The 2022–23 UConn Huskies women's basketball team represented the University of Connecticut (UConn) during the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Huskies, led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma in his 38th season at UConn, split their home games between Harry A. Gampel Pavilion on their campus in Storrs and the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut. UConn is a member of the Big East Conference, which it joined 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.
The Huskies finished an injury-plagued previous season with a record of 30–6, losing the championship game of the 2022 NCAA women's basketball tournament to South Carolina. Three graduates from that squad were selected in the 2022 WNBA draft, but with six returning starters including the backcourt of Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd, and Nika Mühl, with forwards Dorka Juhász, Aaliyah Edwards, and Caroline Ducharme, UConn was expected to win the much improved Big East again. Bueckers tore an ACL in a pickup game before fall workouts, and five-star recruit Ice Brady suffered a tendon dislocation during an early practice; both players underwent season ending surgeries and sat on the bench all season.
Starting the season already down two players, UConn played surprisingly well against early opponents, with strong wins against #3 Texas, #10 NC State, and #9 Iowa in the first weeks. In the Texas game, Juhász injured a thumb and was sidelined for several weeks. Aubrey Griffin, who had redshirted the previous season because of injury, and Lou Lopez Sénéchal, a graduate transfer shooting guard from Fairfield University, got some starts and immediately impacted the team with their durability and shooting proficiency. Fudd began the season as a leading scorer, with Mühl leading the country in assists per game, and Edwards seemingly unstoppable in the paint. Fudd was injured in the loss to #7 Notre Dame, and by the end of December the Huskies only had seven players healthy, even after Juhász's return. On January 8, UConn's contest against DePaul was postponed because the Huskies only had six players able to play.
Even with a short bench, the Huskies continued to win January, dominating most conference opponents and picking up another quality win at Tennessee, the only team to score more than 60 points against the fierce UConn team defense in January. In early February the team matched up against the #1 ranked South Carolina Gamecocks with a sold-out home crowd in the XL Center but lost 81–77. Three days later, Marquette upset the noticeably worn-out Huskies in a tight defensive battle, UConn's first consecutive loss in 30 years. While UConn was able to twice defeat rival Villanova, several Big East teams strongly tested the still-shorthanded and battered Huskies, St. John's outscoring them by five. UConn finished their regular season with an overall record of 26–5 and a conference record of 18–2. They won the Big East regular season championship and were the top seed in the conference tournament. Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme, who both missed a significant part of the regular season due to injury, returned in time for the Big East tournament, and with the UConn squad healthy for the first time since its first games, the Huskies methodically notched three consecutive wins to emerge as tournament champions, getting the automatic bid to the 2023 NCAA women's basketball tournament. In the NCAA tournament, UConn advanced to their 29th consecutive Sweet Sixteen with wins over Vermont and Baylor. However, they lost to Ohio St. in the next round, ending their Final Four streak at 14. The Huskies finished their season with a 31–6 record.
With most of their roster either injured or in-development during the season, the Huskies relied heavily on several players for the first time. Mühl, the team's new point guard, set a UConn single-season record with 284 assists. Edwards was the team's leading scorer and a third team All-American. Lopez Sénéchal and Juhász, who had both transferred from other schools in the previous two years, put up solid numbers, as did Griffin, who had missed the previous season.
Previous season UConn was ranked no. 2 in both the 2021 AP and Coaches pre-season polls. After some early struggles, they finished the regular season with a record of 22–5, including 16–1 in the Big East to win the conference regular season championship. UConn then won the Big East tournament. As a no. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, they advanced to the championship game, where they lost to South Carolina. UConn finished their campaign with a record of 30–6.
Offseason Departures The Huskies graduated senior starters Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Evina Westbrook from the 2021–22 roster, each of them being drafted into the Women's National Basketball Association. Sophomore Piath Gabriel chose to enter the transfer portal during the offseason and accepted a scholarship at UMass.
Name Number Pos. Height Year Hometown Reason for departure Christyn Williams 13 G 5'11" Senior Little Rock, AR Graduated; drafted by the WNBA's Washington Mystics Olivia Nelson-Ododa 20 F 6'5" Senior Winder, GA Graduated; drafted by the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks Evina Westbrook 22 G 6'0" Senior Salem, OR Graduated; drafted by the WNBA's Seattle Storm Piath Gabriel 32 F 6'5" Sophomore Manchester, NH Entered NCAA transfer portal
Incoming transfers
The Huskies added Lou Lopez Sénéchal, a graduate student from Grenoble, France, who transferred from Fairfield University. While at Fairfield, Lopez Sénéchal was the 2021–22 MAAC Player of the Year and was three-time All-MAAC First Team. She had one year of eligibility remaining. Name Number Pos. Height Year Hometown Previous school Lou Lopez Sénéchal 11 G/F 6'1" Graduate student Grenoble, France Fairfield
Injuries UConn lost two players to knee injuries during the 2022 offseason. On August 1, superstar guard Paige Bueckers tore her left ACL during a pick-up game, and UConn announced two days later that she would miss the entire 2022–23 season. Then, during a Huskies practice on October 21, freshman forward Ice Brady dislocated her right patellar tendon; she underwent season-ending surgery on October 25.
Recruiting The Huskies had another excellent recruiting class. ESPN ranked Patterson as the fourth-best recruit of the 2022 class and Brady as the fifth-best. Brady would be lost for the 2022–23 season to a knee injury. Bettencourt was recruited just before the start of the season.
Recruiting class of 2023 The Huskies continued to recruit well. ESPN evaluated UConn's class of 2023 as the fourth-ranked group, behind LSU, South Carolina, and Arizona.
Recruiting class of 2024 On December 3, 2022, UConn received a verbal commitment from five-star guard Allie Ziebell of Neenah, Wisconsin.
Coaching Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma and Hall of Fame associate head coach Chris Dailey returned for their 38th season. Assistant coach Jamelle Elliott was a UConn assistant coach from 1998 to 2009 and returned after a nine-year head coaching stint at Cincinnati. Assistant coach Morgan Valley was the head coach of the Hartford Hawks when hired by the Huskies. Elliott and Valley are both former UConn players.
Roster
Game summaries
Exhibition
Kutztown
The Huskies began the season by hosting the Kutztown Golden Bears in an exhibition contest, the first meeting between the two schools. It was not the first time the Golden Bears had visited Storrs, however. On their return from a 2017 exhibition game against UMass, the Kutztown women were invited to tour the UConn campus and attend practice. Katie Lou Samuelson later said the Huskies wanted to show Kutztown "...what it means to be at this university and what we've been working for." In the November 6, 2022 exhibition at the XL Center, the Golden Bears briefly led 7–6 at the start, but the Huskies quickly took over, taking a 30 point lead into halftime. The final tally was 115–42.
Regular season
Northeastern UConn opened the regular season with a 98–39 win against the Huskies of Northeastern. Azzi Fudd led all scorers with 26 points, and Lou Lopez Sénéchal scored 17. Forwards Aaliyah Edwards and Dorka Juhász each recorded double doubles, Edwards with 12 rebounds and 14 points, and Juhász with 11 rebounds and 14 points. Aubrey Griffin, who had redshirted the previous season due to injury, came off the bench to hit six of seven field goal attempts including her only three-point attempt, scoring 13 points.
Texas An early season home contest against a top ten opponent is always highly anticipated, but the second game against number three Texas was a rematch for Husky graduate transfer Lou Lopez Sénéchal. After a loss in NCAA tournament play against Texas ended her four-year career at Fairfield University, Lopez Sénéchal found herself with an extra year of eligibility (due to COVID) and through the transfer portal arrived in Storrs. She prepared herself to play Texas, saying "... losing the last game of your season and then playing them the second game of the season is something I'm looking forward to."
In a November 14 sell-out of Harry A. Gampel Pavilion, the fifth-ranked UConn Huskies met the third-ranked Texas Longhorns. The first half was a rugged defensive contest; UConn held onto a slim three-point lead at halftime. The Huskies gradually widened the margin in the second half, briefly opening up a 17-point advantage. The final score favored UConn 83–76. Sénéchal scored 12 points, while Azzi Fudd led all scorers with a career-high 32 points. After the game, Texas coach Vic Schaefer said, "It ain't no different than any other year around here. They are really good." Juhász left the game with a hand injury, later determined to be a broken thumb which kept her out for the next five games.
NC State For the second time in a week, UConn faced a top ten squad: the 10th rated NC State Wolfpack. The two teams clashed in the previous season's NCAA tournament regional final, dubbed a "double overtime thriller" by Sports Illustrated. NC State's Jakia Brown-Turner drilled a three-pointer with 0.8 seconds remaining to tie the first overtime. Paige Bueckers hit her first two shots in the next period and the Huskies went on to win 91–87, sending UConn to its 22nd Final Four.
This year's game would not be nearly as dramatic, at least within the confines of the game itself. The teams lined up for the pregame national anthem, and after the anthem was completed, UConn's associate head coach Chris Dailey fainted and was taken off the court on a stretcher. Auriemma reported, "The players were pretty taken back by it, and I didn't know what to expect going out there." The players managed to pull it together and started the game with a 9–0 run. Although the Wolfpack closed within five points late in the second quarter, the Huskies extended their lead to as much as 24 points in the second half and ended up with a lopsided 91–69 win. Fudd again scored 32 points, but the stat of the day was recorded by Nika Mühl, whose 15 assists set an all-time school record.
Duke UConn was a participant in the Phil Knight invitational tournament, a basketball event held to celebrate the co-founder of Nike. Earlier events in 2017 and 2019 included only men's teams, but the 2022 event was extended to women's teams as well. UConn was one of four teams in the Legacy bracket, along with Duke, their first round opponent, Iowa, and Oregon State.