STORRS, Conn. -- The UConn Huskies may be leaning on freshmen this season more than the program typically is used to, but for the team to go far this NCAA tournament, coach Geno Auriemma said Friday, "We have to win this with our veterans."
UConn takes on 14-seed Jackson State in the first round Saturday at 1 p.m. on ABC.
"I always go into every season, and maybe this is a new season, with the understanding that we have to win this with our veterans, and if the younger guys contribute, then that makes it that much easier to accomplish our goal," Auriemma said. "But we can't go in thinking, 'Well, if our three seniors really struggle, the other guys will pick it up.' It's not fair -- that's not to say it can't happen, but it's not fair."
The Huskies are down to only three upperclassmen -- Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl -- with four juniors and seniors sidelined because of injury. But that trio has a wealth of experience making deep runs in March: They advanced to the Final Four in 2021 and 2022, the latter year making it to the national title game, where they fell to South Carolina.
"Our seniors ... they've just got to be who they are, and then they've also got to play the role of putting up a front that if they're struggling with something, they can't let the younger guys know that we're struggling," Auriemma said. "They've got to keep a certain level. I think the scoring, the rebounding, the leadership, the defense, all those things that those three are capable of doing, they're going to do. There's no doubt in my mind. They're going to do it."
UConn starts those three seniors alongside two freshmen, KK Arnold and Ashlynn Shade, while two others, Ice Brady and Qadence Samuels, are their main contributors off the bench. Shade's 30.7 minutes per game and 11.0 points per game are third-best on the team, while Arnold's scoring (9.0 PPG) and minutes played (29.0 MPG) are fourth-most among active players.
"As far as the younger guys," Auriemma said, "we're not mentioning any names. There's four of them. They range from, 'The NCAA tournament, what's that,' to delusional, 'I can win a national championship by myself.'... So it'll be interesting to see which one of them shows up."
After suffering five losses in nonconference play, the Huskies earned a 3-seed for this year's tournament, marking the first time the program hasn't been a top-two seed since 2005. The coaching staff has told the team, Auriemma said, that "'we've got all the pieces in place. We have everything that we need. We just need to try to recreate another weekend like last weekend [winning the Big East tournament].'"
But with six players total out for the year, Auriemma admitted, "We have one way to win and if that way doesn't work, we're screwed, and early vacation."
"We have limited ways of winning games that we have to be great at the one or two things that we are really, really good at and we have to maximize those things and limit all the other things that can be going against us," he said.
To improve upon last year's Sweet 16 exit -- marking the first time in 15 years that UConn didn't make the Final Four -- 2021 national player of the year Paige Bueckers will have to have a big tournament.
Bueckers, who missed all of last season with an ACL tear, is coming off one of her most impressive stretches of the year, averaging 27.7 points (62.1 effective field goal percentage), 8.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 4.0 blocks and 3.0 steals per game in the Big East tournament, where the Huskies were without Aaliyah Edwards (broken nose) for the majority of it.
"The one thing about Paige that I love is just I think she doesn't let anything steer her off," Edwards said Friday. "She's just always locked in. ... I think she's built for March. I think that just as a leader she just knows how to close out games, what we need to hear as a team in the moment, and what we need of her and what we need to do to help her out at the same time."