Meet the 2024-25 UConn women’s basketball team: Full roster breakdown for Geno Auriemma’s 40th season

The UConn women’s basketball team is slowly but surely making progress towards getting its roster healthy, but the No. 2 Huskies will still start the 2024-25 season shorthanded.

Five UConn veterans return this year after missing some or all of 2023-24 with season-ending injuries, and only redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy is currently practicing at full capacity. The team will tip off its season against Boston University at the XL Center on Thursday (7 p.m., SNY) with a maximum 10 of 14 players available.

But if the Huskies can get to full strength in the near future, they are poised to be top contenders for a long-awaited NCAA championship. Superstar Paige Bueckers is back for a fifth season of eligibility, and UConn fans have waited years to see her play alongside fellow star guard Azzi Fudd amid injury-riddled careers. Coach Geno Auriemma, entering his 40th season at the helm of the program, also brought in the No. 2 freshman class in the country and his first transfer addition since 2022 in Princeton graduate Kaitlyn Chen.

“When Paige wasn’t around, Azzi was unbelievably dominant. So when she got hurt, then Paige has been dominant without Azzi,” Auriemma said at Big East Media Day. “I want to see if they can do that together, which I think they will, but then it’s a comfort level … We had to play Paige almost 40 minutes every night, and I don’t know that you can sustain that. We won’t have to do that this year, I hope. If we do, we’ve got some issues.”

Here’s a look at the 2024-25 Huskies:

2 KK Arnold

5-9, G, So., Germantown, Wis.

Arnold started 33 games for the Huskies as a freshman, averaging 8.9 points, 3.2 assists and 2.3 steals. She was a six-time Big East Freshman of the week, earning her a place on the Big East All-Freshman team and the preseason all-conference roster.

5 Paige Bueckers

6-0, G, R-Sr, Hopkins, Minn.

Bueckers is one of the biggest stars in college basketball and the runaway favorite to win National Player of the Year after she was a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/meet-2024-25-uconn-women-211900427.html

Author : Hartford Courant

Publish date : 2024-11-06 21:19:00

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