Aim for the stars
Uconn’s Bueckers, USC’S Watkins headliners for Elite Eight matchup Three-point guard lineup, Arnold’s emergence saved women’s season
PORTLAND, Ore. — When the Uconn women’s basketball team tips off its NCAA Tournament Elite Eight matchup against No. 1 seed USC on Monday night, all eyes will be glued to two players: Paige Bueckers and Juju Watkins.
Both finalists for Naismith Player of the Year, Uconn’s Bueckers and USC’S Watkins are two of the biggest stars in the sport this season. Watkins, like Bueckers, is a former No. 1 prospect and became the first freshman named a Naismith Trophy finalist since Bueckers won the award in 2021.
They are a well-matched pair on paper, both leading their teams in scoring. Watkins averages 27 points per game to Bueckers’ 21.9, but the Huskies star boasts much better efficiency hitting 53.6% from the field to Watkins’ 40.2%. Watkins is slightly better on the boards with 7.2 per game, but Bueckers has dominated in the NCAA Tournament averaging 8.6 rebounds over Uconn’s three victories.
However, 1-v-1 superstar matchups haven’t served Uconn well this season, especially with Bueckers lining up mostly as a power forward defensively.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Geno Auriemma is a notorious pessimist, a self-described “bundle of negativity.” Three injury-plagued seasons have taken their toll on the legendary Uconn women’s basketball coach, and he spent much of non-conference play dreading what March would look like.
After the Huskies lost to then-no. 10 Texas, now the top-seeded team in the Portland 4 bracket, Auriemma earnestly questioned whether this squad was capable of even making the NCAA Tournament. The 80-68
defeat in Austin on Dec. 3 came less than a week after star guard Azzi Fudd suffered a season-ending ACL tear that upended Uconn’s lineup.
“The way we were playing, the way our mojo was, the vibe on our team was very down. We were really, really, really down,” Auriemma said.
“After the Texas game I thought, if we keep this up, we probably won't make the NCAA Tournament. If we keep this up, we're really going to struggle. We won't get a home game … I said, childbirth is a miracle like us getting to the Sweet 16 will be a miracle. And now here we are.”
It was already a struggle to reincorporate superstar guard Paige Bueckers into the team after she missed all of 2022-23 with a torn ACL, especially with senior Nika Muhl already established as the primary ball-handler. Adding freshman point guard KK Arnold, the No. 6 prospect in the class of 2023, was yet another wrinkle in the rotation.
Yet here the Huskies are, back in the Elite Eight for the 28th time under coach Geno Auriemma. They face No. 1 seed USC on Monday with a Final Four berth on the line.
Uconn's three-point guard lineup was a last-ditch attempt by Auriemma to salvage a season he feared was already lost. When he introduced it for the first time against UCLA on Nov. 24, two days after Fudd's injury, it looked like it would be another failed experiment.
Arnold performed well in her first career start with 11 points shooting 4-for-8 from the field, but she logged just one assist without a single steal. Muhl's passing production dropped with three assists after averaging 5.3 across Uconn's first three games. Bueckers, who won the 2021 Nancy Lieberman Award for the nation's best point guard, also struggled to facilitate despite her 31 points, with every other starter combining for 36.
“When I changed the lineup and went with three point guards, it was even worse because they were all standing around bitching about who was going to get the ball,” Auriemma said. “Nika wants it because Nika had it all the time. KK wants it because she's never not had it, and Paige ain't running up the floor for an outlet. She wants it in her hands. And I thought, if this doesn't work, I don't know what will.”
There was never a real doubt that the Huskies would make the tournament outside of Auriemma's internal spiraling, but the Elite Eight felt practically impossible two months ago. When fifth-year forward Aubrey Griffin became the fifth player to suffer a season-ending injury — a torn ACL on Jan. 3 — Auriemma felt like he was running out of options.
But the Sweet 16 on Saturday, Arnold emerged as Uconn's desperately-needed No. 3 scorer with 12 points in a 53-45 win over Duke.
Bueckers, who had her worst performance of the postseason, still logged a team-high 24 points plus five rebounds three steals and two blocks. Muhl dominated down the stat sheet with a teamhigh eight assists, six rebounds and four steals.
“When you have three people that want the ball the whole time, you play basketball differently when the ball is not in your hands,” Muhl said. “We're lucky to have Paige who is great at both, but KK and I kind of had to adjust and learn to play off ball, but that was huge for our development. Making reads, making good cuts, setting screens, I feel like all that was really big for us to learn. Everything in the end works out and has its point, so maybe it was a bit of challenge but it made us better players.”
An ugly defensive slugfest against the Blue Devils highlighted the dimension Arnold added to Uconn's roster beyond the obvious impacts of Bueckers's return. The freshman runs on a seemingly-endless supply of energy, her foot constantly planted firmly on the gas pedal on both ends of the floor. Her biggest impact against Duke was her defensive disruption, generating five steals towards the Blue Devils' 23 total turnovers.
“For teams that want to get some* pressure on us, we can always count on, if we can get the ball in her hands right away, she can break the pressure by herself,” Auriemma said. “People ask me like what's the difference between last year's team and this year's team? Well we didn't have KK … and we don't have a sub for her, so she plays 40 minutes almost every game. God bless her, to be able to go at that pace and keep it up for 40 minutes.
But every situation doesn't call for maximum velocity. It's an ongoing challenge for Arnold to modulate the pace of her drives, to take some heat off of her passes and settle into an offensive rhythm. Against an opponent like Duke, Arnold was the perfect complement as Muhl's disruptor on the defensive end and Bueckers's facilitator on offense. She hit her stride in the third quarter, logging six of her 12 points plus two assists, a steal and a rebound.
“It was definitely an adjustment for me going in there and trying to read off Paige and Nika, especially because it's my first time playing with them,” Arnold said. “Honestly, I needed to just control my speed and not just go at one speed all the time to help them as well … Our chemistry has really gelled and come together a lot, and we're reading each other better. In the beginning we were all over the place, but now we see and can make the great plays.”