NEW YORK — Sarah Strong is the best player on the UConn women’s basketball team and probably the best player in America.
Blanca Quiñonez is the most interesting.
If all goes as planned and expected, Strong will continue on a track toward legendary status with her every move discussed and celebrated. Meanwhile, in her shadow and footsteps, Quiñonez could quietly work toward, then thunder into, a unique status of her own.
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“If she was a first-team All-American this year, I wouldn’t be surprised one bit,” coach Geno Auriemma said Thursday at Big East media day.
Having two of the best players in the nation in the same starting lineup is rare in college basketball but not necessarily at UConn. From Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti to Nykesha Sales and Kara Wolters to Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi to Maya Moore and Tina Charles to Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd and beyond.
The list goes on. Many of UConn’s best teams have featured two (or more) players who would be once-in-a-generation-type players just about anywhere else. Eight separate times, UConn has had two members honored as first-team All-Americans by The Associated Press – including Strong and Fudd in 2025-26.
VILLANOVA, PENNSYLVANIA – FEBRUARY 18: Blanca Quinonez #4 of the UConn Huskies plays against the Villanova Wildcats at Finneran Pavilion on February 18, 2026 in Villanova, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Bill Streicher/Getty Images)
Bill Streicher/Getty Images
The 2026-27 season is about — not entirely, but predominantly — Strong and Quiñonez. One can assume what the former will do throughout the winter months. For the latter, one can hope the high points of her debut become the every-game norm.
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Quiñonez, the 6-foot-2 forward from Ecuador, was tremendous last year, overall. She was the Big East’s freshman and sixth woman of the year, and a second-team all-conference player. She averaged 10.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists, two steals, shooting 53.2 percent from the field and 37.5 percent on 3-pointers. She was effective inside and out, disruptive, fast, long.
And she only played about half of each game, averaging 20.5 minutes.
That number will increase this season.
So the other numbers will, too.
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“I feel like last year, actually, I learned a lot from that year,” said Quiñonez, who spent six years in Italy before arriving in Storrs. “A lot about UConn. A lot about the U.S. I’m really confident about what can I do and what my team can do.”
There are some things to take care of. Quiñonez missed eight games with a shoulder injury last season and had surgery in May. With preseason games less than two weeks away, and the regular season beginning Nov. 2, it is unclear when she will actually play — though UConn, all along.
“We’ll see,” Quiñonez said Thursday, clearly uninterested in talking much about the recovery process.
There’s also the need to refine her play. As will happen for freshman, particularly those whose strength is to play athletically and with some degree of abandon, Quiñonez was plagued by foul trouble last season. She had four fouls in 20 minutes in a national semifinal against South Carolina, UConn’s only loss of the season.
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“Just be more conscious about making decisions,” he said. “Be under control.”
STORRS, CONNECTICUT – MARCH 23: Blanca Quinonez #4 of the Connecticut Huskies lines up for player introductions before a second round game of the 2026 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament against the Syracuse Orange at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on March 23, 2026 in Storrs, Connecticut. (Photo by Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images)
Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images
Still, Quiñonez was a major reason why the Huskies made it that far.
“If you think back to the beginning of the season and the way she played, and then you fast forward to the NCAA Tournament, and she was probably our best player,” Auriemma said. “She was just unbelievably good. And the foul trouble in the Final Four, I think, really affected her and affected us. That’s somebody that never played college basketball before and had never seen a college game in person before. She has spent the entire summer taking care of some nagging stuff that was bothering her in Europe, and last year, that she tried to play through. But she’s confident. She’s bigger. She has a certain aura about her. You can tell when a player’s walking around and they know they’re good, and that’s who she is right now.”
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Quiñonez doesn’t have to be UConn’s best player. With Strong on the roster, she won’t be. But she can be one of the best players in the country. She showed that during a freshman season that was a foundation, and particularly motivating.
“I feel like you have to move on,” she said. “But the thing is, you have to remember what happened last year, and remember what’s the reason for it. I feel like all of us, especially returners, have to remember why we got there, why we lost, what happened in that moment.
“You have to move on. It’s a new season. If you won or you lost, it’s a new season. It didn’t end how we wanted it to end but we have another season, so …”