STORRS – Traditionally, when the UConn women’s basketball program hosts a senior night, the narrative is all about the historic accomplishments that particular class achieved: the number of national championships, the length of the winning streak under those players or how many national player of the year or All-America honors were earned between them.
To be sure, there will never be another group of UConn seniors with a story to tell quite like the adversity-filled journey of the Class of 2024’s Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Nika Muhl and adopted grad student Aubrey Griffin.
Holding true to form, their senior night will be one of uncertainty. Injuries, and the fact that the NCAA granted every member of the 2024 class nationally the option of another season of eligibility to make up for the pandemic, makes this class unique. All of them can return if they wish but they don’t have to make the decision until the season is over.
Auriemma said Thursday that Griffin will return after losing essentially two seasons to injuries. He said often times players who have played all four years feel their obligation is finished but those who get robbed of opportunities consider returning. He expects the other three to make their decisions in March.
“I would think if they haven’t said anything to me and haven’t said anything to you guys, they probably just want to concentrate on the season,” Auriemma said. “You don’t know.
“I think Paige made a comment like for some kids it is where am I going in the draft and maybe for other kids it is ‘Do I want to stay in college or not?'”
Bueckers has hinted before that the relationships she has formed at UConn could be more powerful in her decision making than where she might be drafted, but when asked Thursday if she plans to stay in college one more year she answered with a wry smile, “I guess we’ll see.”
This senior class did advance to the Final Four each of its first two seasons, but what will differentiate them every other Huskies class won’t be records or iconic standards set but rather their perseverance in keeping the integrity of a proud program intact while overcoming a mountain of adversity.
Bueckers, Muhl and Edwards were greeted as freshmen with the task of finding a way to get the program back to a national championship game after the NCAA Tournament prior to their arrival was canceled due to the pandemic and the three seasons prior to that ended in Final Four heartbreak.
That pressure was compounded by the fact that nothing about their freshman season in 2020-21 would be considered normal. The pandemic reached a heightened state that changed everything. Postponed games, canceled games and playing with a roster of only 6-7 players became the norm.
Yet in the midst of all that chaos, Bueckers had an unprecedented season, becoming the first freshman in the history of the sport to earn national player of the year honors. Since that first season, mounting injuries within the program has tested the Huskies’ ability to return to some kind of normalcy.
They returned to the national title game as sophomores despite the fact that Bueckers suffered a knee injury, missed 13 games and returned as a shadow of herself while injuries to others like Griffin (back surgery), Caroline Ducharme (concussions), Azzi Fudd (foot injury) and Dorka Juhasz (broken wrist) kept the Huskies from ever being whole.
Last season was marked by Bueckers missing her entire junior year, Ice Brady (knee) missing her freshman year while Fudd suffered a knee injury and Ducharme’s concussion woes intensified. Then this season all that has happened is the Huskies have lost five players, including Griffin, due to season-ending injuries and the other three seniors have been asked to shoulder a huge amount of responsibility.
“This year has been the worst ever in terms of how many people are missing and what we are dealing with, but somehow, some way they have managed to hang in there,” Auriemma said. “I know they are probably disappointed in how this particular season has unfolded so far. It really has been quite a journey.
“But at no time did I ever get this feeling they were, ‘Woe is me,’ and feeling sorry for themselves, ever, no matter what happened. To be able to hold up under those circumstances, it takes a lot of toughness.”
Bueckers said that between being quarantined together for so long as freshmen to dealing with all the injuries since then, they have bonded together like no other class.
“Those guys are my sisters. It feels like I have known them my entire life,” she said. “That and obviously the adversity the followed freshman year created such a strong bond that nothing can break it. We feel as individuals and as a group that nothing can break us. After everything life has thrown at us these last four years, we feel like we can handle anything that is thrown our way.”
