THIS SURE LOOKS DIFFERENT TO GENO
Hall of Fame coach says he’s ready to head into ‘new territory’ with these Huskies
“Our team knows we’re going to have to work harder than these kids have ever worked since they’ve been at Connecticut to try to accomplish some of the same things that we’ve accomplished.”
Geno Auriemma
UConn is heading into a season unlike any in recent memory. It’s “new territory,” as longtime coach Geno Auriemma puts it. The Huskies will arrive on the other side either a triumphant story of rebirth or a sign that even greatness lulls from time to time.
It’s a season of refashioning, in a sense. The program has all of three losses over the last five seasons and only lost once last season, albeit in the Final Four. The Huskies aren’t fully rebuilding, though there is quite a bit of that being done, but finding a new way to play that best fits the players they have. They’re replacing talent lost to the WNBA, integrating inexperienced players into the fold and preparing for a year that will rely heavily on their three returning starters.
“We’re in new territory,” said Auriemma, who has coached the Huskies to 11 national titles. “We haven’t been here in a long time. … We’re in a situation that we haven’t been in, and it’s going to take some time to shake it all out. But, as I said, we have our moments when it looks like it could work.”
UConn lost two starters and a key player off the bench in Kia Nurse, Gabby Williams and Azura Stevens. The loss of Stevens, a junior transfer from Duke, made things harder for UConn this season as they now look to replace three critical roles on the team with a bench full of players lacking significant experience.
With the departure of Nurse and Williams, the Huskies are without their two best defensive players. Auriemma has been brutally honest when talking about the defensive struggles his team is going to face throughout the season, saying that finding ways for the Huskies to be effective on defense this year has been challenging as a coach.
“We can’t be complicated. We can’t expect to be really, really good at three or four different things defensively,” Auriemma said. “We’re going to have to get really, really good at one thing and then within that one thing we’re going to have to kind of zig and zag and hide whatever our deficiencies are and I think it’s going to be OK. I think it’s going to be OK. Like I said, it’s going to be a different look. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be bad, it’s just going to be different.”
Not only are the Huskies not as strong on defense, but Auriemma said they’re also not great at passing, resulting in a team that’s going to look different from the assist-heavy UConn teams fans have become accustomed to.
Pair of new starters
The new phase UConn is entering is going to force players who have little to no experience to be more involved. Lucky for the Huskies, two players have stepped up during early practices. Sophomore Megan Walker and freshman Christyn Williams impressed in the first two weeks and will likely be named starters. While they can’t be expected to come in and immediately fill the void left by Nurse and Williams, their talent should take some of the pressure off of Katie Lou Samuelson, Napheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield.
Walker’s emergence will come as no surprise to Huskies fans, who were big supporters of the sophomore when she joined UConn as the No. 1 high school recruit in the country. Walker didn’t see much time last season, averaging 15.5 minutes and 5.8 points per game. She faced the learning curve most freshmen entering a big program do, also citing not practicing well as a reason she wasn’t playing more.
Over the summer Walker hit the weight room, gaining