NEW YORK — Big East Media Day has come and gone, and as was expected, the UConn women’s basketball team is the preseason favorite to win the conference in 2024-2025.
Meanwhile, six Huskies earned preseason Big East honors, according to a release Wednesday from the UConn Division of Athletics.
Paige Bueckers, the defending Big East Player of the Year, is the preseason choice to win the award for a third time. The redshirt senior guard from Hopkins, Minn. also earned the honor after her freshman season in 2020-2021. Earlier this week, Bueckers was selected to the Associated Press’ Preseason All-America First Team. During her career at UConn, Bueckers is a two-time AP First Team All-American; she won the Naismith National Player of the Year Award as a freshman.
Sarah Strong, the nation's top-ranked recruit in the high school Class of 2024, was chosen as the Big East’s Preseason Freshman of the Year. The forward from Fuquay-Varina, N.C. was named the 2024 Naismith High School Player of the Year and selected as a McDonald’s, Naismith, SLAM and Jordan Brand All-American. In both 2023 and 2024, Strong was North Carolina Miss Basketball and the Gatorade North Carolina Player of the Year.
Redshirt junior guard Azzi Fudd and sophomore guards KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade were named to the Big East’s preseason all-conference team. Fudd, a sharpshooter from Arlington, Va., was one of the top-ranked high school prospects of all-time. She has shown glimpses of her potential while battling injuries throughout large portions of her career at UConn.
Arnold, an exciting playmaker from Germantown, Wis., averaged 8.9 points as a freshman shooting 45.9% from the field. She stepped up her game when relied upon during UConn’s run to the 2024 Final Four.
Shade, a pure shooter from Noblesville, Ind., averaged 11 points per game last season, but racked up a combined 45 points in the first two rounds of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Shade was the 2024 Big East Freshman of the Year.
Kaitlyn Chen, a graduate student who transferred from Princeton, earned Big East preseason honorable mention honors. Chen might be getting slept on considering she is a former Ivy League Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American. In order to keep playing collegiately, Chen was forced to transfer, as Ivy League programs didn’t grant spring-sport athletes who had a season shorted by the COVID-19 pandemic an additional year of eligibility.
It is no surprise that UConn has been picked to win the Big East Conference in 2024-2025 after winning both the regular season and conference tournament crowns last season while compiling a perfect 18-0 Big East record.
UConn has won 23 Big East regular season titles and 22 Big East Tournament titles in program history. The Huskies have won both championships every year since rejoining the Big East in 2020.
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Dalton Zbierski is a digital content producer and writer at FOX61 News. He can be reached at dzbierski@FOX61.com.
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