New-Look No. 2 UConn Ready For Another Title Run After Humbling Final Four Loss

What a difference a year makes. Even with the graduation of Paige Bueckers, the UConn women’s basketball program was sailing right along as another national title was well within the grasp of a team led by eventual No. 1 overall WNBA pick Azzi Fudd and AP Player of the Year Sarah Strong. It all came crashing down with a loss to South Carolina in the national semifinals. The 48 points scored were the fewest for UConn in an NCAA Tournament game in 34 years. However, that was not what is most remembered from South Carolina’s Final Four win. UConn coach Geno Auriemma confronted South Carolina coach Dawn Staley over what he felt was a lack of protocol regarding a customary handshake between the two coaches. He later lamented why he "couldn't keep it in for five more seconds." "People that call me the best coach who ever lived for winning in 2025 to the worst person who ever lived," Auriemma said. "You don’t believe them when they call you either one of those things. You learn something every day. "If you were to ask people whether it was (former LSU and Alabama football coach Nick) Saban or anybody else who has coached a very long time, anybody who has been in the public eye a long time, what’s their rationale for not wanting to do it anymore — that’s it right there." Video of the exchange between Auriemma and Staley is sure to become front-page news again when the teams meet at Mohegan Sun Arena on Nov. 24. However, that is not on Auriemma’s radar right now. Strong leads the list of returning players for UConn, along with veteran guards KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade and last year’s top freshman Blanca Quiñonez. Auriemma and the Huskies, the No. 2 team in the AP preseason poll, approached this offseason much like any other in his Hall of Fame career. Auriemma guided the Huskies to three titles in a row with Diana Taurasi leading the way in the early 2000s. Breanna Stewart powered UConn to four consecutive national titles from 2012-13 to the 2015-16 seasons. There have also been crushing Final Four losses when the Huskies looked good enough to add to their collection of national titles. "Going into last year’s Final Four and I think it started to show up even during the NCAA Tournament, we had some deficiencies that we have been able to hide for a long, long time (being) 38-0," Auriemma said. "But we would go to practice each and every day, and our coaching staff would go, ′Do you think we can hide this for one more weekend?' Unfortunately, we couldn’t. So when it ended, I think we as coaches understood that there were just some things that we knew if they happened, there wasn’t much we could do about it." With Fudd and Serah Williams off to the WNBA, it won’t be the same team. However, this could be a deeper team. Freshman Jovana Popovic – who has played for the Serbian national team – was one of UConn's best players in exhibition games against Syracuse and Texas. Center Olivia Vukosa – a member of Croatia's national team since 2023, and the No. 2 recruit last year – and Marine Dursus – a guard with France's youth national team since 2021 – are other freshmen ready to contribute. Sophomore Gandy Malou-Mamel, who spent her freshman season almost entirely on the bench, played with Ireland's basketball team in the 2024 FIBA U20 EuroBasket Division B tournament, and is expected to play more post-Williams. Guard Morgan Cheli is back on the court after missing the 2025-26 season recovering from ankle surgery. Guards Allie Ziebell and Kayleigh Heckel, as well as center Jana El Alfy, averaged more than 10 minutes per game last season. This returning squad, combined with the freshmen class, explain why UConn didn't utilize the transfer portal even after losing two players to the WNBA. "When you come off winning a title, obviously it is a great feeling," Shade said. You don’t have that crushing feeling like when you don’t win it. It definitely is different and the way the South Carolina game went for us this past year, that played a factor in how we are coming back. When you get beat up that much and feel that defeated, you want to do everything you can when you get back, in preseason and in every workout, just to try to be better". The Associated Press contributed to this report.