The historic program that is the UConn Huskies has a tough task against them on Friday night. UCLA and the number one overall-seeded Bruins will do battle at Amalie Arena in a late-night matchup, and it will be a classic Final Four game.
UConn is coming off Paige Bueckers’ 31-point, six assists, four steals, two block performance against USC, which was right after she dropped 40 in the Sweet 16 against Oklahoma. The Huskies have some solid star power this time around, but so does UCLA with Lauren Betts almost averaging a double-double with 20 points, 9.6 rebounds, and three blocks a night.
The Bruins have been a hotly predicted team to win the whole NCAA Tournament, however, with the history of Geno Auriemma, and how hot the Huskies are right now, UConn seems to have a bit of an edge to them. But how can they use that edge to advance to their 13th National Championship Game appearance?
Paige Bueckers, get her the ball.
This is pretty simple, the UConn Huskies have a player in Paige Bueckers that is going on a historic run in the NCAA Tournament. She has had moments of being absolutely unstoppable, especially against Oklahoma.
For a player hungry to cap off her college career with a National Championship title, this is arguably the toughest possible game she would have remaining. If Bueckers is able to have another elite performance like she has had in the past two games, then she will continue to etch her name in NCAA Tournament history for UConn.
But the thing about the legacy of Huskies basketball in the NCAA Tournament is that this is a team that has no desire to cut down Elite Eight nets, Final Fours and National Championships are what this program is built on. And for Bueckers, all that matters for her legacy is capturing that title, and she needs to be the one with the ball to make it happen.
Chemistry with Bueckers’ supporting cast, specifically Azzi Fudd
Now Bueckers cannot do this all by herself, and she has a great supporting cast around her to get this done. Sarah Strong has emerged as one of the top freshmen in the nation with 16.1 points and 8.8 rebounds per game. But we know the expectation is for this duo to have a solid game together.
But the question is how well the rest of the Huskies’ unit will come up in this game. And these are moments where players like Azzi Fudd come up big time. For a player like her, she has dealt with injuries throughout her college career. This season, she has been healthy though, playing in 32 games for this Huskies squad.
There were high expectations for Fudd in her career, and in her fourth year with UConn, a game to potentially cap it off in the Final Four against the top team in the nation would be quite a poetic story. She is a great scorer, and if this game ends up with Fudd having the best game of her career, that would not be a surprise given her ability.
Rebounding needs to be a priority
UCLA is fifth in the nation in rebounds per game with 42.9, and the UConn Huskies only average 36.8 rebounds per game in comparison, this could be a problem, to say the least. UConn definitely does not have the size of UCLA, so this is not the most surprising note, but efficiency is going to be huge for this team.
The Huskies have shot 50.8 percent from the field this season, which is great, but they may need even more given the potential rebounding disadvantage. Auriemma will have to win yet another coaching battle here and encourage this team to take smart shots and get to the line a bit more than usual.
Strong leads the way in rebounding for this team, and they may just need her to put up double-digit boards with a championship on the line. UConn did just fine against the number two rebounding team in the nation, Oklahoma, so they have gone against a team like this before.
For UConn, it is just about playing the game that has gotten them all the way up to this point and finding a great way to close out the Bueckers era. UCLA is no easy task, but if there is one program to win a game like this, it is the 11-time National Champions.