MINNEAPOLIS — The foundation of the star backcourt that would carry UConn to Sunday’s national championship game was laid not on the ground, but in the air. In June 2017, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, then ages 15 and 14, suited up for USA Basketball at a tournament in Argentina. Bueckers was her usual expressive self. Fudd, the youngest member of the lineup, was nervous and not overly chatty on the trip.
After winning the event’s gold medal, the two basketball protégés sat next to each other on a flight from Buenos Aires to Minneapolis. In Fudd’s words, it was there and then they were “kinda forced to talk.” With nowhere else to go and nothing else to do, they got to know each other, discussing each other’s families and realizing they were very much alike.
“That plane ride was really crucial to the start of our friendship,” Bueckers says.
Adds Fudd: “That’s when our bonds were really put into place.”
The pair had hoped to come away from Sunday night’s matchup with No. 1 South Carolina with something else to forever bond them—a national title—and a story of joy and celebration, this time about a trip in Minneapolis. But as the Huskies walked off the Target Center floor without a whimper, having been overpowered by the Gamecocks from the game’s first possession to its last, any memories they relay will be of disappointment, not euphoria.
“You just try to use every loss as a lesson,” Bueckers said afterward. “And obviously use it as motivation as a feeling that you don't want to have again.”
That the Huskies were even in the sport’s biggest game seemed like the unlikeliest of outcomes four months ago. In early December, Bueckers suffered an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear in her left knee, the most significant injury of her career, that sidelined her nearly 12 weeks. She was part of a cavalcade of players who passed through the team’s training room: Eight of UConn’s 12 players missed at least two games due to injury or illness, and 11 different starting lineups were used throughout the 2021–22 campaign.
There have been multiple times when the Huskies waltzed through the NCAA tournament and brought a national championship back to Storrs, Conn., with little sweat to show for it. But this year’s run was the antithesis of that.
Following a regular season that saw UConn lose five games—the most of any team in coach Geno Auriemma’s 37-year tenure with the program that has played in the national championship—it eked out a round-of-32 win against UCF. Two rounds later, the Huskies outlasted No. 1 seed NC State in a double-overtime instant classic. Versus Spokane Region champion Stanford in the national semifinals, UConn led by only two heading into the fourth quarter and nearly squandered its lead in the waning minutes after eight turnovers in the final frame.
Against the Gamecocks, however, UConn didn’t even have the chance to salvage a victory using late-game heroics. Instead, it never led, having watched as South Carolina more than doubled its rebound total and made 16 more free throws.
Bueckers scored a team-high 14 points and was the team’s lone double-digit scorer. Fudd, who had flourished in the lead-up to Sunday, finished with just three points in 17 minutes. She had missed shootaround earlier in the day after dealing with stomach issues overnight, Auriemma said.
In the past, Auriemma reflected following the loss, UConn had played in title games knowing it was “the better team,” fully aware “we were well balanced and we had all the bases covered and we had everything that you needed to win a championship.” But against a vaunted Gamecocks frontcourt, led by National Player of the Year Aliyah Boston, the Huskies often looked outmatched.
The result marks Auriemma’s first championship game defeat in 12 appearances and the continuation of a title drought that spans back to 2016. As important, it leaves the program left to wonder what it will take to get back to the sport’s top.