NEW YORK — The UConn women’s basketball team took center stage at Big East Media Day on Tuesday at Madison Square Garden as the runaway favorite to win the conference with loftier expectations of bringing home a second consecutive NCAA title in 2025-26.

Longtime head coach Geno Auriemma has been to the mountaintop more than anyone in the history of college basketball, so he knows exactly how challenging it is to maintain the energy from a championship season the following year. The Huskies bring back the majority of last year’s winning roster with the notable exception of superstar guard Paige Bueckers, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

But Auriemma knows how important patience is in attempting a repeat run, and his priority right now is taking things one day at a time.

“The danger is, everybody that has a vision of what we looked like last April, on Nov. 4 against Louisville, they’re going to think it’s going to look just like that, and it’s not,” Auriemma said. “So we have to keep in mind what it looked like last November.”

UConn women’s basketball sweeps Big East preseason awards, lands four players on all-conference team

UConn navigating unprecedented depth

The Huskies have a full 15-player roster this season for the first time since 1998-99, and that kind of depth is a luxury the team has rarely had in recent history. Injuries plagued UConn over the last five years, but with everyone currently practicing except for sophomore Morgan Cheli, redshirt senior Azzi Fudd said there’s a different energy in the gym this preseason.

“Having five new guys and even just having 14 guys, it’s been an incredible adjustment,” Fudd said. “It’s a great problem to have when you have to wait on the side for an extra rotation. You’re like, ‘Oh, we don’t need a sub in every time.’”

Auriemma said having a loaded roster can be both a blessing and a curse, in part because simply having bodies available doesn’t mean every player is able to compete to the standard he expects. The team is still sorting out what its rotations will look like with its second exhibition game coming up Sunday against Southern Connecticut State.

“Too many players is a good problem to have if they can all play, and sometimes on the outside the perception is that they can all play,” Auriemma said. “On the inside the reality is, tell me a team that has 14 players and they can all play. They can’t … Everybody’s got to buy in.”

Fudd embracing growth

Fudd enters the 2025-26 season the healthiest she’s been in her college career, and the Huskies will need the best version of the star guard to accomplish their biggest goals. Fudd averaged 13.6 points shooting 47.4% from the field and 43.6% from 3-point range in 2024-25, but it took her time to hit her stride after missing the entire previous season with an ACL tear.

Coming off of an impressive NCAA Tournament run that earned her the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, Fudd said she feels her confidence returning to the level it reached at the start of her sophomore season.

“I got hurt again, and then I came back and I got hurt again, and then I didn’t really feel like I was owning (my) space anymore,” she said. “I feel like this year I’m owning my space, so it just gets me so excited for what this year has to hold.”

This season will be all about growth for Fudd, both in her mentality and in her on-court presence. Auriemma is experimenting with utilizing her more as a primary ball-handler, and the team also needs a new level of leadership from its most veteran starter to fill the void left by Bueckers.

“Everything about this year is going to be a challenge,” Fudd said with a smile. “I kind of knew that going in. So I’m excited (by) what else can I add, what else can I learn, whether that’s specifically on the court with my ball handling, bringing the ball up, or leadership if it’s off the court. I think just this year has been all about embracing, embracing the hard.”

Strong growing into leadership role

Sophomore forward Sarah Strong is set to become UConn’s next superstar after being named the preseason Big East Player of the Year and a preseason AP All-American. She was already a force to be reckoned with in her freshman campaign, but Fudd said she’s the most impressed by the way the young forward has found her voice this year.

“Before it was like, you could tell she’d want to say something but she didn’t want to step on anyone, so she would just listen and observe,” Fudd said. “This year she’s started to talk, and she knows what she’s talking about, so I’m like, ‘Spit it out!’ … Having a player like her on your side, she makes you better when she’s speaking.”

Strong said the growth has come naturally for her now that she’s developed a stronger rapport with her teammates, but she’d also challenging herself to be intentional about her leadership this year.

“I feel like I’m obviously more comfortable with my teammates and my role on the team, but I’m also making an emphasis on trying to be a leader in any way that I can,” she said. “I feel like all of our new players … they don’t really know what to expect, so as the returners, it’s our job to kind of lead them in that way and show them what’s expected.”