Huskies welcome longtime rival Vols
Sunday marks two major milestones for the UConn women’s basketball team.
The No. 10-ranked Huskies will play their final nonconference test of season against longtime foe No. 7 Tennessee (noon at the XL Center), and they’ll get their first major update on star sophomore Paige Bueckers.
Bueckers will meet with team doctors and her surgeon Sunday to see how far along she is in her recovery, following her December surgery to fix a tibial plateau fracture and a meniscus tear. The meeting will help plan her next steps in returning to the court. Bueckers, last year’s national player of the year, was given a post-surgery eightweek recovery timeline, which was estimated to end Feb. 7.
“Her rehab is going great. She looks fantastic. She’s done everything they’ve asked her to do, now we just gotta take a look and see how far it’s come and what does that mean in terms of going forward,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Saturday. “Not like she’ll play in the Villanova game Wednesday night, but when she can start being incorporated into some kind of workouts.”
On the more certain note, UConn will return graduate transfer Dorka Juhász on Sunday. Auriemma confirmed Saturday that the 6-foot-5 Hungary native will be available against the Lady Vols after sitting out the past two games and last week’s practices with a foot injury.
Juhász’s return to the team will give the Huskies 10 available players for just the second time in the last two months.
“When we’re healthy and when we’re all in, we’re basically unstoppable,” freshman Azzi Fudd said. “Coach says it all the time, that the only people that can stop us are ourselves be
cause when you’ve got it, you got it.”
Fudd will play her fourth game since Nov. 22 on Sunday after missing 11 because of a foot injury. In her first three games back, Fudd has averaged 2.5 points and two rebounds in 26 minutes per game. She leads the team with a 43.8 3-point percentage.
“Azzi when she’s acted, when she’s aggressive and she’s moving and she really wants to take over a game, the ball is in her hands all the time whether we want it to be or not,” Auriemma said. “And then when’s she not, it isn’t and we have to manufacture ways to get her the ball and that might just be because she hasn’t played a lot this year. And the chemistry with the other players isn’t what it normally would be if she played those seven games or whatever that she missed.”
With Fudd getting more reps and getting more comfortable every game (she’s played just seven games this year), Auriemma is hoping she can become another consistent offensive weapon to add to Christyn Williams and Caroline Ducharme.
“I like to think that Caroline and Christyn, and Christyn much more so lately, have really been the most consistent players that we’ve had over the last three weeks or so, since the Louisville game, probably. So that might not have happened had Paige hadn’t gotten out,” he said. “Now that we know what Caroline can do and now we have Azzi back, we have options. We have more different and exciting challenges that we pose for other teams that we didn’t have six weeks ago.”
A RENEWED RIVALRY
Sunday will be the first time since 2007 that Tennessee (19-3, 8-2) will face the Huskies with a higher ranking in the AP Top 25 Poll.
After playing each other every year starting in 1995 through 2007, the teams took a 13-year hiatus before renewing the rivalry with a home-and-home series for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. UConn won both games (winning 60-45 in Hartford in 2020 and 67-61 in Knoxville
last season) as the rivalry was renewed in June for another home-andhome series, starting with Sunday’s game at the XL Center.
“I think the games have been pretty competitive and I felt like it was good for our team,” Tennessee coach Kellie Harper said Friday. “I thought having those big games can really help us. Our goal is to be the best we can be and we want to get back to winning championships. To win championships, you got to play really good teams in tough environments and you gotta fight through adversity and this is great practice for that.”
The Lady Vols’ last win against the Huskies was on Jan. 6, 2007, in Hartford. The Huskies lead the alltime series 15-9.
“Things evolve. Things change. It’s certainly not the rivalry that it used to be and may never be that again. I don’t think any of these players remember any kind of Tennessee-Connecticut game,” Auriemma said. “(I was) trying to explain to them what the rivalry was and who played in it and what it meant to the game of basketball. The only people who hold on to that kind of stuff are the fans. Their fans, for sure, and our fans, for sure. So as long as they’re getting a kick out of it that’s great. I’m happy that we’re able to do it.”
Tennessee is in its third year under Harper (a former point guard for the Lady Vols from 1996-98) and is having its best season in the span of that time. The
Lady Vols were predicted to be a No. 1 seed in the first NCAA Tournament top 16 reveal on Jan. 27.
“I don’t think anyone says, ‘They’re back. They’re perfect.’ I don’t think that’s happening and I don’t think that we’re back because we play a certain style,” Harper said. “I think it’s, right now, we’re tough enough, we’re talented enough, to win basketball games, big ones. Doesn’t guarantee anything, but I think we’re in a pretty good position to be able to go out and compete every single night. I told our team, ‘There’s a lot of basketball to be played, a lot of basketball. And that means there’s a lot of growth that can still be had.’ ”
Since then, however; Tennessee has lost to two unranked opponents in its past three games, falling at Auburn 7-61 on Jan. 27 and most recently at Florida 84-53 on Feb. 3.
Six-foot-2 junior guard Jordan Horston leads the Lady Vols with 15.6 points per game, followed by Rae Burrell (10.1) and 6-6 center Tamari Key (10.0).
“Their size is a challenge. Their offensive rebounding is a challenge. Their ability to break you down one-onone off the dribble is a challenge,” Auriemma said. “They’ve struggled their last outing out so I’m sure they’re coming in with a sense of a little bit more urgency, or maybe they won’t even need that — it’s Connecticut, after all.”