UConn begins life after Paige Bueckers with first official practice

As UConn women’s basketball took the court for its first official practice of the 2025-26 campaign on Monday, head coach Geno Auriemma couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. The Huskies seemed to have a Paige Bueckers-sized hole.

“I think for me, I think for the team, there were more than a couple events today on the court that happened where you go, ‘I think we're going to see more of that,’” he said. “Because last year, that would have been something different. Now, you have to wait for somebody to fill that void.”

The good news? This isn’t the first time the Huskies have needed to replace a generational talent — and it won’t be the last, either. They have no choice but to carry on without Bueckers, just as they did without Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart in the past. That’s the nature of college athletics.

“No one's going to be able to fill it completely but it'll start to show itself,” Auriemma said. “It's like when Stewie left, it's like when Diana left, it’s like when Maya left or Tina (Charles), anytime you have someone that’s so dominant at their position, [playing without them] takes some getting used to, for sure.”

UConn has set itself up well for life after Bueckers, though. The Huskies don’t have a one-for-one replacement for the superstar but they have a stronger overall roster than they did a season ago — at least on paper. Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd will lead the way as two of the best players in the country with plenty of quality depth behind them.

That means this UConn team will have a different path to success than last year’s.

“We have an opportunity to play a different way than we've been forced to play the last couple of years,” Auriemma said. “I think we can put a few more different combinations out there than we have in the past few years. We're a little bit longer than we have been so people can play different positions a little easier. People can get a breather during games a little more.”

UConn doesn’t need to have all the answers right now. The first exhibition is 13 days away, the regular season is still a month off and March is a lifetime from now. On day one, the Huskies just wanted to start on the right foot.

“First days of practice, sometimes they're chaotic. One thing I've learned over the years is try to make the first day as instructional as possible and make things go in a way that they recognize some of the things that we've been working on and, at the same time, [bring] the effort and the energy and all the things that you look for,” Auriemma said. “Today, there's a lot of learning going on, a lot of new stuff for these guys, some of them. So all in all, I thought it was good.”

Even without Bueckers, early returns have been positive. UConn didn’t take the court for an official practice until Monday but it’s been holding fall workouts since the players returned to campus at the end of August. They’re happy with how they’ve performed so far.

“I was happy with how the first practice went,” Fudd said. “Our workouts have been pretty good — like, consistently good — so I wasn't really surprised. But when practice starts, Coach and everyone ramps it up, so you never know people are really gonna respond. I thought we did a good job responding.”

It helps that UConn has a significant chunk of its core returning. Aside from Strong and Fudd, KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade have been major contributors for two straight seasons while both Jana El Alfy and Ice Brady played key roles in the championship run. Add in Caroline Ducharme and Ayanna Patterson, who missed most or all of the last two seasons with injury but have been around the program, and there’s plenty of institutional knowledge to reduce the learning curve.

The newcomers are coming along, too. While transfers Serah Williams (Wisconsin) and Kayleigh Heckel (USC) come in with previous college experience, they also have to start from square one in the UConn system.

“I don't know which is worse: You were in high school and you don't know anything about anything so everything's new, or you already played — one year in Kayleigh’s case, three years in Serah’s case — and you already kind of have in your mind, ‘This is how I play,” Auriemma said. “Now you gotta put that aside and move on to a different thing. So I think in that respect, they're picking things up pretty, pretty quickly.”

Among the freshmen, Blanca Quiñonez is an early standout. A native of Ecuador who’s spent the last five years living and playing in Italy, she’s settled into her new environment quickly, which has allowed her basketball abilities to shine.

“She's fun to watch because she's unpredictable,” Auriemma said. “She has a lot of skills and can do a lot of things, and sometimes she tries to do them all at the same time. But she's fun to watch. She does some things every day that really only somebody that's played against really experienced players knows.”

“She looks really good,” Fudd added. “You can tell she's been playing with some pros. She is super skilled, super talented. You can tell she knows basketball.”

Quiñonez is part of a group nicknamed the “hybrids” by assistant coach Jamelle Elliot, which also includes Strong and Ducharme. They practice with both the guards and bigs so they can be deployed in the paint or out on the perimeter.

While Ducharme has bounced between positions throughout her UConn career, it’s a new role for Strong, who spent much of her freshman season down low. But to help fill the void left by Bueckers, the Huskies plan to tap into Strong’s versatility more this year.

“I've been working on dribble pull-ups, more guard stuff, learning the plays from the guards perspective and stuff like that,” she said. “Today, I was playing defense on the guards and they said, ‘Bigs go down there.’ I just stayed. It's kind of weird because I'm not really used to playing that much on the guard side but I'm looking forward to it.”

“The last couple years, we used Paige everywhere — guard big guys, guard guards. This year, Sarah could be that person,” Auriemma added. “She’ll be guarding the point guard, she’ll be guarding the center, she’ll be everywhere on the floor and scoring in a lot of the same ways that she did last year and maybe even more.”

As UConn begins its preparations for the 2025-26 season in earnest, Bueckers hasn’t been far from mind. Some of that is because of what’s happening on the basketball court, but she’s made sure her presence is still felt, too.

“I don't think she's doing well. I think people should check on her… She texts me, ‘I miss you.’ I'm not sure it was meant for me. I'm going with it was meant for me. It was a butt text,” Auriemma quipped. “It made roll my eyes and go, ‘We kind of miss you more.’”

Injury updates

UConn currently has three players dealing with injuries: Morgan Cheli, Jana El Alfy and Ashlynn Shade.

Cheli is still recovering from ankle surgery in February and missed practice due to an appointment. She didn’t participate in the team’s open practice at Sacred Heart the week prior, either, and appears to be a long way off from returning.

“I don't know. I have no idea yet when that's going to be resolved,” Auriemma said. “I don’t know what her timetable is.”

Meanwhile, Shade is dealing with a right hamstring issue but still participated in “about 3/4 of practice,” the coach said. As for El Alfy, she has a calf problem but went through “maybe a third of all the practice,” Auriemma said.

“A lot of these nagging things, if you don't take care of them now, they become chronic, then you gotta deal with them the whole year,” he added. “So we're trying to be proactive.”

NCAA Tournament news

The NCAA announced a few pieces of news about future women’s basketball tournaments. Most notably, the 2028 Final Four in Indianapolis has been moved from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the basketball arena, to Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts — an increase of 13,000 seats.

The first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament will also remain at campus sites — awarded to the top four seeds in each region — through 2031. With the recent growth in popularity of women’s college basketball, there had been calls to move the opening rounds to neutral sites.

The NCAA pointed to increased attendance — the last three tournaments have featured the three highest attendance numbers in the sport’s history — as well as a survey in which 85 percent of Division I members — athletic directors, conferences and coaches — supported the current format as reasoning for sticking with campus sites.