NEWCOMER CONTRIBUTIONS
Arnold’s maturity as a freshman helping Huskies
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. — UConn women’s basketball needed someone to step up.
The Huskies’ offense kept turning the ball over and couldn’t get out of Seton Hall’s double teams under the basket. Meanwhile, the Pirates were making nearly every shot down at the other end. Enter KK Arnold. The freshman found her spot on the perimeter and drained four 3-pointers in the first half Wednesday night. She was quick without being clumsy and forced others to play up to her tempo while challenging Seton Hall defenders to keep up.
Despite being just a few months into her first college season, Arnold’s maturity on the court was on full display Wednesday in UConn’s 83-59 win at Seton Hall. She finished with 15 points, including making a season-high four out of six 3-pointers. Not only has Arnold become a vital piece to UConn’s starting lineup, but her constant upward growth on both sides of the ball has been a huge boost for the Huskies in their current 11-game win streak.
“She’s done a really good job,” red shirt junior guard Paige Bueckers said. “It starts in practice; she works extremely hard, does individual workouts before practice even starts, so it’s her just continuing to gain confidence and us instilling that confidence for her because we need her. She’s done a great job up to this point. And we expect it going forward.”
Arnold, the No. 6ranked recruit in the Class of 2023, impressed in her unofficial UConn debut during the team’s European exhibition games in Europe in August. Her high basketball IQ and court vision was outstanding as she always seemed to play one step ahead of everyone else. She finished with 13
points per game and 17 total assists — the most of any Husky underclassmen during the trip.
And once the season officially started three months later, Arnold immediately proved she could play just as well against competitive, Division I talent.
Due to injuries to starting guards Azzi Fudd (knee) and Caroline Ducharme (out indefinitely with neck/back issues), the freshman was thrown into UConn’s starting lineup at the end of November.
It took a couple games for Arnold, Nika Mühl and Bueckers (UConn’s three true point guards) to figure out how to best balance taking care of the ball, but once Bueckers slid over into the No. 4 position they found their groove.
Mühl and Arnold take turns bringing up the ball and directing the offense. Each has mastered how to move without the ball to distract defenses to get their teammates open. Arnold feeds off Mühl’s defensive aggression and has learned to create stops on her own.
Her one-of-a-kind fastpace and in-your face energy smothers defenders, frustrating them quickly and allowing Arnold to poke out the ball off loose dribbles and run them down for a bucket. Arnold has recorded one or more steals in every game but two this season, including a season-high eight against Providence in Hartford last week.
“I hate playing against players like her. I hate it,” Mühl said. “So I know how much everybody that we play against hates it. You know, those pesky little defenders that (are) super aggressive, super vocal. They’re just always there and they’re so annoying for the whole game. And it’s true, she’s annoying, but it’s the worst type of player you can play and be defended by, so she gives us so much definitely. …
“She doesn’t look like a freshman out there, right? I don’t see many freshmen working so hard on defense and being so smart on defense, that’s very rare. She has both and I know she’s gonna keep getting better and better and even more and more annoying.”
Arnold hasn’t missed a beat since adapting to her larger role. She’s learned how to control her pace and how to impact the game on both ends of the court — seeing the game slow down enough where she’s able to make quicker and smarter decisions.
The freshman has been named the Big East Freshman of the Week four times in 10 weeks.
Against Seton Hall on Wednesday, Arnold could see they were swarming the lane and knew her usual drive-to-the-lane layup attempts would likely be shut down. So, instead she got herself open on the arc. Her four 3-pointers were a season-high and her first since playing at Creighton on Jan. 3.
“I thought KK gave us a huge lift. I mean she just really, really did some great things tonight. And I think that’s a great sign for her,” Huskies’ head coach Geno Auriemma said Wednesday. “… I think that’s a great sign of maturity for her. She do3esn’t get that many during the game because with Ashlynn (Shade) and Paige and Nika, the way they’ve been shooting it, there aren’t many leftover.
“So today, I thought she took all the right ones. When you watch KK play, and you see how she gets in the lane and creates things for other people, and she’s a terrific free throw shooter, if that 3 becomes a really, really, really consistent shot for her I just think that elevates her to a certain level.”
Arnold is currently fourth on the team with 10.0 points per game and third with a 53.7 field goal percentage. She follows both Bueckers and Mühl with 60 assists but leads the team with 46 steals.
The freshman likely didn’t plan on starting this early into her collegiate career, yet she’s wasted no time in taking advantage of learning under some of the best point guards in UConn history.
“In high school, I was just going at one space so (now) really pacing myself but also looking at my upperclassmen, like Nika and Paige, just to talk to them and make sure I have the right leadership going into these types of games,” she said Wednesday. “Either they’re looking at me for leadership for a voice or I’m looking at them to try to help to see how to calm the team down.”