TAMPA – History can sometimes be easy to forget. On a November afternoon before the season began, UConn coach Geno Auriemma was in his office thinking about the concept. UConn has the most national titles in college basketball history. But after almost a decade drought, the Huskies were no longer considered the “standard” of women’s basketball for the kids he was recruiting. That honor fell to South Carolina.
“The last time we won a title they weren’t even ten,” he said of those recruits. “I want to win one for this group to remind everybody that UConn is still making history.”
On Sunday, in a packed Amalie Arena, his Huskies met the Gamecocks for the 2025 national title game. The old standard vs. the new standard. South Carolina trying to win back-to-back championships and UConn trying to prove that its legacy is not a thing of the past.
For Auriemma, in many ways it did feel like ancient history, but after 40 years of coaching, those titles – the last coming in 2016 – were also fresh in his mind. Auriemma often finds himself going in two directions. It’s why he feels guilt about the title games his Huskies didn’t win. Auriemma constantly thinks about the coaching decisions that led to the losses. If he had just gone the other way, there might be a few more titles to add to the program’s legacy.
In many ways, he wants women’s basketball to deviate from tradition. He hates the two-region format and candidly said it takes away from the NCAA Tournament experience for players. He doesn’t want his team to continually be painted into rivalries with other major programs. First it was Tennessee, then Notre Dame, and now the narrative is shifting to UConn and South Carolina. “That’s not good for women’s basketball,” he says.
But if the tradition is his team winning national titles? Well then, what’s not to love?
“I don’t know if any team has meant more to their sport than UConn has to women’s basketball,” Auriemma said. “And I feel good about that.”
UConn’s 12th NCAA Tournament Championship, an 82-59 win over South Carolina, was the most emotional yet for the 40-year head coach. Not because it broke the drought for his program, but because of what his team had been through over the last few seasons. Paige Bueckers came in as the No. 1 recruit in 2020, followed by Azzi Fudd in 2021. They had dreams of winning multiple titles together. Instead, they each endured injury after injury. Bueckers missed significant time during the 2021-22 season due to a tibial plateau fracture. Then, she missed the entirety of 2022-23 with an ACL tear. Fudd is a senior, but the guard has only played 75 total games in her career. She missed the 2023-24 season with an ACL injury of her own. This year, she came back against Fairleigh Dickinson on November 20, the same day that Auriemma became the winningest coach in college basketball. Her 33 games played this year are the most she’s recorded in a single season.The two stars weren’t the only players that were dealt difficult injuries, either. In 2023 the Huskies had to postpone games during Big East play because they couldn’t field enough players. Those are the moments Auriemma was thinking of the morning before his team’s victory over South Carolina. What will I say, he thought, to all these people who have supported us if we lose?
But even with that thought in his head, Auriemma felt like the Huskies would win.
“I just kept thinking something good has to happen because if we were going to lose it would have been before now,” he said. “I don’t think the basketball gods would take us all the way to the end. They’ve been really cruel with some of the kids on this team. They’ve suffered a lot of the things that could go wrong in their college careers as an athlete. They don’t need anymore heartbreak. So the basketball gods weren’t going to take us here and give us more heartbreak. I kept holding on to that.”
The basketball gods delivered. Or maybe it was the Huskies themselves that ended the heartbreak. Because the way they played on Sunday, the Huskies didn’t need help from anyone else. They dominated all on their own.
At the end of the first quarter it looked like it might be a close game, as UConn led 19-14. By halftime, the lead had stretched to 10. Then, UConn took things to another level. The level of a team that wanted to leave no doubt. The level of a team that endured countless setbacks. The Huskies refused to do anything but win, outscoring South Carolina 46-33 in the second half.
Leading the charge was Fudd, who scored 11 of her 24 points in the third quarter to create separation.
“We didn’t want to let them back in the game,” Fudd said. “I think all of our mindset was just to be aggressive, stay locked in, stay disciplined, stay together. And that’s exactly what we did.”
Staying together has been the mantra of this team for the last few years. As UConn received its trophy, Junior Caroline Ducharme hugged Fudd, tears streaming down her face. A few steps away, Senior Aubrey Griffin posed for photos. Both have been plagued with injuries, with Griffin tearing her ACL last season and Ducharme dealing with concussions and neck stiffness, appearing in just 12 games over the last two seasons. Both worked their way back to being able to play late this season. For Griffin, it would have been easier to stop playing all together. For Ducharme, it would have made sense if she chose to sit out and not burn eligibility. But they wanted to get back on the court to share this moment with this group.
“They sum up what UConn is,” said redshirt freshman Jana El Alfy, who suffered an ACL tear of her own last season. “We overcome whatever challenges come our way. We know how to face it. We are ready for whatever.”
On Sunday, they were ready to win. For Bueckers, it was a victory five years in the making. One she dreamt of at Hopkins High School and agonized over during her injury recoveries. When she checked out for the final time, Bueckers hugged everyone on the bench. She embraced Auriemma. He told her he loved her and she told him she hated him. But Bueckers couldn’t joke her way out of the emotion.
“In the five years that she’s been at Connecticut, I’ve never seen her cry,” Auriemma said.
The well-earned tears, just like the title, only added to the legacy. After all this time, UConn is still making history.
