2025–26 UConn Huskies women's basketball team

2025–26 UConn Huskies women's basketball
2025–26 UConn Huskies women's basketball
Conference	Big East Conference
Record	0–0 (0–0 Big East)
Head coach	Geno Auriemma (41st season);
Associate head coach	Chris Dailey (41st season)
Assistant coaches	Jamelle Elliott (6th season); Morgan Valley (5th season); Tonya Cardoza (3rd season); Ben Kantor (3rd season);
Home arena	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion; PeoplesBank Arena

2025–26 Big East women's basketball standings
	Conf.				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
Butler	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Creighton	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
DePaul	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Georgetown	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Marquette	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Providence	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
St. John's	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Seton Hall	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Villanova	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–
Xavier	0	–	0	–	0	–	0	–

† 2026 Big East tournament winner Rankings from AP poll

Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, where the Huskies played home games

The 2025–26 UConn Huskies women's basketball team will represent the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2025–26 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies will be led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 41st season at UConn, and split their home games between Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on their campus in Storrs, Connecticut, and the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. UConn is a member of the Big East Conference, which it rejoined in the 2020-21 season; it had been a member of the original Big East Conference from 1979 through 2013, and one of the original women's basketball teams in that conference in 1982.^[a]

Previous season

The Huskies finished the 2024–25 season 37–3 and 18–0 in Big East play to finish in first place. As the first seed in the Big East tournament, they earned a bye to the quarterfinals where they dominated the tournament. They received an at-large bid to the 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament where they were the second seed in the East Region. In the first round, they faced Arkansas State. They won this matchup, 103–34, to move on to the round of 32, where they routed 10th seed South Dakota State. UConn then faced #3 seeded Oklahoma, whom they defeated 82–59, advancing to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive season, and twenty-ninth overall under Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma. After defeating #1 seed USC, 78–64, the Huskies advanced to their NCAA record, twenty-fourth Final Four appearance. Carrying that momentum, they would dominate #1 UCLA, 85–51, advancing to their 13th national championship appearance, and their first since 2022. Riding with momentum, they would go on to get revenge against South Carolina, 82–59, to capture their 12th national championship, surpassing the UCLA men's basketball program for most Division I basketball championships.

Offseason

Departures

The Huskies graduated senior starters Paige Bueckers, Kaitlyn Chen, and Aubrey Griffin from the 2024–25 roster, were drafted into the Women's National Basketball Association. One undergraduate chose to enter the transfer portal after the NCAA tournament, sophomore Quadence Samuels.

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Reason for departure
Paige Bueckers	5	PG	6'0"	Graduated	Hopkins, Minnesota	Drafted by the WNBA's Dallas Wings
Kaitlyn Chen	20	PG	5'9"	Graduated	San Marino, California	Drafted by the WNBA's Golden State Valkyries
Aubrey Griffin	44	G	5'9"	Senior	Ossining, New York	Drafted by the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx
Quadence Samuels	10	F	6'6"	Sophomore	Forestville, Maryland	Tranfer Portal

Incoming transfers

Name	Number	Pos.	Height	Year	Hometown	Previous school
Kayleigh Heckel	9	G	5'9"	Sophomore	Port Chester, NY	USC
Serah Williams	22	F	6'4"	Senior	Brooklyn, NY	Wisconsin

Recruiting class

2025 recruiting class

ESPN ranked UConn's 2025 class as the sixth-best in the country.^[1]

College recruiting information
Name	Hometown	School	Height	Weight
Kelis Fisher PG	Baltimore, MD	IMG Academy	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	N/A
Kelis Fisher PG	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (96)
Gandy Malou-Mamel C	Limerick, Ireland	Gill St. Bernard's School	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	N/A
Gandy Malou-Mamel C	Recruit ratings: ESPN: (92)
Blanca Quinonez F	Milagro, Ecuador		6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	N/A
Blanca Quinonez F	Recruit ratings: No ratings found
Overall recruit ranking: ESPN: 6
Note: In many cases, Scout, Rivals, 247Sports, On3, and ESPN may conflict in their listings of height and weight. In these cases, the average was taken. ESPN grades are on a 100-point scale. Sources: "2025 Player Commits". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 20, 2025. Retrieved January 20, 2025.

Roster

2024–25 UConn Huskies women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	2	KK Arnold	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Jr	Germantown	Germantown, WI
F	4	Blanca Quiñonez	5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)	Fr		Milagro, Ecuador
G	7	Kelis Fisher	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Fr	IMG Academy	Baltimore, MD
C	8	Jana El-Alfy	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	RS So	Al Ahly SC	Cairo, Egypt
G	9	Kayleigh Heckel	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	So	USC	Port Chester, NY
G	11	Allie Ziebell	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	So	Neenah	Neenah, WI
G	12	Ashlynn Shade	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Jr	La Lumiere	Noblesville, IN
F	21	Sarah Strong	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	So	Grace Christian	Fuquay-Varina, NC
F	22	Serah Williams	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	Sr	Wisconsin	Brooklyn, NY
G	23	Morgan Cheli	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	So	Archbishop Mitty	San Jose, CA
F	25	Ice Brady	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	RS Jr	Cathedral Catholic	San Diego, CA
G	33	Caroline Ducharme	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	RS Sr	Noble & Greenough	Milton, MA
F	34	Ayanna Patterson	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	RS Jr	Homestead	Fort Wayne, IN
G	35	Azzi Fudd	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	RS Sr	St. John's College HS	Arlington, VA
F	42	Gandy Malou-Mamel	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)	Fr	Gill St. Bernard's	Limerick, Ireland

Head coach

Geno Auriemma (West Chester)

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Opponent^#	Site (attendance) city, state
Exhibition
October 13, 2025* 2:00 p.m.	vs. Boston College Hall of Fame Exhibition	Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT
October 26, 2025* TBA	Southern Connecticut	TBA TBA
Regular season
November 4, 2025* TBA, ESPN	vs. Louisville Armed Forces Classic	Ramstein Air Base Kaiserslautern, Germany
November 9, 2025* TBA	Florida State	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion Storrs, CT
November 12, 2025* TBA	Loyola–Chicago	TBA TBA
November 12, 2025* TBA	Ohio State	PeoplesBank Arena Hartford, CT
November 21, 2025* 8:00 p.m., FOX	vs. Michigan Basketball Hall of Fame Women's Showcase	Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT
November 23, 2025* 2:30 p.m., FS1	vs. Utah Basketball Hall of Fame Women's Showcase	Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT
December 3, 2025* TBA	at South Florida	Yuengling Center Tampa, FL
December 13, 2025* TBA	at USC	Galen Center Los Angeles, CA
December 20, 2025* TBA, FOX	vs. Iowa Shark Beauty Women's Champions Classic	Barclays Center Brooklyn, NY
January 19, 2026* TBA	Notre Dame Rivalry	Harry A. Gampel Pavilion Storrs, CT
February 1, 2026* TBA	Tennessee Rivalry	PeoplesBank Arena Hartford, CT
Big East tournament
March 6–9, 2026 TBA	vs.	Mohegan Sun Arena Uncasville, CT
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. All times are in Eastern Time.

^[2]

Rankings

Ranking movements
	Week
Poll	Pre	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	Final
AP
Coaches

Footnotes

^ The settlement of the 2013 split of the Big East Conference resulted in the so-called "Catholic 7" purchasing the "Big East" name and reorganizing as a new conference. The original conference charter was retained by the Division I FBS football schools that now operate as the American Athletic Conference. As part of the settlement, the current Big East recognizes the competitive history of the original conference in all sports that it sponsors.

References

^ Laflin, Shane. "2025 NCAA women's basketball recruiting: Top 25 class rankings". espn.com. March 25, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
^ "2025-26 Women's Basketball Schedule". UConn Huskies. Retrieved September 15, 2024.

[1] The settlement of the 2013 split of the Big East Conference resulted in the so-called "Catholic 7" purchasing the "Big East" name and reorganizing as a new conference. The original conference charter was retained by the Division I FBS football schools that now operate as the American Athletic Conference. As part of the settlement, the current Big East recognizes the competitive history of the original conference in all sports that it sponsors.

[2] Laflin, Shane. "2025 NCAA women's basketball recruiting: Top 25 class rankings". espn.com. March 25, 2025. Retrieved April 10, 2025.

[3] "2025-26 Women's Basketball Schedule". UConn Huskies. Retrieved September 15, 2024.

[a]

[1]

[2]

UConn Huskies women's basketball
Venues	Hugh S. Greer Field House (1974–1989) PeoplesBank Arena (1975–present) Harry A. Gampel Pavilion (1990–present)
Rivalries	Notre Dame Rutgers Stanford Syracuse Tennessee
Culture & lore	Jonathan the Husky Bird at the Buzzer Blue blood status
People	Head coaches Huskies of Honor Statistical leaders WNBA draftees
Seasons	List of seasons 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
NCAA national championships in bold; NCAA Final Four appearances in italics

Previous season

Offseason

Departures

Incoming transfers

Recruiting class

2025 recruiting class

Roster

Schedule and results

Rankings

See also

Footnotes

References