STORRS — It took sophomore guard Kayleigh Heckel 12 seconds of playing time in the UConn women’s basketball team’s game against Florida State on Sunday to record her first steal.
Heckel and Huskies star Azzi Fudd began applying full-court pressure as Florida State’s Emma Risch brought the ball up the floor, and the junior forward quickly grew flustered as she struggled to navigate around Fudd. As Risch attemped a handoff to teammate Sydney Bowles near midcourt, Heckel slipped directly into the narrow passing lane and intercepted it just inches from the Seminoles guard’s fingertips.
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By the time the halftime buzzer sounded at Gampel Pavilion, Heckel had a career-high six steals on the stat sheet, and the Huskies were running away from Florida State with a 24-point lead.
“A lot of people on our team are very aggressive defensively, and I think that helps us a lot,” Heckel said. “The six steals, that comes from my teammates helping me and getting in a position where I can get a steal, so I think we all work together defensively, and I think we’ve really been getting better with our defense and our pressure.”
UConn women raise championship banner, then Strong and Fudd lead charge in rout of Florida State
It’s apparent just two games into the 2025-26 season that UConn’s press defense shapes its identity on both ends of the floor, and the team put on a masterclass in a 99-67 rout of the Seminoles. The Huskies played full court on 70 percent of Florida State’s offensive possessions through the first three quarters before coach Geno Auriemma pulled most of his starters in the fourth, and the team had its highest press rate in the third quarter when it scored a game-high 32 points.
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“Pressure is something you have to use, and you have to be careful how you use it so you don’t expose yourself to bad stuff down the other end,” Auriemma said postgame. “We have to find that balance, but when it’s working and when it’s done right, there’s a lot of turnovers that happen in the middle of the floor that turn into quick buckets or easy threes in transition … You’ve got to find the right times to do it when it makes the most sense.”
UConn logged 15 steals and forced 23 total turnovers against Florida State, which it converted into 42 points. It also outscored the Seminoles 24-4 on fast break opportunities. Twelve of the Huskies’ steals came on possessions where they were picking up full court, and the team was especially disruptive with its smaller lineups on the floor. UConn ran the press with various combinations in the back court, often pairing either Fudd or starting point guard KK Arnold with Heckel or sophomore Allie Ziebell, and those four players accounted for 12 of the team’s total steals.
The success of the pressure showed in the production from the Huskies’ guards on both ends of the floor. Fudd put up a team-high 23 points and five assists, and Heckel scored in double digits for the second straight game with 12 points plus three assists. Arnold and Ziebell logged seven points apiece, and all of Ziebell’s scoring came off of turnovers.
“KK, Kayleigh Heckel, Azzi, Allie’s a little sneakier so she’s able to do some things,” Auriemma said. “When we have a smaller lineup out there like we had during that one stretch with Sarah (Strong) as our only non-small guard, I love that lineup. That’s kind of the lineup that makes us who we are.”
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Fudd has proven herself especially essential to the Huskies defensively after making a commitment this year to prove she can be more than just a sharpshooter. Auriemma said he questioned at the beginning of preseason how UConn would replace three-time All-American Paige Bueckers in the toughest defensive matchups, but Fudd now looks more than capable of stepping in to guard the best opposing players on the floor.
“Little by little, she’s starting to get comfortable with some of the other stuff. She really is leaning into this defensively mentality,” Auriemma said. “Last year we used to put Paige on the other team’s best player, and so this year we were like, who are we going to put on there? … I said look, Azzi is going to have to guard the other team’s best guard, and that’s all there is to it. And she loves it.”
But the full-court pressure has its drawbacks, often creating more open 3-point opportunities for opponents due to the sheer amount of space the defense has to cover. The Huskies have struggled guarding the perimeter in each of their first two games: Florida State shot 12-for-31 with eight makes coming while UConn was pressing, and Louisville went 8-for-24 in the season opener last Tuesday.
The pace the Huskies are playing with also creates challenges for Wisconsin transfer Serah Williams as a more traditional post player. The senior forward has struggled with efficiency through the first two games averaging 6.5 points on just 40% shooting from the field. Heckel’s transfer has been smoother coming after a single year at USC, but adjusting to UConn’s system requires Williams to recalibrate nearly everything she’s gotten used to on the court over her first three college seasons.
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“They physicality and the quickness that (Williams) has to deal with, both with her teammates and how we play, our style of play, she gets caught sometimes between being rushed like you saw a couple times today and then being a step slow,” Auriemma said. “The question earlier was how Heckel fit in real easy, and it’s really much more difficult for bigger guys. The change in just about everything is going to take a little bit of time … And I need to help her a little bit more to stay calm.”
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