You’ve probably heard the old cliché dozens of times from coaches across nearly every sport, an easy adage to push away concern after losing key players: ‘We don’t rebuild, we reload.’
The saying rarely rings true, but it’s beginning to feel like the only honest way to explain the 2025-26 UConn women’s basketball team. Through the first eight games of the season, nearly every opposing coach has come out of their losses to the Huskies with the same takeaway: This squad, which lost an irreplaceable superstar in No. 1 WNBA Draft pick Paige Bueckers, looks just as dominant as the one that practically cruised to an NCAA title eight months ago.
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“We saw them last year, and I feel UConn looks even better than they did last year, as good as they were,” South Florida coach Michele Baxter-Woods said after UConn’s 85-51 win in Tampa on Tuesday. “I think everybody in the country sort of strives to be that. He has players coming off the bench for him now who started on his national championship team because there’s just other players that they can bring in now … He’ll reload every year, and everybody wants to go there because he’s a great coach and he does a great job, he gets people drafted. That’s the place to be right now.”
The Huskies are headlined by a pair of national player of the year contenders in Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, but it’s the amount of weapons around them that make this version of UConn truly dangerous. Fudd had her worst shooting night of the season against South Florida going 5-for-14 and 0-for-4 behind the arc, and the team still came away shooting 51% from the field with a 34-point victory. Strong was 1-for-4 on 3-pointers against Xavier on Sunday when the Huskies knocked down a season-best 18, and the team out-rebounded the Musketeers even without the sophomore phenom’s six boards.
UConn women’s basketball routs South Florida 85-51, Sarah Strong logs fourth double-double
After Fudd and Strong combined for 47 points and 25 rebounds in UConn’s 72-69 win over No. 6 Michigan on Nov. 21, coach Geno Auriemma was frustrated by the lack of contributions down the roster and called the performance behind his two stars “embarrassing”. Though the team hasn’t faced a ranked opponent since that game, the rest of the Huskies have stepped up in a major way. At least four UConn players have scored in double digits across the last three matchups, and the bench is averaging 41 points during that stretch after combining for five against Michigan.
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The breakout star of the Huskies’ reserves is freshman Blanca Quinonez, who logged 13 points in 19 minutes against South Florida. Quinonez is currently the team’s third leading scorer behind Fudd and Strong averaging 10.5 points, and she is shooting 62.5% on 2.7 3-point attempts per game as a 6-foot-2 post player. The freshman can be a bit of a wild card night-to-night — in between her 21 points against Utah and Tuesday’s impressive showing, she had four points shooting 1-for-4 against Xavier — but ups and downs are expected for a player less than 10 games into her college career. As she becomes more polished and consistent with time, her impact will only continue to grow.
“The minute she comes in, the first time she touches it, she launches it. With her it’s just like, ‘I’m playing basketball,’” Auriemma told ESPN after the South Florida game. “We’ve found that she’s a terrific passer, and when she gets hot shooting the ball, she’s just a tough matchup for anybody, especially when she’s in there for Sarah.”
Even the starters have taken a leap since last week. Junior guard Ashlynn Shade put up her highest-scoring performance to date against Xavier with a season-high four made 3-pointers, and classmate KK Arnold had her two most efficient outings of the season in the past three games. Arnold also set back-to-back season highs in steals against Utah and Xavier with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.7. It’s been a process for the two juniors to get comfortable with new expectations this season after starting as freshmen then coming off the bench last year, but Auriemma is beginning to see them settle in.
“Now they’re going back to (being) starters, and it’s a little different role maybe in their minds,” Auriemma said after the Huskies’ 93-41 rout of Utah. “In their minds, I think it’s, ‘I want to do more now that I’m a junior. I have to do more, I have to be better.’ … To be honest, I liked them coming off the bench better, because there’s no worry. Just go in, run around like crazy, shoot, pester the other team, then get a breather. Now I think they feel like they have to do more, so I have to manage that.”
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As UConn continues to develop more scoring threats, it can put even more emphasis on ball movement and open up new looks for its best players. The team currently ranks second in the country in assists averaging 23.4, and four of five starters are recording more than two per game.
“I’m really pleased with the way we’re moving the ball. It doesn’t get stuck very often,” Auriemma told ESPN on Tuesday. “We’re able to put shooters at both corners, on both sides of the floor, so the defense has to guard the entire court … As the season goes, they’re gonna get better and better, and we’re gonna need them to get better and better, because that allows (Fudd and Strong) an opportunity to be who they are and be as good as they are.”
