Tag: UConns

STORRS — During practice this week, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said he pointed out to first-year transfer Kaitlyn Chen that she hadn’t hit a 3-pointer in the entire month of January.

Chen, who graduated from Princeton last spring, sagely replied that there were more than a week of games still to play before the end of the month, and she quickly proved her own point in the Huskies’ 100-57 rout of Villanova at Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday night. Chen hit her first shot from beyond the arc since Jan. 1 early in the second quarter to give UConn its first 20-point lead of the game, then added another midway through the third that kicked off an 11-2 run for the Huskies. It was just her second game of the season with multiple made 3-pointers and the 12th of her college career.

“Seeing the ball go in today, that was just great,” Auriemma said. “I told her I couldn’t wait for January to end, because she was 0-for in January … But she’s a Princeton kid, so she said there’s still a lot of time left in January, and she was right. Today, she was really, really good. In a lot of ways, she was really good.”

Chen was Auriemma’s first transfer signee since 2022 and joined the roster with a reputation as a prolific scorer. She averaged 15.8 points, 4.9 assists and 3.8 rebounds in her senior season at Princeton, excelling against even top competition: Chen led the Tigers with 17 points and seven assists when they faced UConn at Gampel Pavilion back in 2022, and she led Princeton to three consecutive berths in March Madness averaging 17 points across five game appearances in the tournament.

But when she arrived in Storrs, Auriemma said he felt the graduate transfer deferring too much to the other stars on the roster. Surrounded by 11 former McDonald’s All-Americans on a court adorned with dozens of Final Four and NCAA Championship banners, Chen struggled to figure out where she fit with the Huskies.

“It’s not easy coming in and trying to fit with with a group like this,” Auriemma said. “Somewhere along the line, I think she had a little too much respect for our guys. She just constantly kept saying, ‘I’m with all these really good players.’ I’m like, where? Just play, you know? You’re here, you’re on the team, don’t worry about it. And I think that’s she’s worked through all that, I hope.”

On a team with multiple elite scorers, Chen is seeing significantly fewer touches than she did at Princeton. She is logging less than 25 minutes per game for the first time in her career and averaging a career-low 6.1 points, but her efficiency is at an all-time high shooting 51.1% from the field. Against Villanova, the pieces finally came together for the graduate transfer: She was UConn’s third highest scorer with a season-best 17 points shooting 7-for-8 from the field, and she also added a pair of assists, a block and a steal.

Part of Chen’s breakthrough came from UConn’s decision to simplify its offense over the last week. Auriemma said after a win over Seton Hall on Sunday that the coaching staff “slashed” the playbook to help streamline the system, and the benefits have been immediate. The Huskies scored more than 90 points in just one game this season — their historic shooting performance against Iowa State — before logging 95-plus in each of their last two games. The team has also had two of its most efficient outings against Seton Hall and Villanova, shooting a combined 60.9% from the field and 53.1% on 3-pointers.

“I feel like it’s helped us flow really well within our offense. We’re getting we’re getting a lot of touches. We’re just moving the ball super well side to side, and getting a lot of open shots,” Chen said. “I feel like just getting to my pull up, I haven’t really looked for it very much this year, so once I started looking for it more, and just having the confidence of my teammates having my back and knowing that definitely helps.”

It’s difficult to grasp where UConn truly stands in the national picture amid a weak season for the Big East, though the Huskies already boast the No. 1 scoring defense in the country and rank top-15 in turnover margin. Their biggest weakness has been a lack of offensive depth behind Bueckers and Strong, but Chen discovering her offense again could be game-changing with star guard Azzi Fudd and sophomore Ashlynn Shade both hitting their own hot streaks in recent weeks. That small lineup gives UConn five legitimate 3-point shooters on the floor at one time with Fudd and Shade both shooting better than 40% from beyond the arc, and the Huskies can also run looks with multiple different ball handlers between Bueckers, Chen and sophomore KK Arnold coming in off the bench.

“I didn’t really have a particular vision of where we’d be, but I was hopeful that someone would rise up and and it wouldn’t be the Paige Bueckers show … because it can’t be that to win a championship” Auriemma said. “Right from the very first game, Sarah did it … and today was more of a combination of things. As long as we have people contributing, I think we’re where we need to be, because we’re getting contributions from a lot of people, and I wasn’t sure who that was going to be … Little by little, we’re starting to get that but the last two (games) it looks like these guys have been together a long time, and they haven’t been.”

Geno Auriemma sees championship path after UConn women’s basketball’s vintage dominance vs. Seton Hall