Paige Bueckers and Geno Auriemma had traveled side by side, every mile of a long, rough road. There was a pandemic that threatened to ruin everything they’d planned, and injuries that very nearly did.
At last, in the late afternoon hours of April 6, Bueckers checked out, the last time she’d be seen on a basketball court in her iconic No. 5 UConn jersey. She walked over to her coach and threw her arms around him.
Looking back on Connecticut sports in 2025, that was the moment.
“Just gratitude for all that Coach has meant to me,” Bueckers said, after the Huskies finished off South Carolina for the long elusive national championship. “Just putting it all together in one hug, what our journey has been together.”
Dom Amore: A dynasty restored, Paige Bueckers, UConn women leave no unfinished business
Auriemma, 71, was nervous throughout the day. He wasn’t afraid of losing a national championship, he’d won more than his share and fallen short excruciatingly short several years in a row. No, he was on edge because he feared Bueckers leaving UConn after five years without hers.
“I was thinking, ‘What am I going to say if things don’t go our way?’” Auriemma said. “How could you describe the emotions you would feel if it went the wrong way for us when there is so much riding on this game for a lot of people, mostly for Paige being her last opportunity to do this.”
In the end, there was nothing to fear in Tampa. The UConn women, after three losses, found their voice with a win at South Carolina in February and never looked back, winning title No. 12 in dominant fashion. And Bueckers went on to be the No.1 pick in the WNBA Draft, and win the rookie of the year.
The Huskies she left behind, including Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong, have not lost since, ranked No.1 in the AP poll as the new year dawns and championship No. 13 may be in the offing.
The year about to expire was one of drama, disappointment, departures, high expectations and high achievement. The new year holds exciting possibilities, too:
UConn men
Dan Hurley’s Huskies were going for a three-peat, but by the start of 2025 it was apparent that the UConn men did not have all the ingredients of the previous two national championship seasons. They won enough games, 24, to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, and beat Oklahoma in the first round. They gave the top seed, Florida, a battle in the Round of 32, but fell two points short to the eventual champs. Liam McNeeley went one-and-done, and high in the NBA Draft.
Hurley and his staff have since reloaded and are in the top five, powering through a tough early season schedule.
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UConn football
UConn began the year aglow over its Fenway Bowl triumph over North Carolina and, with quarterback Joe Fagnano and receiver Skyler Bell returning, went for more. Both distinguished themselves as the Huskies went 9-3, all three losses in OT, but Fagnano opted out of a return to Fenway, Bell played only a few snaps and the Huskies were crushed by Army on Dec. 27. In between, coach Jim Mora left for Colorado State Nov. 26 and coaches and players began scattering. The Huskies, though, made a well-received hire in Jason Candle, who’d been coaching at Toledo, and the new year finds UConn football looking to carry its momentum into a new era.
CT Sun
After years of contending for a title, the Sun lost most of their team to free agency and new coach Rachid Meziane was unable to mold a new group in time for a playoff push, despite the best efforts of UConn legend Tina Charles. Worse for fans, the franchise was up for sale, and after a complicated series of machinations, now appears to have only one more year at Mohegan Sun before removal to Houston. Time was, the Connecticut fan base helped save The W, but that doesn’t seem to mean much to the powers that be.
Trophy in Hartford
Hartford Athletic, after several losing seasons, turned things around, making the USL playoffs and bringing the in-season Jägermeister Cup home to Hartford. When the team was introduced in Rhode Island as the “Hartford Pathetic,” it struck a nerve, and coach Brendan Burke and his players buried the image, maybe for good.
Playoff Bulldogs
The Ivy League decided in the spring to allow its football teams to compete in the FCS playoffs, and Yale, with a late-season push and a win over Harvard, won the league’s automatic bid. In one of he most dramatic football games anywhere in the U.S., Yale came from four TDs back to win at Youngstown State, 43-42, then lost a competitive second-round game at Montana State, which is now playing for the championship.
State of Champions
Wesleyan and Trinity both reached the Final Four in NCAA Division III men’s basketball, where Trinity survived their semifinal matchup, then beat NYU to bring yet another basketball title home to Connecticut. The Bantams are right back at it, too, ranked No.1 at year end
Stunners
Central Connecticut men’s basketball pulled off a pair of stunning upsets, winning at Boston College and Rutgers, its first-ever wins against Power 4 opponents. Quinnipiac pulled off a Power 4 upset at Pitt, too. And Yale continues to be a national power, ranked second to Gonzaga among mid-majors before losing at Alabama on Tuesday.
One grand Canadian club
George Springer, from New Britain, Avon Old Farms at UConn, had a renaissance MLB season at age 36 for the Blue Jays. The World Series MVP in 2017, Springer showed his October magic still worked, with a dramatic home run to beat Seattle in the ALCS and send Toronto to the World Series. The Dodgers prevailed there.
Keegan Bradley holds the championship trophy after winning the Travelers Championship golf tournament at TPC River Highlands, Sunday, June 22, 2025, in Cromwell, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
Captain America
Keegan Bradley, the captain of the American team for the Ryder Cup, came back to his “home” tournament, the Travelers Championship. He showed his mastery of the TPC River Highlands to win Connecticut’s PGA premier event for the second time in three years.
… And on to 2026
The year about to begin promises more of the things that bring so many of us back to the local sports scene. Some things to look forward to, dream about, or in some cases expect.
*Connecticut college hockey is on the rise. The UConn women have been ranked in the top 10 and could be headed for an NCAA run of their own. The UConn men, coming off their first tournament appearance, and Quinnipiac, always a championship contender, are poised for runs for the Frozen Four in April.
*UConn is the only team to win men’s and women’s basketball championships in the same year, and has in fact done it twice, in 2004 and 2014. If you’re too young to remember what a double parade in Hartford is like, maybe it’s time you found out in ’26.
*Eventually the WNBA will solve its labor problems and then we will have some clarity and closure on the future of the Connecticut Sun. At the moment, it does not look like such “clarity” will be a good thing.
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*UConn grad Mark Daigneault led the Thunder to the NBA championship and started off the new season 26-4. The Thunder have had some problems with the Spurs, led by UConn’s Stephon Castle, who joined Bueckers for another first, rookies of the year in both leagues from the same school. It looks more and more as if the NBA playoffs will feature somebody from Connecticut, even if the Knicks parted ways with New Britain’s Tom Thibodeau as coach last June.
*The 2026 drafts will likely bring welcome news for Huskies Azzi Fudd in the WNBA, Braylon Mullins in the NBA and Bell in the NFL.
*The Travelers will again draw the majority of the world’s best golfers to Cromwell. That means Scottie Scheffler, No.1 in the world, could return to try for his second title in three years, June 25-28.
*The Yard Goats continue to draw fans to Hartford and send talent up to Colorado, though the parent club continues to founder. The new season starts April 2.
*The Athletic start up again March 7. The Wolf Pack, seventh in the Atlantic Division, have work to do to make the AHL playoffs again.