The 2016–17 UConn Huskies women's basketball team represented University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma, in his 32nd season at UConn, played their home games at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion and the XL Center and were fourth year members of the American Athletic Conference. They finished the season 36–1, 16–0 in AAC play to win both the AAC regular season and tournament titles to earn an automatic trip to the NCAA women's tournament, where they defeated Albany and Syracuse in the first and second rounds, UCLA in the sweet sixteen and Oregon in the elite eight to reach their eighteenth final four where they lost on a game winning buzzer beater in overtime to Mississippi State ending a 111-game winning streak.
Media Every single Connecticut game is expected to be televised. Excluding exhibitions, most Connecticut games air on SNY, an ESPN network, or a CBS network. Exhibition games and games that air on SNY are also streamed on Husky Vision. Every game is expected to be broadcast on the UConn IMG Sports Network with an extra audio broadcast being available online to listen to through Husky Vision.
Off-season
Departures Name Number Pos. Height Year Hometown Notes 2 G 5'7" Senior Miami, FL Graduated 3 F 6'2" RS Junior Bolingbrook, IL Graduated/Declared to 2016 WNBA draft 4 G 5'7" Senior Glenn Heights, TX Graduated/Declared to 2016 WNBA draft 22 G 6'0" Sophomore Phoenix, AZ Transferred to Arizona State 30 F 6'4" Senior North Syracuse, NY Graduated/Declared to 2016 WNBA draft 35 F 6'2" Freshman Springdale, MD Transferred to Penn State
Incoming transfers Name Number Pos. Height Year Hometown Notes 32 F 6'2" Sophomore New York, NY Transferred from Kentucky. Under NCAA transfer rules, Camara will sit out for one year and be eligible to start at the beginning the 2017–18 season. Camara has three years of remaining eligibility. 23 G/F 6'6" Junior Raleigh, NC Transferred from Duke. Under NCAA transfer rules, Stevens will sit out for one year and be eligible to start at the beginning the 2017–18 season. Stevens will have two years of remaining eligibility.
Recruits
Roster
Games
Exhibition
IUP Connecticut took on the Division II Indiana University of Pennsylvania Crimson Hawks in their initial exhibition game. The Huskies started strong early, opening up a 13–2 lead in the opening minutes. The Crimson Hawks played roughly even over the next few minutes; the Huskies were leading 26–14 late in the first quarter. An 8–0 run to start the second quarter and a 14–0 run to start the second half helped extend the lead and Connecticut ended up with the win, 111–39. Katie Lou Samuelson was the leading scorer with 24 points for UConn while Carolyn Appleby was the leading scorer for IUP with 17 points.
Pace The second, and final exhibition game of the season was against the Pace University Setters. The Huskies worked on their full-court press, which was effective against the Division II team, holding Pace to just three points in the first quarter against 35 for the Huskies. Connecticut continued the full-court pressure in the second quarter and led 59–9 at the half. In the third quarter, Connecticut stopped the press and let the Setters play in a half-court offense; Pace kept pace with Connecticut; each team scoring 13 in the third quarter. The final score, in favor of the Huskies 95–32. Pace's Kirsten Dodge was high scorer for the team with nine points. UConn's Gabby Williams had a double double scoring 24 points and securing 10 rebounds.
Regular season
Florida State (away) The opening of the regular-season was a road game against Florida State University. The Seminoles were ranked 12th, but did not have Leticia Romero, who had played on the Olympic team from Spain which won the silver medal. The Huskies brought a 75-game winning streak into the game, although several key players from those teams had graduated. Florida State led by four points at halftime, only the fourth time that Connecticut trailed at the half in their streak. The Seminoles expanded the lead to seven; the largest deficit the Huskies had faced in the second half of the streak was two points, against Maryland the previous year. The Huskies had not had a player foul out the entire previous year but had two players with three fouls each by halftime, Katie Lou Samuelson and Gabby Williams. In the second half, Gabby Williams hit a three pointer, the first one of her career and Samuelson hit another three-pointer as part of a 14–2 run to give a five-point lead to UConn. The Huskies would extend the margin to eight points, but the Seminoles responded and cut the lead to a single point with under a minute to go. Brittany Brown was fouled attempting a three-pointer and went to the line with a three-point deficit, making two of three to cut the lead to a single point. She missed the third free-throw, which was knocked out of bounds by two players, one from each team. The referees called it Florida State's ball, and affirmed the call after a review. After inbounding, Shakayla Thomas tried to score but she was blocked by Naphessa Collier who then tapped the ball to Crystal Dangerfield. Florida State had one final chance, down by two points, but Imani Wright's three-point attempt missed the basket and Connecticut escaped with a two-point win, 78–76. Napheesa Collier had a career-high 28 points, while Saniya Chong added 16 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter.
Baylor (home) Connecticut played Baylor in the first home game of the season. Baylor's AP ranking is #2 while Connecticut is #3. It is the first time since February 2015, when Connecticut faced South Carolina, that the Huskies were playing a team ranked ahead of them in a poll. Prior to the tip off, Connecticut unveiled the banner identifying the team as the 2016 NCAA champions. The Lady Bears scored twice before the Huskies first score. UConn responded and took a lead, but the lead changed hands repeatedly as the score remained close throughout the first half. Baylor missed a three-pointer near the end of the half, allowing UConn to go into halftime with a three-point lead 32–29. Baylor opened the second half with a seven-point run to take the lead. However, shortly after, the Huskies led by Chrystal Dangerfield and Gabby Williams went on an 18–4 run to give UConn a 10-point lead. The Lady Bears responded and tied the game at 54 with about minutes remaining in the game. UConn then went on a 16–2 run to make the score 70–56 with about a minute left in the game. The game ended with UConn leading 72–61. The win extended the UConn winning streak to 77 consecutive games, the second longest streak in women's basketball history, behind only by UConn's 90 consecutive wins. Baylor's Alexis Jones had 23 points while UConn's Dangerfield came off the bench to score 19 points.
LSU (away) UConn visited Baton Rouge for a game against LSU. The Lady Tigers kept the game close early, trailing by only 16–14. The Huskies opened up the game in the second quarter, hitting three consecutive three-pointers to extend the lead to 13 points. The Lady Tigers played roughly even in the second half, but the final score favored Connecticut 76–53. The final margin of 23 points was exactly half of the margin in the prior year's meeting in Connecticut where the Huskies won by 46 points. Katie Lou Samuelson was the leading scorer for the Huskies with 28 points on seven three-pointers.
Dayton (home) Connecticut took on Dayton at home, the third time in history the two teams have met. The Huskies won both prior games, including the most recent game played in the Elite Eight game of the 2015 NCAA tournament. In that game, Dayton led at halftime, one of only three times in the last 127 games that UConn has trailed at halftime. The fans may have been thinking back to that game when Dayton was leading 10–5 just over four minutes into the game. Those thoughts dissipated when the Huskies scored the next 15 points. Connecticut expanded the lead until it reached a 20-point margin at halftime. The two teams played roughly even in the third quarter, but three-pointers by Nurse and Samuelson opened the fourth quarter to start another 15–0 run. When the final buzzer sounded, Connecticut won 98–65. Samuelson, who had set her career high with 28 points in the prior game, set a new career-high with 29 points. Williams had a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds, while Collier scored 22 points.
Chattanooga (home) UConn played Chattanooga in the first regular-season game in Hartford. The Mocs led 5–0 and still led 14-13 late in the first quarter when Gabby Williams stole the ball and made a layup to put the Huskies ahead. UConn led by just 12 points at halftime, but after giving up the first basket of the second half, they scored 18 consecutive points. The Huskies won 80–43 giving them 80 consecutive wins. When asked about the 5 ranked teams in the upcoming schedule, Auriemma said "...we need to get our ass beat and soon and bad, so that some of our guys will come to realize that this is not as easy as they think it is".
DePaul (home) Connecticut hosted 15th ranked DePaul at their campus arena. The Huskies hit their first nine shots, but it was the defense that impressed coach Auriemma as the team held the Blue Demons without a basket for almost 6 minutes. The score was 22–1 before the Blue Demons hit their first basket. Kia Nurse exceeded her best scoring output of the season in the first quarter, exceeded her prior career high in the second quarter, and ended with 33 points, a new career-high. Gabby Williams assisted on 10 baskets, a new career high. DePaul, who was leading the nation in made three-pointers, hit only seven of their 40 attempts. The Huskies had a 31-point lead at the end of the first quarter, and went on to win 91–46, recording their 81st consecutive victory.
Texas (neutral) UConn faced 14th ranked Texas before a crowd of 9,014 at the Mohegan Sun Arena as part of the annual Jimmy V classic. The Longhorns dominated early, leading 10–6 at the first timeout of the quarter and 17–11 with just under two minutes to go in the quarter. Coach Auriemma thought the Texas was going to overwhelm Connecticut with their size and athletic ability. However, the Huskies responded with 11 consecutive points to take a five-point lead. They extended the lead to double digits and ended the half with a nine-point cushion. In the third quarter, Texas cut the lead to two and had a chance to tie or take the lead with the score at 51–49. After missing a shot that would have tied the game, Connecticut scored the next 12 points. Texas was unable to respond, and Connecticut came away with the win 72–54. Collier played virtually the entire game, not coming out until the final minute, scoring 24 points and pulling down eight rebounds.
Notre Dame (away) The game between Notre Dame and Connecticut featured the teams ranked first and second in the AP and Coaches poll, with UConn holding the top position in the AP and the Irish holding the top position in the Coaches poll. The game was played at Notre Dame's Purcell Pavilion before a sellout crowd.