Geno expects Aubrey Griffin to return to UConn next season

Aubrey Griffin is apparently set to come back for a sixth season at UConn next fall. Geno Auriemma let the news slip while discussing senior night with the media on Thursday before he tried to backtrack.

“Dorka (Juhász) did two (senior nights) and Aubrey’s coming back next year, and she's doing it,” he said. “Aubrey’s coming back, where’s she gonna go?…I could be wrong. I could 100% wrong.”

Griffin won’t get a medical redshirt after tearing her ACL on Jan. 3 at Creighton but she still has a year of eligibility remaining. In addition to Griffin’s standard four years, she received a bonus year due to a Covid as well as a medical redshirt for the 2021-22 campaign that she missed. She arrived in Storrs as a freshman in 2019.

Per Hearst’s Carl Adamec, Griffin would be the first player to spend six seasons with the Huskies under Auriemma.

The news isn’t all that surprising. Shortly after Griffin tore her ACL, Auriemma relayed that she had already thought about returning.

“Aubrey asked me (if she had eligibility left) after the fact when things had settled down a little bit,” he said back in January. “Now I don’t know whether she intends to (use it). That’s a decision down the road.”

Meanwhile, Paige Bueckers has hinted that she’ll be back next year but hasn’t officially announced any decision. Could that happen during senior night festivities?

“I guess we’ll see,” she said with a shrug and smile.

Aaliyah Edwards has also declined to answer whether she’ll declare for the draft or return while Nika Mühl hasn’t been asked yet.

UConn will host senior night after its matchup with Georgetown on Friday at Gampel Pavilion.