Big East favorite UConn adjusting to life without Paige Bueckers

Oct. 19—NEW YORK — Given her importance to UConn and the college women's basketball world in general, it's no surprise that the first question UConn coach Geno Auriemma fielded during Big East Media Day on Tuesday dealt with injured superstar Paige Bueckers.

And, in his usual straightforward, blunt style, Auriemma responded: "Life without Paige kinda sucks."

Life without Paige will be a popular topic this season for the Huskies.

UConn will learn to live without college basketball's best player just as it did last year when Bueckers missed time with a knee injury and the Huskies finished 30-6 overall, captured the Big East regular season title for the 21st straight season and advanced to the national championship game.

The Huskies still have some pretty good players, good enough to be voted the unanimous favorite to win the Big East by the league coaches in the preseason poll. Creighton was selected second and Villanova third.

UConn led the way three players — sophomores Caroline Ducharme and Azzi Fudd and junior Aaliyah Edwards — on the 11-member All-Big East team while graduate student Dorka Juhasz earned honorable mention honors. Villanova's Maddy Siegrist was named the Big East Preseason Player of the Year.

Those four returning Huskies, as well as others, will be counted on to fill the gap left by the injured Bueckers sitting out the season.

"It helps me a little bit to know that we have some good players that can compensate for her not being there," said Auriemma, whose team will begin the season ranked sixth in the nation. "I wonder if they were able to compensate (last season) because they knew she was coming back so there was always that to look forward to.

"Now maybe things change when at some point in the dog days of February they realize she's not coming back and we're going to have to figure it out on our own. And three of the guys that did figure it out last year are no longer there.

"So, it would have been a big adjustment even with Paige here. We have a bunch of new guys in the program and players being asked to do some different things. The emotional part is one thing, the leadership part is another thing, but the actual on-the-court ball-handling, play-making guard is probably the biggest thing we're going to have to overcome."

The addition of talented newcomer Ayanna Patterson, who earned Big East Preseason Freshman of the Year status, will definitely help. She's part of the nation's fourth-ranked recruiting class.

Auriemma has never been impressed with preseason freshman of the year honors.

"I always take that part of it with a grain of salt," Auriemma said. "How does anybody know who's the preseason freshman of the year, never having seen them play a college game? It's like when we used to have to vote for a preseason all-rookie team. Just mind-boggling.

"But, Ayanna has skills that no one else on our team has athletically. Basketball-wise, there's some work to do. In terms of just pure what she can do physically, it's different from anybody else on our team. Hopefully, that translates to the basketball end of it. If it does, then we'll have a pretty good player on our hands."

Overall, Auriemma, who's in his 38th season in charge, seems happy with the direction of his Huskies so far.

Still, they'll need time to adjust to life without Paige.

"Getting acclimated (without Paige), we're doing that," Auriemma said. "We've been at it for about a week and it's been good. I like the direction that we're going in so far. Hopefully, we can maintain it. Again, it's not ideal, it's not what we would hope for, it's not what we had planned back in June, but given those circumstances I like where we are.

This is a good group to work with."

In other news, Fudd was named to the 20-player watch list for the 2023 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award that goes to the nation's top shooting guard.

g.keefe@theday.com