UConn women’s basketball picked to finish first in Big East, Ayanna Patterson leads the way as Huskies earn preseason honors
A UConn women’s basketball newcomer has been named the Big East preseason freshman of the year and the Huskies have been pegged as the top team in the conference for the third consecutive season.
Freshman forward Ayanna Patterson earned the distinction and UConn was picked to finish No. 1 in the conference preseason poll while several other Huskies earned preseason honors ahead of Big East media day Tuesday.
“It’s really exciting,” Azzi Fudd said of Patterson following in her footsteps to receive the honor. “Although it does not really mean much, she’s gotta prove it when we start games and stuff. But just getting to really get to play with her and get to know her so far this year, it been a lot of fun. She’s gonna have a big role on our team this year.”
Fudd, fellow sophomores guard Caroline Ducharme and junior forward Aaliyah Edwards were named to the preseason all-conference team, while senior forward Dorka Juhász was an honorable mention.
Creighton, Villanova, DePaul and Seton Hall rounded out the top five of the coaches’ poll.
The Huskies finished with a 16-1 record in Big East play in 2021-22 to win the regular season championship, despite suffering their first conference loss since 2013 against Villanova. UConn has won nine consecutive conference championships, dating back to its time in the American Athletic Conference.
With Paige Bueckers out for the season with a torn ACL in her left knee, Fudd is the Huskies’ leading returning scorer. She averaged 12.1 points and shot 43.1% from 3-point range in 2021-22.
Ducharme (hip) and Juhász (wrist) both enter this season coming off of surgeries. Ducharme averaged 9.8 points and 3.2 rebounds last season while Juhász averaged 7.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. Edwards put up 7.9 points and 5.1 rebounds per game.
Patterson is one of four newcomers for the Huskies. A five-star prospect, she was ranked as the No. 4 overall recruit in the 2022 class by ESPN. She averaged 25.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks as a senior at Homestead High in Fort Wayne, Indiana last year and was named a McDonald’s All American and Indiana Miss Basketball.
“Ayanna has skills that no one else on our team has athletically,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Basketball wise, there’s some work to do. But in terms of just pure, you know, what she can do physically, it’s different than anybody else on our team. So hopefully that translates into the basketball end of it, and if it does then we’ll have a pretty good player on our hands.”
Patterson tweaked her ankle in practice recently, but said she is feeling better. In the times Patterson has been on the court, she’s stood out to her teammates.
“She’s just, I mean, superhuman,” Juhász said. “I always say that I’ve never seen a women’s basketball player be this athletic in my whole life.”
Juhász said there’s a good chance Patterson is going to grab an offensive rebound anytime somebody misses a shot in practice because of her ability to jump over everyone else. Little things like that, as well as her work ethic, have the Huskies confident she could make an early impact.
“She’s just a hustle player,” Juhász said. “She works super hard. She runs back on defense, she’s always there on defense to help. She scores, she’s just very strong, you know. And I think it’s gonna be really important for us, especially playing teams that have physical post players, to have an athletic person and player like her on the team. And I think she’s gonna be huge for us.”
UConn kicks off the regular season against Northeastern on Nov. 10 at Gampel Pavilion.
An update on Aaliyah Edwards
In other news out of Big East media day, Aaliyah Edwards will start the season wearing a face mask. She broke her nose and had some concussion symptoms after colliding with Nika Muhl in practice about a week and a half ago.
“I’m definitely going to be on my Mamba mentality for sure with Kobe and everything,” Edwards said. “I’ll be back, not gonna let this bring me down. … It’s just gonna be a clear mask, but I’ll make it look cool.”
