What made UConn's 2025 national title unique

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What makes UConn's 2025 national title unique

When UConn wins national championships, it typically does so in dominant fashion. Half of the Huskies’ 12 titles came during perfect seasons while three others featured just a single loss. To put it another way: In nine championship seasons, UConn lost a combined three games. In the other three, it dropped 11.

The 2025 title falls into the latter category. The Huskies lost three games along the way, though they finished strong by recording both the largest win and second-widest margin of victory in Final Four history.

Even with that, UConn’s most recent crown stands out from the 11 other in more than a few ways.

No No. 1

For the first time, UConn won a national championship without reaching the top spot in the AP Poll during the regular season. The Huskies were No. 2 from the preseason through the sixth week and even earned a few first-place votes along the way but never became the top team in the nation. They arguably should’ve after then-No. 3 UCLA blew out then-No. 1 South Carolina but those teams swapped spots while UConn remained No. 2.

The Huskies also dropped as far as No. 7 on a few occasions — the lowest they’ve ever been ranked in a championship season. The previous mark was No. 6, which they hit in the second week of the 2002-03 campaign and in the last poll before the NCAA Tournament in 2003-04.

2000, 2002, 2009, 2010, 2014 and 2016 were No. 1 wire-to-wire.

No No. 1 (part two)

This is also the first time UConn won a national championship as anything other than a 1-seed. It landed as a 2-seed in the NCAA Tournament and became the first team ever to go through three straight 1-seeds en route to a title.

As a result, the Huskies were crowned champions while wearing blue for just the second time, joining 2004.

MOP surprise

Azzi Fudd might be the most surprising Final Four Most Outstanding Player in UConn’s history. It’s not that she wasn’t deserving or didn’t have the talent to do so — the others just had longer resumes.

Fudd is just the second Husky to be named MOP without earning All-American honors that same season (joining Breanna Stewart in 2013) and just the third who wasn’t also national player of the year (along with Stewart in 2013 and Swin Cash in 2002).

Yet Stewart was only a freshman and eventually became a three-time national player of the year and All-American. Cash is now in the Naismith Hall of Fame. Fudd had been plagued by injuries through her first three seasons in Storrs and didn’t have much in the way of accolades — 2024-25 All-Big East First Team is really the only headliner — prior to winning Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Fudd has time to change that perception in her final season but for now, she’s UConn’s most unexpected MOP.

Walk-off win

Not many players end their UConn career with a victory. Even fewer capture their lone national championship in their final game the way Paige Bueckers did.

Previously, the most noteworthy player to do so was Rebecca Lobo — an entire lifetime ago. Back then, the Huskies were still searching for their first as a program. Bueckers came through when greats were measured by how many rings they had. Renee Montgomery also won her lone championship in her final game.

Other walk-off winners who previous captured a title include the 2002 senior class of Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams as well as Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck.

Freshman phenoms

On the other end of the spectrum, Sarah Strong became the third freshman in program history to win a national championship and land on an All-Final Four team, joining Ann Strother (2003) and Breanna Stewart (2013). Paige Bueckers earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team in 2021, albeit in a losing effort.

Going the distance

After traveling from Storrs to Spokane to Tampa, UConn traveled further than any other team in history to win the national championship. That’s also a departure from what the Huskies are used to — they haven’t needed to go all that far to capture a banner in the past.

The most UConn ever traveled was in 2002, when the regionals were in Milwaukee followed by the Final Four in San Antonio. In 1995, 2004, 2013, 2015 and 2016, the Huskies didn’t have to leave Connecticut until the Final Four. They remained on the East Coast in 2000 then traveled to the midwest in 2003, 2009, 2010 and 2014.

None of them can compare with two cross-country flights from Connecticut to Spokane to Tampa.

Best of social media

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