What we learned from UConn's summer workouts

The most exciting part of the offseason is over. UConn women’s basketball wrapped up its summer workouts at the start of July and the players are now home until the fall semester begins in August.

While the summer session isn’t much, it stills serves as an introduction to the new version of the team. The freshmen and transfers arrive on campus, the returners share how they're improving their game, and the outlook for the upcoming season begins to form.

While none of the practices or workouts during the summer session were open to the media, we still learned plenty from talking with Geno Auriemma and a handful of players.

The freshmen will play

Even though Sarah Strong, Allie Ziebell and Morgan Cheli are joining a team with plenty of established pieces (assuming everyone’s healthy), they should still see plenty of action in their first season at UConn.

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

Strong only spent a couple of weeks with the squad before departing for national team duty, but she stood out with her versatility — so much so that the head coach compared her to program great Kerry Bascom. If the early indications are true, she fits the bill as the No. 1 recruit in the nation.

As for Ziebell, everyone mentioned her shooting ability. Meanwhile, Cheli was limited with a hamstring issue, but she fits in as one of UConn’s classic big guards.

Even though the Huskies project to have a jam-packed rotation, the three freshmen seem like they’ll see the court plenty.

“Just like the last freshman class (of KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade and Qadence Samuels), they came in ready to contribute, ready to learn, ready to play right away, ready to make an impact right away,” Bueckers said. “They compete really hard and they're very impressive.”

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