought we didn’t execute really well defensively late in the game. We’ve tried to get better offensively at recognizing things a little bit quicker, making better decisions, all the things that you worry about at this time of the year as opposed to, let’s get ready for the two games that we have on Sunday and Tuesday.”
Advertisement
The start of conference play comes early this season after the Big East expanded from 18 to 20 conference games, which means the Huskies’ upcoming slate won’t be as challenging as the start of the season when it faced two ranked opponents and five from power conferences.
UConn has the second-hardest nonconference strength of schedule in the country, but it falls to No. 48 with conference games included. Last year only UConn and Creighton made the NCAA Tournament out of the Big East, and with Creighton going through a major rebuild after graduating four senior starters, there are questions about how much competition the conference can provide for the reigning national champions.
In eight meetings with Xavier since rejoining the Big East, UConn has won seven times by at least 35 points, and the Musketeers have won a single regular-season conference game in the three seasons combined. But Auriemma said at this time of year, he isn’t necessarily concerned about big matchups preparing his team for March.
“We used to hear this all the time, ‘Does it get you ready?’ I don’t worry about that,” Auriemma said. “If we’re good enough, we’re good enough. If we’re not, we’re not …. It’s just another opponent, and if you play well, you’re going to win. If you don’t play well, you’re going to lose.”
Advertisement
Big East play may pose the biggest challenge for UConn’s post players, who will need to learn to adjust to guarding undersized bigs with more athleticism and versatility than their traditional matchups. Wisconsin transfer Serah Williams is working through some early growing pains averaging 7.2 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting a career-low 47.6% from the field so far this season. Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Jana El Alfy has seen her usage drop dramatically from last season playing less than 10 minutes per game.
The Huskies’ centers may have difficultly against a team like Xavier, which has just one player taller than 6 feet 2 on its roster, so Auriemma will have to resist the urge to go to smaller front court lineups featuring Sarah Strong and Blanca Quinonez to give the bigs the experience they need.
“I need to play (Williams) more minutes. People try to make us play small because they know they can’t match up with us when we go big sometimes,” Auriemma said. “I like our team when it’s small, (because) that’s the team that pretty much won the national championship, but I think incorporating her more and getting her more touches, as we go along, it’s going to be really good for us.”
Big East women’s basketball preview: Will UConn roll to sixth straight championship sweep?
Advertisement
How to watch
Site: Cintas Center; Cincinnati, Ohio
Time/date: 2:30 p.m., Sunday
Team records: UConn 6-0, Xavier 4-2
Series record: 9-0
Last meeting: 81-27 UConn, Jan. 8 at PeoplesBank Arena
TV: FS1
Streaming: FOX Sports app
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9
