UConn hoping to have a deep rotation this season

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UConn hoping to have a deep rotation this season

Geno Auriemma wants to make something clear.

“Contrary to popular opinion, I do like having more than six players on my team,” he quipped on Tuesday.

It’s easy to understand where the notion that Auriemma prefers a shorter rotation comes from, though. Over the last eight seasons, UConn’s never played more than seven healthy players for 15.0+ minutes per game.

Still, Auriemma maintains that’s been a matter of necessity, not preference. The Huskies were hammered with injuries over the last three seasons and prior to that, they didn’t have particularly deep rosters.

But if all goes according to plan with this team, the coach hopes to use his full complement of available players.

“Does every coach like playing eight, nine, 10 players if possible? 100 percent,” Auriemma said. “Come NCAA Tournament time, does every coach like playing 10 players? Hell no. But during the season, yeah, you get 10 players that can really play, [where] there’s not that big a gap between three and 10 (in the rotation), I'll take a team like that every day of the week. I just don't remember the last time I was in that situation.”

Even though summer workouts have only just begun, UConn may finally be in that situation. Paige Bueckers will lead the way while Azzi Fudd will be second on the backcourt depth chart as long as she’s healthy. That means the Huskies won’t have to rely as heavily on KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade, which may not be a bad thing.

“Maybe Azzi decides she wants to come off the bench and only play five minutes,” Auriemma said sarcastically. “People forget that as you start to incorporate more people, people's roles change. But that doesn't mean their production has to change.”

In addition to those four returners, UConn added Kaitlyn Chen out of the transfer portal, which should only boost the guard group further.

“That was a really good decision by us,” Auriemma said.

Right there, that’s five players that are all expected to have prominent roles. Then in the frontcourt, Ice Brady and Jana El Alfy will form a low post tandem with Aubrey Griffin eventually expected back from a torn ACL as well, bringing the projected rotation to eight.

That doesn’t even include the freshman, who should all see plenty of time as well.

“They’re all gonna play,” Auriemma said confidently.

So that’s 11 players who are all proven commodities or highly-regarded newcomers — without mentioning Caroline Ducharme and Ayanna Patterson, who are question marks coming off injury, or Qadence Samuels, who showed flashes as a freshman.

Considering how injuries have decimated the roster over the last three seasons, the Huskies would like to deal with the problem of having too many good players. If they do find themselves in that position, playing time will have to be earned by everyone.

“As long as everybody gets a fair shake and everybody has an equal opportunity, whoever comes out on top gets more minutes than those who don't and everybody accepts that and understands that,” Auriemma explained.

Ultimately, the coach will be guided by a simple philosophy.

“I think the goal should always be put your five best players on the floor as often as possible and don't worry about necessarily what position they play or what the deal is,” he said. “Just try to get your best five players on floors for as long as possible each game. We'll find out who that has to be.”

But again, that’s only if everything goes right. As recent history has shown, there’s no guarantee of anything at this point in the calendar.

“I reminded them that last June, we thought we were gonna play a certain way and then by the time December 1st came around, it was a total 180,” Auriemma said.

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