Big East women’s basketball preview: Can conference compete with UConn’s dominance in 2024-25?

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After ending its fall nonconference schedule on a heartbreaking two-point loss to No. 4 USC at home, the UConn women’s basketball team desperately needed its holiday break to recalibrate before diving into Big East play this week.

The No. 7 Huskies (10-2) were poised to face four ranked opponents in December, but they exited a grueling four-game stretch over two weeks with two losses to top-10 teams and two wins over squads that are no longer even receiving votes in the AP poll. UConn won’t face another ranked team until it goes on the road to No. 15 Tennessee on Feb. 6, and though the Big East’s lack of depth is less than ideal, the Huskies have the luxury of a light month to figure out what went wrong in their biggest early season matchups.

Despite an injury-riddled roster, UConn dominated the Big East from start to finish in 2023-24. The Huskies went 18-0 in conference play before winning all three of its games in the Big East tournament by 29-plus. UConn has not lost to a conference opponent since Feb. 21, 2023, and it has a perfect record against the Big East when superstar Paige Bueckers is on the court. The Huskies’s three conference losses since Bueckers arrived on campus in 2020 all came while she was sidelined with injuries.

As investment in women’s basketball becomes more widespread across the power conferences, the Big East’s talent pool has been decimated by the transfer portal. Former Villanova star Lucy Olsen, who led the conference in points per game last season, is now averaging 18.6 points and 5.1 assists for No. 24 Iowa, while Marquette standouts Liza Karlen and Mackenzie Hare transferred to No. 3 Notre Dame and Iowa State, respectively, after former coach Megan Duffy was hired at Virginia Tech. Aneesah Morrow, the 2022 Big East Freshman of the Year, transferred from DePaul to LSU before last season and was a first-team All-SEC selection in 2024.

UConn women’s basketball team enters Big East play with big questions to answer after loss to No….

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/big-east-women-basketball-preview-110000251.html

Author : Hartford Courant

Publish date : 2024-12-27 11:00:00

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