Ready or not?
Auriemma is not optimistic UConn will find footing in March
— Hours before blizzard conditions blanketed campus Monday night and sent cars spinning down Route 195 with as much traction as the UConn women’s basketball team has on its dissolving season, Azzi Fudd snapped off jump shots and darted through the layup line with great energy.
This is where the incremental progress of recovery from a knee injury had brought Fudd, to the heart of pre-game warm-ups, seemingly to the brink of a return that should and would signal more than a flicker of hope for March …
If the Huskies, on the whole, weren’t so discombobulated.
Ninth-ranked UConn, its national standing having taken a hit with the struggles of a wildly uncomfortable month, wrapped up the regular season and the February portion of its schedule with a 60-51 victory over lowly Xavier — another uninspiring and disconSTORRS certing performance, this one a bridge to the postseason.
Rarely has the calendar flipped to March with such bleak assessments and forecasts coming out of Gampel Pavilion.
“The players ain’t what they used to be,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “And the coaching ain’t what it used to be, either. I don’t think we’ve coached these guys as well as we coached some of the other guys, and that’s evident when you watch us play on the floor, that we look like a poorly coached team. And that’s me, my staff.”
Auriemma was asked about his injury-plagued team preparing for the possibility of three games in three days at the Big East Tournament.
“If we don’t get some things fixed,” he said, “I don’t think we’ll be playing three games.”
Minutes later Auriemma was asked about the possibility of a 15th consecutive Final Four.
“The way we are right now, this team, as it is right now, don’t add anybody, who we are right now, that ain’t happening,” he said, shaking his head. “They could fool me. They’ve been fooling me all year. I think they’re going to cut right, they cut left.”
There is the romantic notion that Fudd, who hasn’t played since Jan. 15 and has missed the past 14 games, could make a triumphant return, much the way Paige Bueckers did in 2022. To know Fudd is close to playing again, and to understand that her jump shot can change games as quickly as any
and frustration (the team has yet again another injury) — the two most common themes of the season thus far. And at this point, after playing 31 games amid another year plagued by injuries, Auriemma believes there’s more to blame than just fatigue.
“There’s a reason why the last 10 games have been the way they’ve been. It has nothing to do with fatigue,” Auriemma said. “We don’t think very well. We don’t speak on defense. We don’t communicate. It’s got nothing to do with (being) tired or being injured. It has to do with a lot of selfishness.”
The evening at Gampel Pavilion started in celebration as the program honored seniors Dorka Juhász and Lou Lopez Sénéchal.
But after the celebration, Juhász pulled sweats on over her uniform and took a seat on the bench. The graduate forward was unavailable against the Musketeers after spraining her ankle in the first half against DePaul on Saturday. Auriemma said after the game that he expects Juhász to be ready for this weekend’s Big East Tournament (in which UConn is the No. 1 seed).
The high spirits continued through the first half of the opening quarter as Nika Mühl needed less than five minutes to break former Husky great Sue Bird’s all-time single-season assist record by assisting on UConn’s first three made field goals of the game. A 3-pointer to Caroline Ducharme (who started in place of Juhász) gave Mühl ownership of the record. The junior now has 236 assists on the season with still the postseason to play.
“There’s nobody that works harder and deserves more and plays with more passion and hard work, so I’m happy for her,” Auriemma said. “I’m really proud of her.”
However, that’s when the excitement dwindled and the Huskies’ defense began falling apart.
Playing with just eight available players, Auriemma emptied his bench less than 11 minutes into Monday’s game. But with different lineups coming in
and out, defensive calls were missed and left unread. Offense was rushed and shots went anywhere but inside the net.
Auriemma blamed it both on players not listening and also on the coaching.
“It’s not about shot selection or are we screening well? Are we not screening well? Those are the end results. Those are byproducts of what happens when you listen and you pay attention and you focus in on what’s being said and what you’re being asked to do,” Auriemma said. “That’s been the biggest struggle. So when I say selfish, I don’t mean like, they won’t pass the ball to somebody that’s open or you know, they’ll take a horrendous shot. I’m talking about like, they pick and choose when they want to listen to how they’re being coached. And I define that as being selfish, that you only care about what you want to do and not what you’re expected to do.”
Xavier (7-22, 0-20) used an 11-0 run to get ahead of the Huskies two minutes into the second quarter. Auriemma called timeout with Xavier leading 22-20.
“We let them get confidence and now teams think that they can come in and they can play with us and we need to change that mindset,” Duchame said.
Aaliyah Edwards and Aubrey Griffin sparked UConn’s comeback immediately after the huddle.
The two combined for a 7-0 run before back-toback 3-pointers from Lopez Sénéchal forced the Musketeers to call timeout. The Huskies’ defense had forced six turnovers in a six-minute span.
UConn looked to be back in its groove as Mühl slapped freshman Ayanna Patterson on the backside with a towel when the team ran into the tunnel for halftime. Patterson’s buzzer-beater gave UConn a 35-24 lead at intermission. Xavier was held to just six points in the second quarter with UConn ending the frame on a 16-2 run.
However, moments into the second half, the spirits again deflated.
Edwards suffered an apparent lower leg injury and was slow to get up. She was examined by a trainer at the end of the bench before spending a few minutes on the stationary bike. She checked back into the game at 5:08 in the third quarter.
Despite Edwards, Lopez Sénéchal and Ducharme all in double figures by the end of the third quarter, the Huskies didn’t make a field goal in the frame’s final six minutes. UConn was 5 of 5 on free throws yet just 4 of 13 from the floor, including 1 of 6 from 3.
Edwards made eight of UConn’s 10 points in the fourth quarter to keep the team on top as Xavier fought back.
The junior led all players with 19 points on top of a game-high eight rebounds, three blocks and three steals. Ducharme, who started for the first time since Dec. 31 and for the fifth time this season, followed with 14 points and Lopez Sénéchal finished with 12.
UConn led by as much as 18, yet it finished with 17 turnovers for its 20th game this season with 15 or more. The Huskies shot 22.7 percent from deep for its third-worst 3-point field goal percentage of the season.
“There’s a standard and the way we were playing, it’s not up to the standard of how we know we can play and how good we know we can be,” Ducharme said. “I think obviously we’re grateful for everything we’ve been through this year to still be in a position to win a championship, but I think we also know we still have a lot of things to work on and we’re not satisfied with where we are.”
After coming off one of its most difficult regular seasons in program history (which featured two upset losses to unranked Big East teams), Monday’s win showed this UConn team still has plenty to fix before starting the postseason Saturday. The Huskies will enter the Big East Tournament in Saturday’s quarterfinals.