UConn continues to lean into frontcourt with addition of Olivia Vukosa

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Headlines

News

• Sarah Strong named AP Preseason All-American

• UConn women’s basketball cleans up Big East preseason honors

Olivia Vukosa commits

• UConn lands Olivia Vukosa, the No. 3 player in class of 2026

• Why Olivia Vukosa picked UConn: 'It just felt like I was already on the team'

Last week’s Weekly

• Why UConn is willing to let Blanca Quiñonez play through early mistakes

Elsewhere

• The greatest women’s college basketball players (Associated Press)

UConn continues to strengthen future frontcourt with addition of Olivia Vukosa

For most of the last decade, UConn has been hampered by a persistent problem: A flawed frontcourt. The Huskies have had talent — Napheesa Collier and Gabby Williams were quite a pair — but not size. They’ve had size — Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhász — but no depth. In some years, they’ve been lacking in all three categories.

Given those shortcomings, Geno Auriemma has offered some variation of the same prediction on an annual basis recently.

“Our post players are going to decide the fate of our season,” is how he put it early in the 2022-23 campaign.

Last season, the Huskies’ frontcourt took them to the mountaintop. Sarah Strong played her best basketball in the NCAA Tournament averaging a ridiculous 19.0 points, 11.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 steals. Meanwhile, Jana El Alfy and Ice Brady limited Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, USC’s Kiki Iriafen and UCLA’s Lauren Betts into sub-par performances across three straight games.

Even with those efforts, UConn’s guards drove the bus. Paige Bueckers was unstoppable at the regionals, dropping 40 points in the Sweet Sixteen before following it up with only 31 points in the Elite Eight. In Tampa, Azzi Fudd averaged 21.5 points en route to winning Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Six of the Huskies’ top seven scorers on the season were guards.

This year is different. UConn’s frontcourt certainly isn’t a weakness — it’s the strength of the team.

Strong is, by all accounts, will be significantly improved as a sophomore. Over the offseason, the Huskies added Serah Williams out of the transfer portal from Wisconsin. In her unofficial debut with UConn, the three-time All-Big Ten First Team selection put up 15 points on 5-7 shooting in just 17 minutes of action in an exhibition against Boston College.

Behind the pair, El Alfy is primed to take a leap in her second healthy season while Brady has been useful at times, particularly on the defensive end. Ayanna Patterson is back after missing the last two seasons with injury. Blanca Quiñonez should factor in as a freshman while Caroline Ducharme and Morgan Cheli could both make an impact down low, depending on how they’re utilized — and if they’re healthy. Gandy Malou-Mamel is a long-term project but has size that can’t be taught.

That core isn’t going anywhere, either. Of that group, only Williams will exhaust her eligibility after this season.

On Tuesday, UConn added another piece to its frontcourt of the future. The Huskies landed Olivia Vukosa, a 6-4 post player ranked as the No. 3 player in the class of 2026. She should further shift UConn from a team that’s long been overly-reliant on its guards to one dominated by bigs.

When Vukosa arrives in Storrs next year, Azzi Fudd will be off in the WNBA, leaving the Huskies without an obvious star in the backcourt. They’ll still have a strong group — KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade, Kayleigh Heckel, Allie Ziebell and Cheli is far from a talent-deficient group — but there’s no obvious go-to player.

That won’t be the case down low.

For the first time in a long time, UConn’s biggest question mark entering a season will be at guard. With Bueckers gone, the Huskies lost arguably the best shot-creator in the nation and don’t have any obvious answers to fill the void. Fudd will certainly play a big role while Shade is capable, too. Beyond that, they’ll need someone to step up.

The frontcourt should take some of the pressure off. Strong has already proven she can carry a heavy load while Williams put up big numbers at Wisconsin despite consistently facing triple-teams. The offense will largely run through those two.

For years, UConn has entered seasons just hoping the bigs won’t be the downfall of the team. Now, the Huskies will enter a new campaign with a frontcourt that isn’t just good enough to get by, but one that could be the driving force behind the team’s success.

With Olivia Vukosa set to arrive next year, that trend could be here to stay, too.

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