Only once in their first 26 games did the No. 15 UConn women’s basketball team play twice in three days. That occurred during the inaugural Cayman Islands Classic in late November, when they battled the then-No. 2 UCLA Bruins and Kansas Jayhawks on consecutive days.
Connecticut has typically had 3-4 days off between Big East battles this season. This is where things get a little funky.
Playing in Cincinnati two days ago, the Huskies begin another two-game homestand tonight against the Georgetown Hoyas. Despite it being their third conference contest at Gampel Pavilion, UConn will be celebrating their seniors.
Unlike years past, tonight’s senior night ceremonies will happen after the game. That is because the Huskies are recognizing four players: Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Aubrey Griffin and Nika Mühl—their most since the 2019-20 season when they honored five. Each senior has impacted the team in their own way.
Bueckers’ overall game has been at another level. During her National Player of the Year freshman campaign, the Minnesota native averaged 20 points and 4.6 rebounds. She averages around those numbers as a redshirt junior, but has added more shots to her game at a rate of 1.1 a night and limited mistakes with the ball at 1.4 turnovers per game.
Edwards deserves as much of the spotlight for what she does on the glass. The senior forward has not had a game this season where she grabbed fewer than four rebounds, and she has 13 double-doubles to go with it. Even if the opposition decides to close up the interior, Edwards can, more often than not, land the floater from near the free-throw line.
Mühl runs the floor as well as any point guard in the country. Her passing and stealing have always been there, but the senior guard has significantly developed her scoring and rebounding over her four-year career. At seven points and four rebounds per game, Mühl can help the team break away from their foes early.
Griffin, meanwhile, has not played since Jan. 3 and will miss the rest of the year because of her torn ACL. In her 14 games, the graduate forward provided a spark on more than one occasion and regularly disrupted opposing offenses. Griffin has one year of eligibility remaining after this season.
Connecticut’s longest-tenured player helped the team find their new identity when their junior guards went down. First-year guard Qadence Samuels and redshirt freshman Ice Brady have been the primary players off the bench in this new system. Both had their most effective performances on Wednesday. Samuels twice buried the three-point shot and finished two rebounds shy of a double-double. Brady accumulated her first-career double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds at a perfect 5-5 clip. Do not be surprised if either player has another huge performance if the Huskies go up big early.
UConn has run the same starting lineup since they played the Ball State Cardinals on Dec. 6. All three healthy seniors already start the game on the court, but while most of the attention might go toward them, first-year guards KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade could catch opponents off-guard.
Shade has heated up from downtown in her last three games. No player on the team has made more than her nine threes in those contests, a nice recovery following a three-game cold stretch where she buried just one. Arnold, meanwhile, uses her blazing speed everywhere on the court, whether that is zipping through the lane for a bucket or pickpocketing the ball in a burst of lightning.
Georgetown enters with the league’s second-worst scoring offense at 58.3 points per game. But if there is any Big East team that can make the Huskies struggle, it could be them. The Hoyas lead the conference in scoring defense by over three points per game and allow their opponents to make just 37.1% of their shots from the field (second behind Connecticut).
Forwards Graceann Bennett and Brianna Scott play a massive role in that regard. Bennett gets it done on the boards with a team-leading 7.4 rebounds per game and is one of two players with 15 blocks. The graduate forward has not had a double-digit game since grabbing a double-double against the DePaul Blue Demons on Feb. 4, but she has collected no fewer than five boards in that span.
Scott brings more of the oomph off the bench; she has not started a game all season. When playing significant minutes, the junior forward can be a problem down low with 5.9 rebounds per game. Getting a shot off against Scott is even harder as her 33 blocks rank fourth in the Big East.
Graduate forward Mya Bembry could be a critical X-factor to watch out for. Despite starting just seven of the team’s 25 games, Bembry is very good at creating second chances for Georgetown with 46 offensive rebounds. She can also disrupt opposing offensive sequences behind her 29 steals and set up several buckets for the Hoyas behind her 34 assists.
Fellow graduate student Alex Cowan plays that same role in the backcourt. Cowan was shut out in Georgetown’s loss against the Villanova Wildcats, but she affected several other aspects of the game with two rebounds, two steals and two assists. The Wagner transfer does a very efficient job of getting the ball to her teammates for an open look with her 70 assists and she can set up multiple breakaway opportunities.
The Hoyas offense flows through senior guard Kelsey Ransom, the only player on the team averaging double figures at 13.8 points per game. Ransom also makes sure that her teammates get involved as proven by her team-high 100 assists. If the Huskies want to stop Georgetown again, they will first need to limit the senior guard.
Tip-off is at 7 p.m. on SNY, which will also provide postgame coverage of the senior night festivities.
