‘Never in my wildest dreams’: Former UConn forward and Princeton head coach Carla Berube excited for homecoming game at Gampel Thursday

Carla Berube grew up watching all the UConn basketball games she could, both the men’s and the women’s. She lived about an hour from Storrs in Oxford, Massachusetts, a small town near Worcester, and both her mother and grandfather were alums of the university.

Then Harry A. Gampel Pavilion opened in 1990. Berube doesn’t remember what team the Huskies were playing the first time she came to a game, but it was one of the first seasons the building was open. She was in absolute awe.

“It was amazing,” Berube said. “I was blown away by the Pavilion. … And I just was like, ‘I would love to play in here.’”

Berube would go on to do so from 1993 to 1997, a forward for UConn’s first national championship team in 1995. All these years later she’ll be back at Gampel for a the first time as a head coach when her Princeton Tigers take on the No. 6 Huskies Thursday night at 7 p.m.

“Never in my wildest dreams 26 years ago did I think I’d be back after playing in Gampel and playing for Connecticut that I would be coaching against the Huskies,” Berube said Tuesday. “So it’s whole full circle and just excited to be back and excited for the challenge ahead.

“And my team will be will be ready, we’ll be prepared and we’re going up there to win a basketball game. I know there’s a lot more sort of around the fringes of this, of me coaching against my alma mater, but we’ll be locked in and competing to win a basketball game.”

Thursday night should be quite the homecoming for Berube as she goes head to head with Geno Auriemma. She hasn’t been back to Gampel in about nine years. She was supposed to visit Storrs for a celebration of the 1995 national championship team in recent years, but a snowstorm got in the way.

Princeton tried to get a game with UConn on the schedule in 2020-21 — in her second year as head coach of the program — but the Ivy League season was canceled due to COVID-19. The Huskies made the call this time around, after the Tigers had quite an impressive 2021-22 season. Berube led Princeton to an undefeated record in conference play, an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament and an upset win over sixth-seeded Kentucky. The Tigers nearly beat Indiana in the second round too.

“I’ve just been looking forward to it,” Berube said. “I want to challenge my players, I want to get them in games with really great opponents. And why not? I mean, Connecticut, UConn’s not that far away, it’s just a bus trip away. And it’s a great environment, it is the college basketball capital of the world. And why not play against the greatest college basketball program that there ever was? So when they asked, we jumped at this opportunity.”

As far as Berube knows, none of her players have ever been to Storrs to see a basketball game before. She’s looking forward to having them experience the environment at Gampel and seeing the place that helped forge her into the person and coach she is today.

The Tigers will be staying at a hotel on campus that happens to be right next to the dorm Berube stayed in during her time at UConn. Her players will get a glimpse of that, the dining hall she used to eat at and more when they walk down Hillside to shootaround ahead of Thursday’s game, in lieu of taking a bus. The Princeton team has decided to try to do so this season in an effort to help the environment and not turn the bus on when they don’t need to.

When Berube coaches Thursday night, her team will be playing with a lot of the principles she learned during her time at UConn. Auriemma and fellow coaches Chris Dailey and Tonya Cardoza, along with so many of her Husky teammates, taught Berube the value of work ethic, focus, discipline, relationships and team chemistry.

Berube didn’t know she wanted to be a coach back then and admits she was an introvert — though perhaps not as quiet as Auriemma remembers. Being named a captain and stepping into a leadership role as a senior helped her find her voice. Looking back now, it was her first glimpse into coaching.

“My four years of basketball and four years of just being a student athlete at Connecticut certainly had a huge impact on me in so many ways,” Berube said. “It is where learned everything that’s sort of underneath this all, my values I learned during my time at Connecticut. And Coach Auriemma has a huge piece of that, huge impact on me.”

That time at UConn also included starting the Huskies’ incredible streak of avoiding back-to-back losses. UConn hasn’t lost two straight games since March 7 and 17th, 1993, when Berube was a freshman. Berube couldn’t help but laugh in disbelief when asked about that being on the line Thursday, with her team having the chance to end the streak.

“That’s crazy,” Berube said with a chuckle. “My players are going to be amped, right, they’re going to be up for this no matter what’s on the line, like it is their opportunity to play against the UConn Huskies, so they’ll be just really focused for this challenge. But that’s quite a stat.”

The news announced Tuesday that star guard Azzi Fudd will be out three to six weeks with a knee injury certainly makes things more interesting. Berube has worked with Fudd in the past and was upset to hear the news about both her and Paige Bueckers’ injuries, adding she would much rather be coaching against them than not.

Berube watches UConn more than any other team besides her own and she certainly is familiar with the way Auriemma coaches, so she knows her Tigers still have quite the challenge in store regardless of the Huskies’ injury struggles.

“It’s Connecticut, next All-American up,” Berube said. “We’re not going to be changing much. Yes, Azzi’s a great scorer, but Lou’s a great shooter too and I’m sure that she’ll be running some of the stuff that they have been running for Azzi. And they’ve got weapons everywhere, from Aaliyah Edwards to, you know, there’s no one tougher than Nika Muhl.

“And so, yeah, there’s a player that’s really, really good that’ll be out, but I’m sure that Coach will have a great game plan to put together to be successful. He’s thinking long term too, like yeah I’m sure he’s absolutely wanting to beat Princeton on Thursday, but he’s thinking about the the future and how to be successful, for now but down the road into into March as well.”

Berube also knows the stands will be filled with blue and white as opposed to Princeton’s orange and black on Thursday night, and they certainly won’t be wanting to witness the upset she’s hoping for, but she’s eager to finally be back in front of crowd at Gampel.

“One of the best things about playing at UConn and playing in Connecticut is just the fans,” Berube said. “They’re just incredible, right, just so supportive and passionate and they love their women’s basketball. I’m looking forward to seeing so many on Thursday.”

Lila Bromberg can be reached at lbromberg@courant.com and @LilaBBromberg on Twitter.