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The Weekly: UConn passes final test of the regular season
The Huskies aren't likely to play another competitive game until the NCAA Tournament regionals.
Daniel Connolly
February 05, 2026
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Photo: Ian Bethune
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Top stories
On Sunday, UConn put a historic beatdown on arch-rival Tennessee, 96-66. The Huskies scored their highest point total and secured the largest margin of victory in the history of the series, while also handing the Vols their second-biggest defeat ever.
It wasn’t quite as easy as the final score indicated, though. UConn blew a 16-point lead and trailed at points in both the second and third quarter. Then the Huskies flipped a switch and out-scored the visitors 49-18 the rest of the way.
Geno Auriemma has won at least one national championship in each of the last four decades in large part thanks to his ability to adapt and evolve. His latest change? Discovering that screaming at his players no longer had the intended effect. Instead, Auriemma has let his soft side come out and motivated through encouragement, not fear.
UConn and Tennessee extend series
The most famous rivalry in women’s basketball will continue beyond this season. Auriemma revealed before Sunday’s tilt that UConn will host Tennessee next year before the school later confirmed the teams have agreed to a two-year extension.
Future matchups might come earlier in the calendar, though. While all six meetings since the revival of the series either have been in January or February, Tennessee coach Kim Caldwell wants that to change.
“It's just too tough for us,” she complained. “You get two bye weeks in the SEC, so this takes away one of our bye weeks, which is unfortunate.”
The Huskies also lose their bye week in the Big East by playing a non-conference matchup in the new year.
A 25-point night from Azzi Fudd helped UConn roll past DePaul on Wednesday night, 96-40. The Huskies extended their overall winning streak to 40, their conference winning streak to 60 and claimed their 19th straight victory of 25 points or more.
In case you missed it
Chasing Perfection
From before the Tennessee game, Megan Gauer and I talk Allie Ziebell’s big night against Xavier and much more:
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Rankings and awards
AP Poll: UConn remained the unanimous No. 1, though it now has four wins over top-10 teams: No. 6 Louisville, No. 8 Michigan, No. 9 Ohio State and No. 10 Iowa. Tennessee fell four spots to No. 19 after losing to the Huskies by 30.
Big East weekly honors: After dropping 34 points behind a 10-14 shooting performance against Xavier, Allie Ziebell brought home Big East Player of the Week. According to Carl Adamec, she’s the second Husky to claim the award after coming off the bench. The other? Shea Ralph, who shared the honor with Katie Smrcka-Duffy — Azzi Fudd’s mom.
A Strong week: While Strong’s three-week reign as Big East Player of the Week came to an end, she brought home some hardware. The sophomore was named the AP Player of the Week after putting up 25.5 points, 3.5 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.5 blocks in wins over Xavier and Tennessee.
Fudd lands on watch list: Azzi Fudd is a top-10 candidate for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, which goes to the best shooting guard in the nation.
Be sure to follow @UConnWBBWeekly on Twitter/X:
Sarah Strong landed on the cover of SLAM this week:
… and the team had some fun with it:
Five former Huskies are playing in Athletes Unlimited:
UConn-Tennessee still draws plenty of eyes:
Geno being Geno:
Recruiting corner
UConn hosted 2027 recruit Haylen Ayers at the Tennessee game on Sunday. A native of Jackson, Tennessee, she’s a 6-0 guard rated as the No. 5 player in her class by ESPN.
Ayers has previously visited the Huskies and has them in her top five alongside Duke, Kentucky, Texas and Vanderbilt.
Olivia Vukosa also made the trip up to New York to see UConn wax the Volunteers.
History class
Question of the week/poll/trivia
With Azzi Fudd, KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade all reaching 100 career games recently, who's the next closest Husky to the mark? |
The week ahead
Saturday: UConn will host Butler at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford for a noon tip-off on FS1.
Wednesday: The Huskies wrap up the season series with Creighton at Gampel Pavilion. That’ll kick off at 7:00 p.m. ET on Peacock and NBC Sports Network.
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