Top storylines as UConn begins summer workouts

The 2024-25 season has unofficially begun.

Photo: Ian Bethune

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Top storylines as UConn begins summer workouts

UConn women’s basketball’s 2024-25 season unofficially kicked off with the team convening in Storrs for the start of summer workouts.

While all workouts over the next month happen behind closed doors, we still will learn plenty about the 2024-25 iteration of the team. It’s one of the first times that Geno Auriemma speaks to the media since the end of the previous season while every player is (usually) made available as well.

With that in mind, these are the biggest storylines surrounding the Huskies as they get to work.

Injury updates

UConn has five players coming back from season-ending injuries and there hasn’t been any update on them recently. Since they’re all in different stages of recovery, the questions about each are different.

  • Jana El Alfy (ruptured achilles) warmed up with the team at the end of the season, so does that mean she’s close to returning to basketball activities? Azzi Fudd (torn ACL) also practiced some during the NCAA Tournament, what’s her status? Is it too early to know if they’ll be ready for the start of the season?

  • How is Aubrey Griffin coming along six months out from her torn ACL?

  • Have Caroline Ducharme (head/neck) and Ayanna Patterson (knee) made progress with their recurring issues?

In addition to that group, this is also the time of year that offseason procedures are revealed. We’ll likely find out if anyone got anything fixed — think Paige Bueckers’ ankle surgery in 2021 or Ducharme’s hip labrum repair in 2022 as recent examples.

Opportunities for the newcomers

With so many injured players still working their way back, UConn has just five returners that are (presumably) healthy: Bueckers, KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade, Ice Brady and Qadence Samuels.

That means the newcomers will have plenty of opportunities to show what they can do. Kaitlyn Chen dominated at the Ivy League level, but now she has to do it with all the pressure and expectations that come with playing at UConn. Sarah Strong will look to show why she was the No. 1 player in the class — especially considering the Huskies’ lack of proven options in the frontcourt.

As for Morgan Cheli and Allie Ziebell, they need to display how they can help the team since there’s no shortage of talented guards on the roster. Cheli’s best bet will likely be to establish herself as a Swiss army knife-type player, while Ziebell could shoot her way into minutes.

Sophomore leaps

This is the time of year when players improve the most, and UConn has four players all looking to make a big leap this offseason.

Arnold and Shade both proved to be saviors for the Huskies when injuries struck. Yet Arnold could disappear at times and also struggled with turnovers while Shade’s impact waned when her shots weren’t falling. Those two just have to keep doing what they already did well, just on a more consistent basis.

Then there’s Brady, who broke out when Aaliyah Edwards got hurt during the Big East Tournament but had a quiet freshman season otherwise. With Edwards off to the WNBA, Brady is now the most experienced post player on the roster. The Huskies need her to take charge down low.

Even though all three have a year under their belts, they aren’t guaranteed the same role with so many players back from injury and a talented crop of newcomers. They have to prove themselves all over again.

As for Samuels, she never established herself as a consistent member of the rotation in her first season. Now that the Huskies’ backcourt is re-stocked and deep with talent, she has to make strides so as not to get buried on the depth chart.

A new Paige?

After the loss to Iowa in the Final Four, Geno Auriemma was especially hard on Paige Bueckers.

“She definitely didn't get the ball enough, definitely didn't play the way she had played in the tournament leading up to today,” he said. “She has got to learn that there's no waiting at this time of the year. It's you. You make you make it happen yourself.”

After being called out, will we see a different version of Bueckers? Is she ready to go scorched earth on the rest of the country, or will she continue to frustrate Auriemma with her lack of assertiveness?

The answer to that question will likely decide whether or not Bueckers can become the program’s next transcendent player.

Team cohesion

UConn has 14 players on its roster and only a handful have ever played together — or even done so recently. That, not to mention the size of the roster itself, means summer workouts will be a great opportunity to build chemistry ahead of preseason.

That won’t happen all at once — last year, the Huskies had summer workouts and an entire trip to Europe but still weren’t in sync when the regular season began — but this is when the building blocks are laid.

UConn needs to figure out which frontcourt players work well together, how all the guards fit in and get an early idea of what the rotation might look like — to name a few examples. Again, no firm decisions on minutes get made in June, but the seeds for November and beyond are planted now.

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