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Despite three seasons of injuries, hope springs eternal for UConn

With a fully healthy roster, optimism is high in Storrs.

Author

Daniel Connolly
June 13, 2024

Photo: Ian Bethune

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Last week’s Weekly

Despite three seasons of injuries, hope springs eternal for UConn during summer workouts

The last three years haven’t been kind to UConn on the injury front. Having multiple starters down has cost the Huskies the opportunity to challenge for the national championship. The roster that they begin summer workouts with is usually drastically different than the one that plays in the NCAA Tournament nine months later.

Geno Auriemma isn’t letting that get him down. Instead of preparing for the worst, he’s hoping for the best. That’s what the summer is for, after all.

“You're supposed to feel a little bit of excitement, a little bit of apprehension. You're supposed to have all those emotions at this time of the year. Mostly though, you're supposed to have hope,” Auriemma explained. “I hope everybody stays healthy. I hope everybody plays to their potential. I hope the dominoes fall where they're supposed to fall. So at this time of the year, hope springs eternal. Come January, reality sets in.”

At the moment, UConn has plenty to be excited about. For starters, it actually has a full roster.

“When you have 10 players or 11 players or 12 players at practice, it reminds you, wow, you don't have to you don't have to make concessions all the time. You can actually run a practice like you used to run a practice and you start to see all the possibilities,” Auriemma said.

Paige Bueckers being back also helps since she can win a game single-handedly — as she showed a handful of times last season. Now, Huskies might even have enough healthy talent around her to ensure she won’t have to put the team on her back as often.

“I like looking out there and realizing that if Paige doesn't get 30 tonight, you still have a chance to win,” Auriemma said.

Then there’s the rising sophomore class that stepped up and outperformed expectations last season when injuries struck. While they probably won’t be counted on to carry as much of the load, that may not be a bad thing.

“The key is: Can you do more in less minutes? They're not gonna play 40 minutes like they did last year, which I think is a benefit to them,” Auriemma said. “So I'm excited to see what they can do when they're not tired.”

The Huskies also have a strong crop of newcomers: A talented freshman class headlined by No. 1 recruit Sarah Strong along with Princeton transfer Kaitlyn Chen. The early returns from that group have been positive.

“Kaitlyn? Terrific. She's terrific,” Auriemma said. “She's very, very impressive, to say the least. I really, really like her.”

“Sarah’s been great. I think she's surprised some people. We thought she was good and she's maybe even better than that,” he continued. “Allie (Ziebell) has been great. She's surprised us. She showed us some things — quickness-wise and just IQ-wise — and the way she shoots it.”

Meanwhile, Morgan Cheli has been limited to a hamstring issue that’s hampered her since high school. Despite that, Auriemma was borderline giddy when discussing the freshman class.

“These three kids that we have this year, I think we got it right, man. Just watching them work out, being around them every day — I think we got it right,” he said.

Put all that together and it’s not hard to see why Auriemma’s excited. There’s plenty of time to deal with any potential issues that crop up — inexperience in the frontcourt, re-integrating players back from injury, etc. — but now is a time for optimism. And right now, there’s plenty of that in Storrs.

“I feel really really good about where we are right now,” Auriemma said.

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