The Dynasty Lives

The UConn women’s basketball team locks arms in a pre-game huddle surrounding head coach Geno Auriemma while pyrotechnical effects are being lit behind them in a sold-out arena.

12 National Championships

24 Final Four appearances

5 No. 1 WNBA Draft Picks

30 Coach of the Year Awards

6 UNDEFEATED SEASONS

17 First-Team All-Americans

Apr. 6, 2025. Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida. There are 40 playing minutes left in the careers of Huskies Aubrey Griffin ’23 (CLAS), Kaitlyn Chen ’25 MS — and Paige Bueckers ’25 (CLAS).

Bueckers will be one of the all-time most decorated and beloved players to wear a UConn jersey whether she wins this game or not. But she deserves a national title. Her teammates want it for her. They want it for themselves, for this team they love, for these coaches they love (some of the time), for their bleed-blue fans, for this school that has won more women’s basketball championships than any other — but hasn’t cut down the nets since 2016.

In the past two March Madness weeks, this No. 2 seed has traveled 5,500 miles and faced five opponents, most recently besting No. 1 seed USC and overall No. 1 seed UCLA. They have been here — and just shy of here — before, but against injury hurdles too high for any measure of heart and soul, teamwork and effort to clear.

The NCAA tournaments ... these three weeks are kind of a culmination of what happened in the total picture. What happened to these kids last year when they came up short, and what happened a year before when some of them couldn't play, and the year before that when some of them couldn’t play, and the year before that when some of them couldn’t play. We have guys here that have not played as many games as they have played.

• GENO AURIEMMA •

UConn women’s basketball players and coaches jump into the air with excited expressions and embrace each other in celebration as the referee blows the final whistle.

Now the only thing standing in their way is one final No. 1 seed — who else but defending champs South Carolina, another resilient, brilliant team of players from another epic program. This is meant to be a game of runs and lead changes, a whoever-has-the-ball-last-wins game. Both teams playing at peak. Both defensive and offensive powerhouses. Each with the talent to take it all. Two storied programs and head coaches ready for a battle that’s anything but elegant.

Games of this magnitude come down to,
How bad do you want it?
• ESPN’s Elle Duncan •

For 40 minutes we give our whole souls.

• Paige Bueckers •

28 Total WNBA Draft Picks

44 Total All-Americans

1,342–327 ALL-TiME RECORD

111 Winning Streak

23 Seasons With No. 1 Rankings

804 Overall Win Percentage

Bueckers

Arnold

Strong

"Our mindset was just to be aggressive, stay locked in, stay aggressive, stay together — and that’s exactly what we did."
—Azzi Fudd ’23 (CLAS), ’26 MA

Chen

Shade

Fudd

“There’s Disneyland, there’s Disney World, and then there’s UConn World. These are fantasy numbers that make no sense. You couldn’t predict this, and you couldn’t script this at all.” – GENO AURIEMMA

It is clear from the tip off and crystallizes as the clock ticks each of those 40 minutes who wants it more. The Huskies are unblinking, locked in, suffocating on defense, showstopping on offense. Up by 5 at the end of the first, 10 at the half, 15 at the 30-minute mark, they quash every South Carolina run attempt with, as Auriemma says on “GMA” the next morning, “a quick bucket here by Azzi, a quick bucket by Sarah, Paige getting a loose ball and turning that into a layup, and you could see it in the other team that it was starting to get to them, the momentum that we were building — and then it just got outta hand.”

Their defense was exceptional.
God, they were like an amoeba all over the court.
• ESPN’s holly Rowe •

The players, with all of UConn Nation, finally let out a long-held breath with 7:45 to go in the fourth as Sarah Strong ’28 (CLAS) dishes to Bueckers, who gets the layup and the foul call, and the old-school three makes the lead 29. It’s clear they are bringing it home, and when Bueckers is nodded out for the final time as a Husky, she and Coach share a hug that brings many in the sold-out arena of 20,000 — and the 10 million more watching at home — to tears.

Paige has invested so much in this program, in the game of basketball, the emotions just came all pouring out and there wasn’t a whole lot to say … I just told her, I said, “I love you.”
• AURIEMMA •

The clock is at 0. Final score: 82–59. Add this to UConn’s record-setting 34-point semifinal win over UCLA, and it is clear the reports were wrong. The dynasty is very much alive.

Auriemma tells UConn students at the welcome-home rally, “That’s three years in a row now that Connecticut basketball rules the world. And next year we’re going to make it four.”

They’re back and they’re better than ever.
• ESPN’s Elle Duncan •