On Monday, UConn took the court against Syracuse for its first game action of the 2026-27 season. The Huskies won comfortably and, more importantly, had plenty of impressive performances. Among the headliners: Jovana Popovic earned a surprise start and excelled without a hint of nerves while fellow freshman Olivia Vukosa also performed well.

Read the full postgame breakdown here.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, Azzi Fudd landed on the six-player WNBA All-Rookie Team this season. She played in 30 games (24 starts) for the Dallas Wings, leading all rookies with 1.7 steals per game and 2.1 made threes per game while ranking fifth with 13.1 points, second with 0.8 blocks and third with a 39.7% mark from deep.

During All-Star Weekend, Fudd won the WNBA 3-point contest, becoming the first rookie to do so in league history.

Fudd helped Dallas improve from the league’s worst record in 2025 to a seventh-place finish and playoff berth. The rookie had to watch from the sidelines as the Wings took the Golden State Valkyries to the brink in game three of the first round — she underwent arthroscopic right knee surgery in August and missed the remainder of the season.

On Nov. 8, UConn will put Azzi Fudd’s No. 35 up on the wall at Gampel Pavilion. After being named a unanimous First Team All-American as a senior, Fudd earned her place in the Huskies of Honor.

During her time in Storrs, she totaled 1,687 points, 270 rebounds, 241 assists and 191 steals. She sits 21st on the all-time scoring list and fifth in career 3-pointers made with 292. Fudd also holds the program’s career free-throw percentage record at 92.5%. She played a crucial role in UConn’s 2025 national championship run, taking home the Final Four Most Outstanding Player award.

The ceremony will be held approximately 30 minutes before UConn’s showdown with Iowa.

After UConn’s exhibition win over Syracuse on Monday, Geno Auriemma revealed that Blanca Quiñonez had two procedures done on her shoulder this offseason. She went under the knife to repair a torn labrum in her left shoulder on May 18 and apparently had a “small procedure” done as well, according to the school.

“She had one and then had to rehab that. Then she had to have another one, then rehab that,” Auriemma said. “It took a long time before she could actually get out and do things.”

Quiñonez has begun doing some basketball activities but is still not fully cleared to return.

“She's been doing everything she needs to do. Right now, there's just a couple things that she has to finish up on,” Auriemma said. “I don't know the exact date that she's going to be back, but as soon as… she says, ‘I feel great. There's nothing that's holding me back,’ she's going to be cleared and she'll step into practice the next day.”

On this week’s episode, we break down everything we saw in UConn’s preseason opener.

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A behind-the-scenes look at UConn’s offseason:

KK Arnold takes you through the team’s media day:

Azzi Fudd went out to Spokane to see Inês Bettencourt:

Question: Three exhibition games for UConn are…

60.9% — The right amount
21.7% — Too many
14.5% — Better than nothing
2.9% — Too few

UConn will continue preseason play when it hosts Texas on Monday, Oct. 19 at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford. WFSB will broadcast the game locally but for those out of market, it’ll only be available on UConn+ (pay-per-view).

The Associated Press preseason poll is also expected to be released in the next week.