Can Ice Brady maintain production alongside Edwards? Is pressure on Paige Bueckers sustainable in postseason?
The already-undersized
Going hand-in-hand with Edwards's availability is the rise of redshirt freshman Ice Brady during the Big East Tournament. Brady entered the weekend averaging 15 minutes per game, but she was the lone forward left on the roster after Edwards' injury in the quarterfinals. She played all 40 minutes in both the semifinal and championship games, averaging 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds in her second and third career starts.
Brady scored her season-high 17 points Jan. 13 at St. John's and grabbed a career-best 14 rebounds against Xavier on Feb. 14. But inconsistency has been her fatal flaw: She went six straight games without more than five points during Big East play, and she struggles with foul trouble, averaging two per game in 17 minutes on the court. Those issues became non-existent when the Huskies truly needed her in the tournament, and it would be a gamechanger if Uconn could get more reliable minutes from its bigger lineup against top opponents.
“These three days hopefully gave Ice the confidence that she can play at this level and compete with anyone she has to compete with and she can contribute to us winning,” Auriemma said. “I hope this feels so good and she's so proud of herself that she'll want to keep experiencing this when we go forward … I always want to see whether Ice is going to compete. She doesn't have to do everything right or be perfect, but I want to her what her competitive spirit is out there.”
Bueckers was the definition of a star during Uconn's Big East Tournament run, becoming just the fourth player in conference history to win the tournament's Most Outstanding Player award multiple times in a career. She averaged 27.7 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists across the threegame stretch, which also included five blocks in the championship game, a double-double in the semifinal and a season-best five 3-pointers
in the quarterfinal. Auriemma described her performance over the weekend as, “Paige at her best, in totality.”
As sensational as Bueckers is, she isn't immune to offensive slumps. Prior to the Big East Tournament she made more than two 3-pointers in just one of the Huskies' last 10 games, and two of her three worst shooting performances over that stretch came against No. 1 South Carolina and No. 9 Notre Dame. Her 25-plus points won't be so automatic as the competition ramps up, but the Big East Tournament showed she has another level left to reach during the postseason. As Auriemma said after Monday's championship, the biggest stages are where Bueckers often shines the brightest.
“There's just something in her that I can't describe … There's nothing, literally nothing, that she thinks if she set her mind to it she can't do,” Auriemma said. “It's remarkable the way players like Paige can summon up exactly what's needed at any given moment in any given game … We've been very fortunate here at Connecticut, but she's different, and the bigger the game, the more different she becomes. It's hard to explain sometimes.”