New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Backing Bueckers, Geno plans to be more vocal with officials
UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma is fed up with the beating Paige Bueckers takes during games and he’s not going to remain quiet about it on the sideline during the 2022-23 season.
“That kid gets fouled more than any kid in America,” Auriemma said. “I’m going to lead the country in technical fouls next year, you watch. The kid just gets crucified out there. There is stuff that isn’t called, it’s unbelievable. I don’t know if it’s because of who she is or who I am, but that’s going to end.”
Bueckers, the national player of the year as a freshman, played just 17 games as a sophomore, 11 after returning from a knee injury that occurred in early December and sidelined her for more than two months.
Both at the Bridgeport Regional and the Final Four in Minneapolis, Bueckers was involved in falls or collisions that left her hobbling and wincing, scenes that are particularly concerning given that she’s spent the better part of the past three years battling lower-leg injuries.
Auriemma is adamant that more of such plays warrant the blow of a whistle.
“I went through this a little bit with Diana (Taurasi),” he said. “But Diana was a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger, at that age.”
Azzi Fudd, the nation’s No. 1 recruit like Bueckers before her, played just 25 games as a freshman, missing two months with a foot injury.
Both players’ injuries cut deeply not only into their participation, but also their development, as the Huskies managed to reach the national championship game as a team that was never whole.
“You’ve got two really good offensive players and a big, big part of their season was taken
away from them so you really can’t make any kind of evaluation on either of them,” Auriemma said. “You just kind of look forward and think, ‘What could 35 games be like with them?’ ”
The book has been closed on 2021-22, which featured 11 different starting lineups and numerous injuries.
Just about every member of UConn’s travel party left Minneapolis sick. Some had sniffles, others flu-like symptoms or a stomach bug. Still others came away from the Final Four with COVID-19 — though no players or coaches.
So the week following the Huskies’ loss to South Carolina was spent resting and recovering, getting over the final punches thrown by a season uniquely trying and rewarding — and, ultimately, frustrating. Because whenever you come up one victory short of a national championship it’s going to sting.
“Unless it turns out perfectly, it’s always tinged with ‘What if ?’ ” Auriemma said. “While you’re going through it, you know what a struggle it is. But you look back and go, ‘Yeah it was a struggle, but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle.’ So then you get to the final game and you go, ‘Shoot, all we’ve been through and we’re going to lose?’ It was like that movie with Chevy Chase when they go through all that stuff to get to Wally World — and it’s closed.”
UConn (30-6) got just 42 games combined, out of a possible 72, from Bueckers and Fudd this season. They only played in the same game 15 times and Bueckers was not 100 percent for any of the final 11.
“A wash,” Auriemma said of Bueckers’ season. “It was a washout, unfortunately.”
Bueckers sustained a left knee injury Dec. 5 and had surgery Dec. 13 to repair an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear. She returned Feb. 25 against St. John’s, the second-to-last game of the regular season.
Bueckers was brilliant in the Elite Eight victory over NC State, scoring 27 points to pull UConn into a 14th consecutive Final Four, and made 13 of 26 shots in 73 minutes over two games in Minneapolis. But she still wasn’t herself.
“Not even close,” Auriemma said. “And when you’re trying to come back, you’re trying to do it against the best competition you face all year. So that was a challenge. And she’s got a challenge this summer. She’s got to get stronger.”
Bueckers, who had stress issues in her legs during her senior year at Hopkins High, lost most of last offseason to rehabilitation after surgery in April 2021 to correct an osteochondral defect in her right ankle. She played six games before injuring her knee, was in a limited roll upon returning and wound up averaging 14.6 points, four rebounds, 3.9 assists and 29.2 minutes.
Fudd played the first four games of the season through the pain of the foot injury that sidelined her from late November to Jan. 26. She essentially spent the stretch of the season getting acclimated.
Fudd showed flashes of her own brilliance, but her freshman season was still an incomplete picture of her potential. She averaged 12.1 points and 27.9 minutes, shooting 45.7 percent from the field and 43 percent on 3-pointers.
“I had somebody ask me if Azzi is the best shooter I’ve ever had come through Connecticut,” Auriemma said. “I said I’ve had some pretty damn good ones. I’ve had guys who, when the ball left their hand and didn’t go in, there needed to be some kind of investigation. And none of them had to be told twice to shoot the ball.
“Azzi overthinks things sometimes. And when she doesn’t, there are times at practice when that kid will go a week without hitting the rim (all swishes). Then you say to yourself, when she passes up some open shots, ‘What could be going through her mind?’ How’d you like to be coached like this? ‘Hey, Azzi, every time the ball touches your hand, shoot it.’ ”
Auriemma added that Fudd was cognizant of the hype she brought to UConn, so she may have been reluctant to dominate the ball as much as the attention.
“We had that issue with Paige coming back from her injury,” Auriemma said. “We’re playing really well, these guys have a good thing going, now (Bueckers thinks) ‘I’m going to come in there and start taking shots?’ I said, ‘They expect you to take those shots.’ I can understand where they’re coming from. I don’t accept it, but I understand it. I won’t settle for it. Neither should they. Not if we’re going to go where we want to go.”
Auriemma has given Fudd the green light. He expects to her be a more assertive next season after a year in the program.
“I said this to Azzi once: I think some people can help you with your confidence but I don’t think confidence is something you order at a sandwich shop,” Auriemma said. “You can’t walk in and go, ‘Can I have a confidence sandwich?’ Confidence comes from putting the time in and doing it to a certain level every day, doing it against competition, and then going home and going ‘I got this.’ Confidence doesn’t come from someone else saying, ‘You got this.’ That’s a part of it, but it’s not the biggest part of it. Self-confidence is way more important than someone else having confidence in you.”