HARTFORD, Conn. _ UConn coach Geno Auriemma doesn't know exactly when he'll be able to get his whole team together. Though most players are aiming to arrive in Storrs during the last week of July, it will be much trickier getting the squad's three international players to the States amid travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.
From the sound of it, the coach is especially eager to get this group together and see what it is capable of, something he reiterated last week during the virtual Coaches Road Show alongside men's basketball coach Dan Hurley and athletic director David Benedict.
Coming off a 29-3 season prior to the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament, the Huskies will welcome in ESPN's No. 2 recruiting class in the country, which will comprise half of the team's scholarship players. While No. 1 overall recruit Paige Bueckers understandably gets most of the hype, Auriemma has high praise for the other members of his versatile five-person class.
"I'm going to be really excited to coach her," Auriemma said of Mir McLean, a wing out of Maryland whom he has previously compared to Swin Cash. "She's 5-11, and I think her vertical is probably the highest of anybody ever recorded at Connecticut, at any size. So she plays like that kind of athlete."
Six-foot-five center Piath Gabriel of New Hampshire will provide the Huskies some needed depth in the paint, though her development may prove to be more of a work-in-progress.
"If she turns out right away to be really good, that's huge," Auriemma said. "Might take a little bit of time. If you want a kid like that anymore, you've got to go recruit volleyball players. There's not many of them, and we got a kid."
Unlike players in the U.S., who haven't been able to get on a court or play competitive basketball since the onset of the pandemic, Croatian point guard Nika Muhl has been able to continue playing in her league back home, Auriemma said.
"She's like every other European player you've ever seen," Auriemma added. "They've got a little edge to them. They've got a little bit, like, 'I'm older than my years.' "
Auriemma highlighted the athleticism and strength of Aaliyah Edwards, who already has stints with the Canadian national team under her belt. "She plays at a high level," Auriemma said of the wing, "6-2, can play a lot of different positions, and that's something we didn't have this year."
All eyes will be on Bueckers, whose hype before she's even set foot in Storrs has been on a level with Breanna Stewart, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi. Since being able to publicly speak about her, Auriemma has tried to ground some of those expectations back in reality. In other words, if people think she's going to start and average 30 points as a freshman, well, "that ain't gonna happen."
That said, fans have every reason to still be excited about what she'll bring to the team this year.
"(She's) the kind of kid that comes in and whatever situation she's in, she'll figure out how to be great in that situation," Auriemma said. "The expectation level for a kid like that, like they were with Stewie, like they were with Maya Moore, like they were with Diana, they're off the charts, and they almost never come true freshman year. So this kid is coming in with a ton of pressure on her.
"And yet, at the same time, I don't know that there's been a more exciting player to come out of high school in a long, long time."
As far as the older players go, Auriemma said he's been meeting virtually with the team's three "veteran" leaders, Christyn Williams, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, and Evina Westbrook, the latter of whom has been cleared to play after undergoing knee surgery at the end of December.
Westbrook boasts two years of collegiate playing experience prior to transferring to UConn from Tennessee, while Williams and Nelson-Ododa seem poised to lead the team both on and off the court despite their relative youth, Auriemma said.
"This will be their third year of playing a lot of basketball, and if you talk to both of them, they'll tell you they're really, really disappointed with the way things went, for them personally, this past year, which is the best thing for a kid to say," Auriemma said of the junior pair. "They're like, 'Coach, I'm not happy. I took a step back. I know what I did that I'm not going to do, and I know what I should've done that I'm going to do. And they're going to be great."
Sophomores Anna Makurat and Aubrey Griffin should take meaningful steps with one year of collegiate play under their belts. Auriemma said Makurat should be in better shape. Griffin's athleticism continues to astound him, and she's been playing against her brothers while home.
With only 10 scholarship players on the team after Megan Walker's early departure and the graduation of five seniors from last season, the team may also add a walk-on player or two, Auriemma said.
