UConn women's basketball breaks down its own roster

On Wednesday, UConn will play its first official game of the season when Dayton comes to the XL Center. Up until now, almost all we know about the Huskies is based on what the players or coaches have said and a handful of exhibitions against inferior competition.

Luckily, head coach Geno Auriemma has never been light on words and the current crop of Huskies are more than willing to share their observations from practice.

Every player has come up between summer workouts in June and now — though some more than others. Obviously, Paige Bueckers gets talked about a lot, as do Ice Brady and the freshmen. Still, there’s no one better to preview each player on the team than the team itself.

Paige Bueckers

Geno Auriemma: “Her practices and her individual workouts right now, this is the best I've seen her look — even more so than freshman year… The difference between having Paige and not having Paige is your chances of competing for a national championship just went up exponentially.”

Auriemma: “Paige is a better basketball player now than she was when she was national player of the year.”

Auriemma: “Everything that she did before all this happened, she still does all that. She just does it a little more forcefully, and a little more confidently — not that she wasn't confident then, but there's this maturity about her.”

Azzi Fudd: “She is one of those one-of-a-kind players where you don't see what she has in another player. It’s just special. So I have no doubt in my mind that she's going to be amazing the season.”

Aubrey Griffin

Auriemma: “When Aubrey’s healthy, when she’s 100%, you’ve seen the impact that she can have — defensively, on the backboard. She is pretty healthy for the most part. I hope that we can keep her that way. Anytime in your past that you’ve had back surgery, it’s always something that you worry about. But if we can keep her minutes in bursts, 3-4 minutes here, 3-4 minutes there, and not have it be prolonged, I think we can keep her that way.”

Nika Mühl: “Aubrey always gets overlooked. She's a super underrated player and obviously she doesn't care, she’s still Aubrey… She's gonna have to step up really, really, really [big] this year and I can tell she's ready for it by the way she's practicing, by the way she's going after it. I think she's gonna have the biggest breakout season here for us.”

Mühl: “She's such an amazing defensive player, The best on-ball player, defensive player that I've played with — ever.”

Nika Mühl

Paige Bueckers: “She was the best point guard in the country last year.”

Auriemma: “This is her fourth year, so she needs to be 20 percent better than she was last year.”

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