Huskies take first reps
Excitement, optimism prevalent as UConn women open camp
STORRS — As the UConn women’s basketball team was preparing for its official return to the court Friday, Geno Auriemma was chatting in the Werth Family Champions Center before first practice of his 37th season as head coach.
“We were just upstairs saying, if you’re not excited for today ... it’s only going to get worse from here,” Auriemma said as he met the media before practice. “If you’re starting out in a bad way, that doesn’t bode very well. So I am excited.”
His players were clearly excited as they stormed onto the practice court for the afternoon session, screaming and sprinting ahead of the Huskies’ first official team practice of the 2021-22 season.
The team has been together throughout the summer, but Friday was different.
“It feels like freshman year again,” senior guard Christyn Williams said. “We got to get in here and had six weeks together, build that team chemistry early on. And now practice is about to begin, it came so fast.”
UConn is about to begin what could be one of its most thrilling seasons in years. The nation’s No. 1 recruit, Azzi Fudd, will begin her Husky career alongside former Team USA teammate and 2021 Player of the Year Paige Bueckers.
Redshirt senior Evina Westbrook returned for her final year of eligibility, and there is the addition of Ohio State transfer and former Big Ten forward Dorka Juhasz. With all the starters back and a talented freshmen class arriving, UConn boasts more depth than it has had in years.
“We have depth. I feel like that’s something that we were missing in the Final Four. We have a lot of guys that can do a lot of different things. And it’s extremely