Two days after Selection Sunday, the No. 2-seed UConn Women’s Basketball team revealed some new jerseys. Immediately, one will notice that the Huskies swapped out the grey outline on the numbers for red ones. The “UConn” wording itself does not feature any outline, instead emphasizing the U by making it red.
Connecticut’s collar and shoulder trim now features all three of the school’s main colors, a shift from the sides of the jerseys. All of those changes I have highlighted thus far only relate to the jersey itself. Both the home and the road shorts feature a thick stripe that goes diagonally and includes the word “Huskies” above them.
Those throwback jerseys will appear throughout the entire NCAA Tournament. College basketball fans may refer to that period as the Christmas season. It starts when conference postseason tournaments commence in early/mid-March; it ends with the national championship game in April.
UConn hopes this special holiday season ends with an NCAA-record 12th national title. Their trek back up the college basketball mountain begins with a bout against the 15th-seeded Arkansas State Red Wolves.
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Since three different programs are coming to Storrs this weekend, it seems more appropriate to focus on each of the Huskies’ potential first-weekend challengers.
But that does not mean I will not highlight the hosts. Along with the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders, Connecticut boasts the nation’s second-best scoring defense at 51.9 points allowed per game. Behind Paige Bueckers, Sarah Strong and Azzi Fudd, the Huskies are one of just 11 Division I teams averaging 80+ points.
Two of the nation’s top 50 teams in scoring defense are in UConn’s region. Both of them, the 16th-seeded UNC Greensboro Spartans and 12th-seeded Fairfield Stags, are ranked in the top 10 in Division I. Conversely, the Huskies’ region also features eight teams with one of the country’s 50 highest-scoring offenses.
Beyond the points, Connecticut is a disciplined team that can share the ball and hold on to it. Just two teams, both coincidentally in the Huskies’ region, record more than their 20.9 assists per game. Two programs give the ball away fewer times on average than UConn does at 10.8. Add those components together, and it comes out to the nation’s best assist/turnover ratio at 1.94.
While the Huskies are participating in their 36th consecutive NCAA Tournament, their first-round opponent is making their March Madness debut. Arkansas State’s turnaround this year has been incredible; they went from being projected as the Sun Belt Conference’s second-worst team to their second-best.
This incredible run happened even though the Red Wolves lost star guard Izzy Higginbottom, who transferred to the University of Arkansas. Instead of their most recent All-Sun Belt First Team selection, Arkansas State has relied on a potent backcourt trio.
Tennessee State transfer Zyion Shannon spearheads that attack with 11 points per game and five 20-pieces. But the junior guard is more than just a dependable scorer on a Red Wolves team averaging 73.3 points. Shannon leads Arkansas State with 62 steals and has pickpocketed opponents in all but two contests so far.
Her transition defense sometimes is as pesky as sophomore point guard Crislyn Rose’s. The All-Sun Belt Third Team guard, who has 11 outings with 5+ assists, complements her 10.1 points per game with a team-leading 131 dimes. Should Rose run into foul trouble, senior Mimi McCollister and her 71 assists can run the floor.
Like KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade, Pittsburgh native Kennedie Montue can change a game when she first enters. Instead of a defensive impact, however, the Oakland transfer can boost Arkansas State’s offense from downtown. Montue leads the Red Wolves with 74 three-pointers, which accounts for nearly 70% of her offense. The 5-foot-11 senior guard can also cause trouble on the boards as she has a program-leading 124 defensive rebounds.
Arkansas State is not afraid to chase missed shots; nine of the 11 players on their roster have grabbed at least 70 boards. Their 39.6 total rebounds per game is almost three more than what UConn (36.8) hauls in on a nightly basis.
Yet no one cleans up the glass more than leading rebounder Wynter Rogers. The redshirt junior has a team-high 190 rebounds, 72 of which have resulted in extra possessions for Arkansas State. When Rogers is simultaneously efficient from the floor and aggressive on the boards, she can be a problem for any opposing forward.
Only Nissa Sam-Grant has over half as many offensive rebounds as the Little Rock native at 58. Sam-Grant’s 2.4 points per game is incredibly deceiving; she has more blocks (39) than field goals made (31). The UTSA grad transfer has not started yet because of former Virginia Cavalier Anna Griffin (7.9 PPG, 4.5 RPG). Beyond her two-way game, the junior wing is a threat from behind the arc with 52 three-pointers.
If the Huskies handle the Red Wolves, they will face either the seventh-seeded Oklahoma State Cowgirls or the 10th-seeded South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Connecticut’s second-round victories over the UCF Knights and Syracuse Orange in 2022 and 2024, respectively, were decided by a combined 13 points. That pattern continues if the Huskies make the second round; both potential opponents are ranked in the AP’s latest Top 25 poll.
South Dakota State sits at No. 24 behind the Creighton Bluejays, a team they downed at home on November 8. That five-point victory was the first quality win over a non-conference foe that the Jackrabbits secured. The Summit League Tournament champions also beat the then-No. 21 Oregon Ducks in Hawaii and bested the Wisconsin Badgers. South Dakota State is 29-3; two of their losses came against the Duke Blue Devils and Texas Longhorns.
With their resume and a 19-game winning streak, being a No. 10 seed feels almost unfair for the Jackrabbits. So does having two 6-foot-2 forwards that can suffocate any opposing frontcourt.
Junior Brooklyn Meyer is to South Dakota State what Strong is to the Huskies. Meyer won Summit League Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors as a sophomore last season. Despite not taking home either award again, the Iowa native has improved her efficiency. Meyer improved her shooting percentage by 5.1% (58.8% to 63.9%) while playing two fewer minutes per game.
With 186 rebounds, 31 steals and 26 blocks, Meyer is as much of a factor defensively as senior Mesa Byom. The WBCA All-State Team selection started 14 games over her first four years in Brookings, South Dakota. Come Saturday afternoon, Byom will have doubled that total in her final collegiate campaign. The Wisconsin native has grabbed 4+ rebounds all but twice and has rejected a shot in eight of her last nine games. Cracking the Jackrabbits’ code will require breaking Byom’s lockdown defense.
Outpacing South Dakota State’s offense will be just as important for UConn. The Jackrabbits are one of three teams in the Spokane 4 Region that are in the top 10 nationally in field goal percentage. All-Summit League Honorable Mention Haleigh Timmer contributes to that number as the team’s sharpest shooter.
Timmer has taken 144 shots from behind the arc this season; she has made 60 of them. Only Meyer, the two-time All-Summit League First Team forward, has a better clip from the floor at 63.9%. Minnesota natives Madison Mathiowetz and Paige Meyer (no relation to Brooklyn) are equally pivotal for South Dakota State.
Mathiowetz is a three-point threat; over half of her 227 shot attempts have come from behind the arc. The Sleepy Eye-based junior’s 48 triples have helped her average 8.7 points per game. P. Meyer is within five percentage points of Mathiowetz on field goal shooting, both overall and from downtown.
No player has even half as many as the Albany-based senior’s 170 assists; that makes sense given she has 20 outings with 5+ dimes. But beyond being a passer, P. Meyer sports a tight defense that resulted in 43 steals and three blocks.
Oklahoma State, which is 17th in the nation, has the tightest defense among all three programs coming up to Storrs. The Pokes surrender 60 points per game, tied for the fourth-fewest in the Big 12 Conference alongside the Baylor Lady Bears. Jacie Hoyt’s team shares the league lead in opponent field goal percentage with the Kansas State Wildcats at 36.7%.
Oklahoma State has grabbed 890 defensive rebounds as a team; sophomore guard Stailee Heard is responsible for nearly a quarter of them. The 5-foot-11 Oklahoma native is the face of the Pokes’ offense and defense. Those 199 defensive boards complement Heard’s team-leading 16.7 points per game and 57 steals.
Yet despite the takeaways the First Team All-Big 12 guard forces, no Oklahoma State player shuts possessions down faster than Tenin Magassa. The Rhode Island transfer has eight times as many blocks as the players in second place at 72. Magassa’s impact on the glass can fluctuate; she has had three games with zero rejections and three with six.
But the 6-foot-6 center has not been the Pokes’ only impactful transfer. Despite her decent 40.3% clip from the floor, former Seton Hall Pirate Micah Gray has become much more of a playmaker in Stillwater. Gray is averaging 13.8 points per game, and she has done so while crossing the 20-point threshold five times.
The junior guard is one of three players Oklahoma State turns to for their perimeter shooting. Senior Anna Gret Asi is the third of those individuals with 66 triples, seven of which came against the Texas Southern Tigers in November. The Estonian native is also a quality court commander; she has 93 assists and 39 steals in 30 games.
First-year student Jadyn Wooten will succeed Gret Asi at the point guard position next season. Despite not starting a game, however, Wooten has gained some key experience with a team-high 101 assists while averaging 21.1 minutes a night. The 2024 Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year has dished out multiple dimes in each of her past 11 games. That trend will continue on the Storrs campus this weekend.
Now Wooten averages as many points as fifth-year guard Alexia Smith at 6.6. Smith, who has started every contest, has twice as many rebounds per game at 4.8 while picking up 57 assists. Off the bench, look out for Montana transfer Macey Huard and redshirt sophomore Praise Egharevba.
Huard is a sophomore who can provide critical defense on the glass. A 10-rebound performance in the Cowgirls’ season opener helped the 6-foot-2 guard cross the 100-board threshold, something that has supported her 6.4 points per game. Egharevba, meanwhile, has 50 offensive rebounds and has forced 16 steals while playing 12.7 minutes.
UConn’s national title pursuit begins tomorrow at 1 p.m. EDT on ABC. Should the Huskies win that game, they play again on Monday at a time determined after almost every first-round contest is completed.
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