UConn women’s regular-season superlatives: Most outstanding player, unsung hero and more
The regular season concluded on Monday, so how do we take stock of the 2020-21 UConn women’s basketball team to this point? Courant beat reporter Alexa Philippou takes a stab at it by giving out regular-season awards, with a look toward how things may develop over the postseason.
Most Outstanding Player: Paige Bueckers
A no-brainer.
Bueckers leads the team in scoring (19.8 points per game), assists (131), steals (50) and minutes played (36.1 per game). Her three-point shooting (47.6 percent) is among the best in the nation. She’s hit dagger threes on national television, dropped 31 points against the No. 1 team in the country and dazzled all year with her court vision and passing. She may only be a freshman, but she’s already getting recognized for national awards. She is a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy and finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the country’s top point guard. And as of last week, she owns two program assist records (single game with 14, freshman single season with 131 and counting).
Most Valuable Player: Bueckers
It can’t be understated that this top-ranked, 21-1 Huskies team has ascended to that spot because of Bueckers’ brilliance and relative consistency. Unlike many other former UConn freshman standouts, she’s also doing it without an All-American-caliber supporting cast.
When asked how he’d rank Bueckers among previous Husky freshman greats, UConn coach Geno Auriemma went even farther, bringing up Diana Taurasi, the upperclassmen.
“You almost can say it’s more comparable to Diana’s junior year, when you’ve got Diana as a junior and two freshmen in the starting lineup and then you got Jessica Moore and Ashley Battle and Maria Conlon in the starting lineup,” Auriemma said. “That’s the closest I can think of.”
Auriemma is asking Bueckers to carry the team in a way that he’s never asked a freshman to do. And she’s largely succeeded.
Most Improved: Nika Muhl
This Huskies have more freshmen than non-freshmen, making the emergence of Muhl all the more crucial heading into the postseason. Muhl had a slow start and struggled early with turnovers and hitting shots, dealt with a nagging foot issue that caused her to miss some games and was benched at Tennessee.
Two days later, Auriemma trusted her enough to start her when Bueckers and Anna Makurat couldn’t play versus Georgetown, and Muhl ultimately secured that starting role for the latter half of the season. Her intensity and tenacity set a tone on the defensive end, and she’s looked more and more confident on offense, especially after her 19-point burst against Creighton.
Auriemma said Monday that UConn’s biggest area of growth since December is among the freshmen. As one of the team’s two freshman starters, Muhl is clearly a big part of that.
Unsung hero: Evina Westbrook
In her debut season with the Huskies, Westbrook has done whatever has been asked and has consistently impressed with her toughness. She is second in assists (96), rebounds (114) and steals (39), as well as fifth in scoring (9.5 points per game) and third in minutes (29.9 per game). She was huge in UConn’s win over Tennessee (15 points including crucial fourth-quarter threes) and helped keep the Huskies in the Arkansas game (19 points, second on the team). She’s started all 22 games this season.
Her leadership on and off the court has also helped this young team gel, with Bueckers calling Westbrook “the heart and soul of the team” earlier in the season.
Buy stock in now: Aaliyah Edwards
You heard it here first: Edwards is going to have a breakout postseason. All season long, she’s impressed with her physicality and toughness. Over the last few weeks, she’s continued to bring that to the court, while cutting down on unnecessary fouling and dominating on both ends. She’s the reigning Big East freshman of the week after averaging 16.3 points on 83.3 percent shooting and 9.3 rebounds across UConn’s last three games. She’s also thrived against the top teams and was one of the main players Auriemma looked to in UConn’s 63-59 win over then-No. 1 South Carolina last month, playing 35 out of 45 minutes.
Her emergence in March — and ability to continue to play beyond her years — would be a huge boost for UConn as it goes against better post players in the tournament.
X-Factor: Christyn Williams
Williams would be the first to admit her junior season has had some ups (20 points versus Tennessee) and downs (two scoreless conference games, six points versus South Carolina). In reality, how Williams and others look back at her junior campaign will be largely shaped by how she steps up in the postseason. There’s little doubt that the length of this team’s tournament run is significantly dependent on whether she can play her best through March and April.
The Huskies have Bueckers and then players like Edwards, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Westbrook that can be complementary scorers. But they’d benefit by having a guard like Williams in particular as a consistent, secondary offensive weapon who can also take over if Bueckers is having an off night. That happened at Tennessee but not, say, Monday against Marquette.
In Williams’ first and only NCAA Tournament, she averaged 17.4 points on 49 percent shooting — higher than her 2020-21 regular-season averages. The Huskies are certainly hoping that she turns it on this March like she did as a freshman.
Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com
