‘We Went Through Hell’: How UConn Survived an Unprecedented Season | Bleacher Report

QUEENS – Paige Bueckers sat away from her team watching as the UConn Huskies began warming up before their conference matchup against St. John’s. With a red Gatorade by her side, she sat and watched. 

Behind her emerged a young girl in a UConn navy blue Bueckers jersey with a Sharpie in her hand. She didn’t even have to ask. Bueckers turned and signed the back of the girl’s shirt, and the young fan smiled through her black mask. 

After UConn walked off the floor with a 75-57 win, Azzi Fudd’s dad shouted from the stands to Fudd, Bueckers and Christyn Williams, who had just been in COVID-19 protocols.

“Good job, tres amigos.” The tres amigos, who also happened to be three players who could not play that evening. There hasn’t been a time this season where every player was available. Since the beginning of the season, junior Aubrey Griffin, who has since had back surgery, has been out of commission.

 

In total, 10 UConn players have dealt with some circumstance that has forced them to watch their teammates play. Inconsistency and adversity had become the name of the game for UConn women’s basketball, one of the most successful college programs of all time. 

UConn entered the Big East tournament sporting a 22-5 record, which includes its first loss to an unranked team since 2012 and its first conference defeat since 2013. The Huskies’ five regular-season losses are the most since 2005.

With nine different starting lineups throughout the regular season, sophomore point guard Nika Muhl summarized what the constant disruptions felt like. Her description wasn’t subtle. 

“This is a very weird place we are at right now, like people out, like everything going on,” she told reporters on Jan. 21. “We’re going through hell, literally.”

Her proclamation was quite bold for a program whose current roster includes the reigning Naismith Player of the year (Bueckers) and five others who came into college as a top-five high school recruit (Fudd, Caroline Ducharme, Evina Westbrook, Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa.)

But it paints a picture of what she and her teammates were feeling from the beginning of December through the end of February. The week following Dec. 5 was one that she and her teammates would never forget. 

An emotionally draining week

When Bueckers went down with 38 seconds remaining in a 19-point rout of the Fighting Irish, the week that followed was emotionally, physically and mentally draining. There was a weight of uncertainty that followed the Huskies throughout their games at Georgia Tech four days later, and then in Newark against UCLA for the Never Forget Tribute Classic. 

The team was on edge and unsure of what was next—not only for Bueckers but also the rest of the roster. In that week, the team learned it only had six rotation players available. Fudd was continuing to recover from a nagging foot injury and Muhl had a foot issue of her own. As for Bueckers, was she getting surgery, was she not? 

“It was a lot on our team,” associate head coach Chris Dailey told B/R about that week. “It was a lot on them as people and them as players.” 

When the Huskies lost on the road at Georgia Tech in the first game since Bueckers went down, there was much more at stake. The Yellow Jackets broke UConn’s 240-game win streak against unranked opponents. Georgia Tech didn’t stay unranked for long, as it jumped to No. 18 in the AP Top 25 following its upset victory. That Huskies defeat did damage, as Dailey noticed how massively it impacted the players.

“It was more draining than I’ve ever seen from a team losing a game,” Dailey said. “It wasn’t just that, it was more. And it was a lot.”

The target on UConn’s back that’s usually embraced by its players became overwhelming. The outside chatter from media members and fans was unified in its concern for the program. The Huskies were vulnerable, and there was no doubt about it.

At first, this felt reminiscent of the injury that took out Shea Ralph in her freshman year at UConn in 1997. She tore her ACL in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Auriemma admitted that he, his staff and the team didn’t handle losing Ralph well. Dailey believed that the team had reacted to that injury in ways that exasperated the situation. As a result, UConn lost in the Elite Eight after playing like the best team in the country throughout the 1997 season. Both Dailey and head coach Geno Auriemma knew this season couldn’t be a repeat of 1997. 

But as time went on, this situation in 2022 felt different. UConn had to get itself back to playing at a high level, something that wasn’t always the case during the beginning of the season, even with Bueckers, Fudd and others healthy. 

Acceptance of the process

Senior Nelson-Ododa admitted that this team’s problems were apparent from early in the season.

Back on Dec. 5, UConn suffered its first loss of the season to South Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship. Before all of the injuries and COVID issues, UConn’s depth rivaled the No. 1 Gamecocks on paper. But a disastrous fourth quarter dashed the Huskies’ hopes for an early marquee win. They scored merely three points in the final frame in a game they’d lose 73-57. The Gamecocks exposed the Huskies’ lack of focus, consistent effort and maturity. 

Nelson-Ododa chalked up the awkward half-court offensive sets and reliance on Bueckers to a lack of communication and a hesitancy to speak up. 

While there were some returnees from the 2020-2021 season, there were also a lot of new faces, like Fudd, Caroline Ducharme and graduate transfer Dorka Juhasz. It took time to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Huskies’ new personnel, something they were forced to do without Bueckers bailing them out in high-pressure situations. 

Who was going to step up? 

After UConn’s discombobulated start against UCLA, senior Evina Westbrook put matters into her own hands. As the only player available who was comfortable handling the ball, she began tinkering with UConn’s offense. She lunged aggressively through the lane and ran a pick and roll action with Nelson-Ododa that UCLA had trouble reading. 

“It looked like we were kind of figuring things out in real time on the floor,” Nelson-Ododa told B/R.  “And that’s exactly how it felt. It was like, ‘OK, so this works. This doesn’t work. We can put somebody here. We can’t put somebody here, you know. They’d be better off over here or elsewhere.'”

In that same game, the Huskies saw the emergence of 6’5″ forward Juhasz, who finished with a 16-16 double-double. Up to that point, she had been struggling to affect the game during her rotations. She came to Storrs with quiet confidence, having come off of three seasons at Ohio State where she was selected to the All-Big Ten first team twice. But as Nelson-Ododa said, Auriemma, Juhasz and Co. had to figure out where the Hungarian native was most comfortable playing, something that was accomplished through better communication.  

While some were learning, others were trying to do too much. In the three games following the Notre Dame contest, Senior Christyn Williams shot 32.5 percent from the field (14-of-43). Shots weren’t falling and her frustration was visible during games. What was the key to getting her through a shooting slump?

According to Dailey, it was about reminding her to play her own game and not do anything she wasn’t capable of accomplishing. While Williams has battled shooting inconsistencies over the years, what’s undeniable is her athleticism and motor. She’s built to be a slasher that’s a nightmare going downhill. The shot-making would come along with the effort applied to other facets of her game, such as finishing layups, kick-outs during double teams, finding open shooters, rebounding and getting into passing lanes. 

“We’re not asking them to be anything but who they are,” Dailey said. 

But what if the group didn’t really know who it was yet? The Huskies’ identity was in flux, and that was something they had to accept. They had to accept that conference games wouldn’t necessarily be a blowout. What was certain about its identity was it would contain grit and effort. Winning didn’t come without outworking opponents. 

“We are confident, but we have to work like underdogs,” Juhasz said. “We have to work really hard on the boards, we have to get steals and stops and you know it just shows when we’re playing good everybody’s contributing in something. It doesn’t necessarily have to be points, rebounds, assists. So I think our best game so far has been when we were very balanced on offense … and outrebounding our opponent.”

Bueckers was also on a journey of acceptance. When B/R asked former UConn legend Breanna Stewart about how she’d approach Bueckers’ situation, it was all about looking at the bigger picture and developing a mental muscle to help her get through this: patience. 

“You can’t rush anything and if you do, you’re at risk of messing something else up,” Stewart said. “But she’s learning about patience right now.”

In addition to being patient with herself, Bueckers could still contribute to the team differently. Though she would prefer being on the court, she was still sitting on the bench and she was still listening during timeouts. 

That sitting transformed into dancing and celebrating, and that listening transformed into speaking and demanding accountability. According to Westbrook, Bueckers developed a sense of duality during her time off the court. She always was the teammate that would lift others, but she was hesitant to provide any constructive feedback. But after sitting out for months, Bueckers has found a different kind of voice that her team needs her to have. 

“[It’s] like, ‘Hey, it’s gonna be OK’ when the time is right,” Westbrook told B/R about how Bueckers communicates. “But also like, ‘Nah, this isn’t OK. This is the same thing coach is talking about and he’s right, we have to fix it.'”

But sometimes Bueckers’ developing voice wasn’t enough, especially during their losses to Oregon and Villanova. More players were out because of either in COVID protocols or they developed injuries. Williams was a late scratch once the team found out she tested positive and Ducharme and Nelson-Ododa were unavailable with the former out with a head injury and the latter was a last-minute scratch because of a groin injury. 

After the Oregon game, in particular, Muhl and Juhasz took the result to heart and both returned to play against Seton Hall and St. John’s with a new invigorated feeling. Against Seton Hall, Muhl shot 50 percent from the field for 11 points and added seven rebounds. Juhasz was one board shy of a double-double, recording 16 points and 9 boards against St. John’s.

Chris Dailey noted that the mental game off the court is just, if not more challenging than what’s thought about during in-game situations. 

“It can be overwhelming,” she said. “If you are only focusing on March, that’s overwhelming, because it’s then you missed the process until you get to March. But if you are only worrying about the game you just had, then how are you moving forward. So there’s a lot to the process and just try to take it literally practice by practice, game by game.”

Adversity off the court

While Westbrook showed flashes of being a two-way combo wing with a sizable WNBA draft stock initially after Bueckers went down, the senior suddenly began playing with more apprehension and less confidence. She was still adjusting to her new role as the Huskies’ sixth player, but something else was up. 

In mid to late January, her former coach died. She had known this person since she was four years old and Westbrook didn’t know how to deal with death. She tried to push it down and be there for her team, but she realized that she needed to let them be there for her. They would give her unprompted hugs and show her love without blatantly saying it. They would say, “We know you don’t want to talk about it, but we’re here for you even if you want to.”

What allowed Westbrook to compartmentalize and reset? It was during a discussion with her position coach Morgan Valley. Valley understood that Westbrook was grieving while trying to fulfill her responsibilities on the team, and she reminded her how she began the season. “You were playing like you had something to prove,” Valley told her. 

Since that discussion, Westbrook goes into every game with that initiative in mind.

Opportunities led directly to player development

A silver lining to a season with players coming in and out of the lineup was UConn’s ability to give its younger players opportunities to prove themselves. That was the case for Ducharme, who stepped in when the Huskies needed a scoring guard with Bueckers and Fudd unavailable. 

Like Juhasz, Ducharme has a quiet confidence, if not even quieter. She doesn’t wear her emotions on her sleeve when she makes a mistake. If she misses a shot, she just keeps shooting, a mentality that gave her enough confidence to take and make the winning shot in a thriller against conference rivals DePaul on Jan. 26.

Muhl proved herself this season to associate head coach Dailey. On both sides of the floor, Muhl is constantly setting the tone emotionally. When it comes to expressiveness, she’s the absolute inverse of Ducharme. 

Dailey explained that Muhl’s tendency to wear her heart on her sleeve and her stubbornness can be a double-edged sword. During Muhl’s freshman year, Dailey struggled to reach her. She simply didn’t listen. But this season that changed. 

On Jan. 9 against Creighton, Muhl’s first game back from her foot injury, she was adapting to the flow of the game after being out for a few weeks. When she was subbed in, the first thing she did was commit a personal foul, which wasn’t a shock. Dailey expressed that Muhl is currently learning the balance that comes with being aggressive defensively while also not committing “dumb fouls.”

In the fourth quarter, Muhl’s stomped over to the sideline after getting her fourth personal foul, visibly frustrated. As Muhl approached the bench, Dailey grabbed her, turned with her back facing Muhl and put her arms straight up. Dailey then backed down Muhl, trying to simulate to her player how she should guard a post up. Since then, Dailey has noticed significant improvement and believes that Muhl has been the heart and soul of UConn following her return from injury. 

“I don’t think that anyone brings the same level of passion that she does every day, day in, day out and every minute she’s on the court,” Dailey said.

Nelson-Ododa agreed with that assessment, adding that Muhl’s the unofficial leader on the team who, thanks to her youth, can relate to both the older and younger players. She’s the team’s bridge. 

Muhl’s recent honor, winning Big East Defensive Player of the Year, is just a mere symbol of what she’s done this season and why her year-to-year exponential growth has been invaluable to UConn. Other conference honors included the following: Nelson-Ododa and Williams on the All-Big East first team, Ducharme on the All-Big East Second Team and Ducharme and Azzi Fudd on the Big East All-Freshman Team. 

Auriemma did not get a conference coach of the year honor. This is the fourth time in the past 14 years where this has happened. If anything, this is the season he deserved it the most. 

After the victory at St. John’s on Jan. 23, Auriemma spoke to reporters about how he shared a famous Winston Churchill quote with the team: “If you are going through hell, keep going.” He asked his players who Churchill was and one anonymous player raised her hand and said he was a former President of the United States. 

Jokes and laughter aside, it was a moment that made players feel seen and heard. Once Nelson-Ododa finished laughing while recalling the moment, she noted that it represented what this program is about. Auriemma gave his players an option: You keep going or you quit. 

It was a moment that bonded the group and proved Auriemma can still relate to his players and get the best out of them, regardless of the generational gap. 

 

What awaits in the postseason

There is hope—that because of the adversity and constant change—that the 2021-2022 UConn Huskies can withstand any storm. And now with Paige Bueckers back in the fold, can this team overcome the lack of toughness it showed earlier this season against South Carolina? Can UConn move past how it played in its loss to Arizona in last year’s Final Four?

While there’s valid excitement surrounding the Huskies and their fans, uncertainty remains. How quickly can Bueckers adjust to the more balanced team that UConn has become? No one can predict what may come next from a team defined by constant changes. 

“Who knows where it’s going to lead?” Dailey said. “All I know is that every day as coaches and as players we’re going to work really hard at giving it our best shot. And getting us to the point where we’re playing at a high level and everyone is being their best self. And that will make us our best team.”