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After nine long years, Geno Auriemma and Connecticut are back atop women’s college basketball

Auriemma: Slow start changed UConn's trajectory
UConn women's basketball head coach Geno Auriemma joins the Dan Patrick Show to discuss the Huskies winning the national championship, the bond he creates with his players, the turning point in the season and more.

TAMPA, Fla. — For all intents and purposes, the game was over long before the final buzzer sounded.

The coronation of the Connecticut women’s basketball program — back atop the sport for the first time in nearly a decade — began a little after halftime. By that point, it was clear that South Carolina had no answers for what the Huskies were doing offensively; one of the lasting images from this particular national championship game would be Dawn Staley on the sideline screaming a word that began with an “f” and is not very family friendly. Staley’s team was outmatched and outmaneuvered at every turn by a UConn squad whose talent could not be denied.

In her very last game in a Connecticut jersey and after two devastating knee injuries that derailed the middle of her college career, Paige Bueckers finally got her national championship. Azzi Fudd, just one year after her own devastating season-ending injury, dropped 24 points in the biggest game of her career. Freshman sensation Sarah Strong finished with a truly astonishing stat line — 24 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, three blocks and two steals.

Game Recap: Paige Bueckers, big three lead UConn to first title since 2016

These Huskies would not be stopped and could not leave Amalie Arena without that national championship trophy. Geno Auriemma admitted afterward that his biggest concern on Sunday was that somehow everything would go wrong for UConn and everything would go right for South Carolina, and then he had no idea what he’d say or how he’d process it. He didn’t want to imagine a world in which Bueckers’ college career ended without her cutting down the nets.

“I just kept thinking something good has to happen because if we were going to lose it would have been before now,” Auriemma said after UConn beat South Carolina, 82-59. “I don’t think the basketball gods would take us all the way to the end. They’ve been really cruel with some of the kids on this team — they’ve suffered a lot of the things that could go wrong in their college careers as an athlete. So, they don’t need any more heartbreak.

“The (basketball gods) weren’t going to take us here and give us more heartbreak. I kept holding on to that. I’m glad (these players) were rewarded. This is one of the most emotional Final Fours and emotional national championships I’ve been a part of, since that very first one.”

Bueckers herself was emotional, crying as she hugged Auriemma after checking out of the game for the final time as a Connecticut basketball player. The hug lasted a beat longer than it probably needed to last, but Auriemma said later he was trying to make sure Bueckers felt how much she meant to him and how much they’d been through together over the past five years. He’d talked about it a lot these last few days, but he wanted her to feel it, too, in his embrace. She tried to put unspoken words into the moment as well.

“Just gratitude for all that Coach has meant to me and how much he’s shaped me to the human I am, to the basketball player I am throughout this entire five years — and just putting it all together in one hug what our journey has been together,” Bueckers said. “He told me he loved me. And I told him I hated him. … We both love each other even though we hate each other some days.”

She smiled. She’s always giving her coach a hard time; she considers herself annoying, but in a good way. He wanted this title for her, one of the greatest players in UConn history — a history that boasts so, so many national champions. A lot of multi-national champions, too. Bueckers’ time at UConn was decidedly different.

Women’s college basketball is where it was the last time the Huskies cut down the nets, back in 2016. UConn had just won four consecutive titles with Breanna Stewart; there were few (if any) other legitimate national championship contenders. Between 2017 and 2024, five different programs won titles. None were UConn.

“If I’m being honest, I think there was a big part of my inner circle of people that I trust that were hoping that after the Stewie fourth in a row that I should have called it a day back then,” Auriemma said. “But when you make the decision that you’re not finished yet, and then three, four years go by, people start telling you that UConn is not UConn anymore and it’s somebody else’s turn. And then five years go by and six years go by and seven years go by — it’s not like it was extra motivation, but it just happened to coincide, the last five years, with the pandemic, the bubble, the injuries.

“It coincided with Paige’s journey. So my journey became hers — in so many words.”

Auriemma felt he owed it to Bueckers. That he’d recruited her by promising her the opportunity to play for national championships. Of course, the assumption that UConn would win at least one of ‘em was always baked in. But he hadn’t delivered. Then Fudd had her injury, and he hadn’t delivered on his promise to her, either. Strong is just a freshman, but he wanted one for her as well.

And UConn left no question about it by the time dusk settled in. The Huskies were the best and most complete team in the country, and they’d been playing that way for months. Fudd said after the game that she knew going in that UConn would win. Auriemma said he knew if Fudd scored at least 16 points that they’d be fine. She finished with 24 and was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player.

Auriemma’s teams famously do not cut down nets when they win Big East championships. They do not cut down nets when they win Elite Eight games to ensure trips to the Final Four. They only bring out the ladders and the scissors for national championships, because that is the standard by which UConn teams are judged

Strong didn’t know exactly what to do when she got to the top of the ladder, requiring coaching from below to cut the right snippet of net. Bueckers was rusty, too. But they figured it out — just like they always did on the court together. Sometimes things looked a bit disjointed or Auriemma needed to get in Bueckers’ ear so she’d shoot the damn ball a bit more often. But it always worked when it needed to, and that’s why the Huskies bulldozed UCLA and South Carolina here in the Final Four, winning their final two games by an average of 28.5 points.

Auriemma is 71 years old and isn’t sure how many more years he wants to do this. But that’s secondary at the moment. The biggest headline is the one he’s been writing over nine long years, a drought that has finally ended.

“There were a lot of people that didn’t think it would ever happen. There were a lot of people that hoped it would never happen,” Auriemma said. “I’m glad that we were able to get to that spot that Connecticut has occupied — not that we had to win a championship, but in the last 30 years I don’t know that any program’s meant more to their sport than what UConn has meant to women’s basketball.”

And now the Huskies are back on top. The sport continues to change and evolve, but UConn is still here, the very best of the best once again.