Wooden Award last year after averaging 20 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game, earning her now-copyrighted moniker, Paige Buckets. basketball tournaments were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic) only heightens the already enormous pressure on freshman Azzi Fudd and sophomore point guard Paige Bueckers, friends who happen to be among the most hyped women’s college basketball recruits in recent memory.īueckers was the first freshman to win the women’s John R. Five years without one (even though in 2020, the N.C.A.A. With 11 national championship banners hanging in Storrs, Conn., titles are an expectation rather than an aspiration.
UConn is betting on youth to get back to the top.Īfter decades of obliterating the competition, the most dominant team in women’s college basketball has found itself in an uncharacteristically long title drought. 19, with the Longhorns fighting to make another deep run in the tournament following their upset of Maryland in the round of 16. Texas and West Virginia are also ranked, at No. Nicki Collen, who previously led the W.N.B.A.’s Atlanta Dream, is the team’s new head coach, and is working with only two returning starters and five total returning players. 7, still appears to be at the top of the heap thanks in large part to preseason Associated Press all-American pick NaLyssa Smith. In her wake, Mulkey leaves a more open Big 12.