UConn’s recent matchup against Fairleigh Dickinson turned out to be historical. Geno Auriemma became the all-time winningest coach in NCAA Division I, claiming his 1217th win of his career—a huge milestone in his 40-year career. But with it, there came another uptick for the Huskies, that might have gone unnoticed despite its significance.

Simply put, it was the first time in a year that the Huskies had and used 11 players, which the Hall of Fame coach called ” a luxury that we haven’t had in quite some time.”

It was Fudd’s first game back after she had suffered a knee injury in November last year. It had brought the roster of healthy 14 to a mere 8 by the time the team entered the NCAA Tournament. At their worst, the team had just 6 healthy players in constant rotation. It is all back to better now, with all 11 players logging in minutes in double-digits, while all starters had the opportunity to savor their rest.

So speaking of the newfound depth, Auriemma added, “We have the options that we haven’t had in a while here. I like the different combinations. We are still trying to figure out what are the best combinations, who fits best together. But it is a luxury that we haven’t had in quite some time.”

Looking at the game and the Huskies, everyone from the starting 5 to the players coming off from the bench spent a decent time on the court. Sarah Strong led in scoring with 20 points and grabbed 8 boards while she made 6 dimes. Paige Bueckers came closer to hitting a double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds in the game. Kaitlyn Chen and Ice Brady chipped in 11 and 10 points respectively.

Both Ashlyn Shade and KK Arnold had 6 points apiece and Azzi Fudd posted 4 points alongside Jana El Alfy, Allie Ziebell, Morgan Cheli, and Qadence Samuels adding 3 points and making their notable contributions to the total score. So with that in place, Auriemma admits he is confident in the roster than he has been in the past few years.

Geno Auriemma finally has the chance to toss things up

Last season, it was the Huskies who had been bitten badly by the injury bug. Half of their team went down with season-ending injuries, leaving the Huskies to endure some more. Azzi Fudd and Aubrey Griffin tore their ACLs, Caroline Ducharme had a head/neck injury, Jana El Alfy got her knee, and Amari DeBerry had a concussion.

Talking about numbers, the Huskies have dealt with 177 player-games lost to injury last season. Moreover, totaled 121 player-games lost to injury in the 2022-23 and 82 in the 2021-22 season respectively.

However, things are looking up for Auriemma and he can’t wait to make that count.“I’d like to think that we can impact the game differently than the players that are on the court at that time…… And I would definitely say this is the best team that we’ve had, potentially, the best team that we’ve had in I would say the last four years, five years,” he said.

Despite losing half of his roster to injuries, Geno Auriemma kept and the Huskies kept marching forward and made it to the Final Four last season, however, they took a 71-69 defeat from the Iowa Hawkeyes. That’s a good level of resilience. And now that he has got his roster back in the game, with some new faces, Geno Auriemma is ready to make an impact that will echo throughout the season.