UConn basketball dropped six spots to No. 8 in Monday’s edition of the AP Top 25 poll. But star guard Paige Bueckers isn’t worried about the rankings.

The Huskies’ fall from the No. 2 ranking came after Sunday’s 92-81 loss to then-unranked NC State. The defeat to the Wolfpack stood out in several ways:

  • UConn has not started a season with a 1-1 record since 2014.
  • UConn had not lost to NC State since the 1998 Elite Eight.
  • UConn had not allowed 92 points in regulation since 2001.
  • UConn has six ranked losses against unranked opponents over the last three seasons, compared to four in the 20 seasons before that.

Even after the loss, though, UConn did make some positive history. The Huskies’ presence in the AP Top 25 poll breaks the record for most consecutive weeks as a ranked team at 566, surpassing Tennessee at 565.

Yet as Bueckers said ahead of the NC State game, she is not paying attention to the ups and downs of her team’s ranking this season. She only cares about one metric: an NCAA championship.

“We only care about being No. 1 in April, and we have yet to do that since we’ve been here at school,” Bueckers said. “So rankings during the regular season really don’t mean anything to us.”

The most recent of UConn’s 11 national titles came in 2016. Bueckers joined the Huskies in 2020, and she wants to win her own before her time with the program is up, whenever that may be.

“It’s about getting better every single day at practice, building great habits and continuing to get better on both sides of the floor, communicate, hold each other accountable,” Bueckers said. “And I think those are the main goals in order to build habits to be the No. 1 team in April.”

No. 2 UConn basketball was upset by an unranked NC State team on Saturday evening, 92-81. The last time the Wolfpack beat the Huskies came in the 1998 Elite Eight.

NC State junior Saniya Rivers stood out as the player of the match, draining 33 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for her squad. Rivers also drew fouls throughout the game, and she shot 10-14 from the free-throw line.

UConn head coach Gino Auriemma told his NC State counterpart Wes Moore that the Wolfpack team is “10 times better than last year,” as CT Insider’s Maggie Vanoni reported after the game.

“Everything they did was better than ours. … They were just on top of their game more than I remember. We got our asses beat plain and simple,” Auriemma said.

The Huskies made a palpable offensive effort, with two of their starters bagging over 20 points — Paige Bueckers dropped 27, while Aaliyah Edwards contributed 21. Bueckers was playing in her second game since her return from an ACL injury.

However, UConn struggled on the defensive end of the court. Four out of five Husky starters were in foul trouble by the end of the game, racking up at least four fouls, with Nika Mühl fouling out.

“We weren’t mature enough to handle it,” Auriemma said of his team.

UConn grabbed 11 fewer rebounds than NC State, with 29 to the Wolfpack’s 41. NC State cashed in on 12 points off rebounds and 12 second-chance points.

“We’ve got a sh— attitude towards rebounding … and that’s got to change,” Auriemma said.

With UConn’s loss to NC State and No. 1 LSU’s season-opening loss to Colorado, the top two teams in the preseason AP Top 25 have lost before the second AP poll for the first time in at least 25 years, according to ESPN.

Paige Bueckers is back, even if she had what she considers to be a bad game.

For the first time in 584 days, Bueckers played for UConn basketball in the Huskies’ season-opening 102-58 win over Dayton. After missing last season with an ACL injury, the redshirt junior notched 8 points on 3-for-9 shooting, as well as 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 steal.

“In my opinion it was a bad game for me,” Bueckers said. “But I’m grateful to have a bad game right now.

“I’m still learning how to give myself grace. I’m not ignorant enough to think that it’s going to be a linear trajectory this whole time. I’m super grateful in the fact that I get to go try again on Sunday and be even better on Sunday.”

Bueckers played just 21 minutes in her first game back, and she sat on the bench for the entire fourth quarter. But the 21 minutes were still an increase from the 11 she played in a Saturday exhibition game.

“There’s a medical minute restriction and then there’s my restriction. And she’s not gonna like mine,” head coach Geno Auriemma said. “She’s so anxious to play, she wants to be out there and she wants to do everything, be everywhere and do everything.”

There is a level of leadership, Auriemma said, that the team requires from her. But he understands that Bueckers is anxious to get back to her old self.

“She’s so far ahead of herself. She wants to get it all back on each possession,” he said, noting that she was trying to do everything. But the depth of UConn’s bench helps Bueckers to not carry the entire load.

“We know that as a team, we have a lot of weapons, and it’s not a one-man team where somebody has to carry more of the load than others,” she added. “It’s a very equal and well-balanced team.”

Ahead of Paige Bueckers’ official return from her ACL injury, the UConn basketball star gave credit to late NBA star Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gigi.

On Tuesday, Bueckers wore a shirt reading: “If you think you can’t, UConn.” The quote is attributed to noted UConn fan Gigi Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash alongside her father and seven others in January 2020.

The Huskies first wore the warmup shirts with the quote, which comes from a letter Bryant wrote to the team after a loss, back in January 2021.

Ahead of UConn’s season opener Wednesday against Dayton, Bueckers shared how Kobe Bryant’s “Mamba Mentality” helped her as she rehabbed the ACL injury that kept her out all of last season. Speaking with ESPN, she said that she read Bryant’s book, which helped her as she navigated the injury and rehabilitation process.

Kobe’s “mentality, his approach, just how much he dedicated his life to the game” helped her through that time, Bueckers said.

“When this injury first happened, I thought a lot about Kobe,” she said. “I read ‘The Mamba Mentality’ book. And he just looked at his injury as another way to prove people wrong and as another thing to accomplish. I mean, Kobe loved challenges, so anything that he could face, that people had doubts that he could overcome, is what made him want to do it even more.”

The 22-year-old guard also turned to her UConn teammates, and to other athlete’s successful returns from ACL injuries, to inspire her.

“A lot of my teammates have gone through ACL injuries, have gone through major injuries,” she said. “I watched, in the WNBA, in the NBA, in the NFL, people coming back from ACL injuries. Klay Thompson came back from two major injuries to win a NBA championship.

“I see inspiration around me every day with my teammates and just be able to lean on them and ask some questions and ask how their process went. There was a lot of things that kept me going.”

Top prospects for the 2024 WNBA Draft could choose to stay in college rather than go pro.

While Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers and Angel Reese are all in their fourth years, all have an extra year of eligibility available due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

NCAA basketball players who participated in the 2019-20 season were granted an extra year of eligibility as a result of the pandemic, which affected the 2020-21 season. That coincided with the freshman year of current fourth-year players. So Iowa’s Clark and LSU’s Reese could return for a fifth year — and Bueckers, who missed all of last season with an ACL injury, could even stay for a sixth year.

But just because they can, doesn’t mean they will.

“I really have no clue what I’m going to do, stay for an extra year or leave after next year,” Clark said in February. The Iowa senior remains undecided, she confirmed in October, saying she plans to “treat this year like this is my last year” but has not made up her mind.

“It’s been hard for a lot of college athletes to decide what to do, just because there are pros to staying in college but also your dream of reaching the next level is right there,” she said.

Likewise, Bueckers has not made up her mind about her future with UConn beyond the 2023-24 season.

“I guess we’ll see,” the redshirt junior said when asked about her plans in early October.

Clark and Bueckers both have spoken at length about their love for their schools and for the college experience, which complicates their decisions.

“There’s always a chance,” Bueckers said in March. “I have three more years of eligibility. I’m not declining, not saying for sure I will or for sure I won’t. But there’s definitely an opportunity for me to return for a fifth year, even maybe a sixth year.”

Add Reese’s name to the list as well. After leading LSU to the 2023 national title, she has hinted at a possible fifth year on social media — but she also has been open about her WNBA aspirations.

“While I do have the option for another year, I do want to get out of college, start life outside of school, and pursue my WNBA dreams,” she said in September.

In 2023, Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson was projected as a WNBA lottery pick but chose to use her extra year of eligibility. Other big names to do so include Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley and Georgia Amoore, UCLA’s Charisma Osborne, TCU’s Sedona Prince and Penn State’s Ashley Owusu.

Paige Bueckers missed the entire 2022-23 college basketball season with an ACL injury. And as she prepares for her return to the court for UConn, she also is looking back on her lost year.

The 22-year-old redshirt junior spoke with “SportsCenter” about the emotional toll of the injury.

“The hardest moment definitely would be sitting in that waiting room after my MRI, the doctors telling me I tore my ACL,” she told ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.

Bueckers is good at internalizing her emotions, and she didn’t want to be a burden on her teammates, she said. But when describing those emotions to Philippou, including how she tried both to grapple with them and to be a good teammate at the same time, Bueckers teared up.

“Hiding my emotions was definitely hard,” she said. “It just hurt so bad not being able to go out there, especially with all of the stuff we were going through as a team. But I think the biggest thing for me was coming in every day and making sure that nobody saw the dark times, the sad times I was going through.

“As a team leader I was just trying to do everything I could to have a positive attitude about everything and make sure that every time I came into the gym, every time I came to practice, every time I came to rehab I had a great attitude, I had a smile on my face.”

And even after enduring the hard times, Bueckers wouldn’t change her path.

“I wouldn’t trade my life for the world, I know that everything I went through up to this point has shaped me to be who I am as a person and as a player,” she said. “If I didn’t go through some of the things I went through, I wouldn’t be who I am. The story I want is just the story of overcoming adversity.

“Obviously I wish there could have been no injuries, but it’s just a part of my story and a part of my journey in life. But definitely hoping to make the most of the time I have left here.”

Bueckers made her unofficial return to the court in an exhibition game Saturday against Southern Connecticut State, but she and the Huskies officially will start their season at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday against Dayton.

UConn’s roster continues to work its way back to full strength, with Ice Brady set to make her debut for the Huskies after missing her entire freshman season with a dislocated kneecap.

Brady entered her freshman year as the fifth-ranked recruit in the nation, and buzz is building around her return, especially as the Huskies look to fill out their frontcourt.

“Now don’t get me wrong, she hasn’t played college basketball and there’s some issues that are going to rise and all that,” UConn head coach Geno Auriemma told CT Insider. “But anytime a kid can make shots from the perimeter, score in the lane, (is a) really good passer; she just has that kind of game.”

Had Brady been healthy, she likely would have started her freshman season competing for minutes off the bench. But she would have been a big boost in an injury-riddled year for the Huskies.

“Ice is a great player. I was so excited for her to play last year so this year I’m even more excited,” Azzi Fudd said. “… She’d always be worried about what this year would look like for her, and I would tell her, ‘You’re gonna be the same player if not better than when you got hurt.’”

The injury helped Brady become closer with star guard Paige Bueckers, who missed the season with a torn ACL. With the return of the 2021 National Player of the year grabbing headlines, Brady has “flown under the radar,” Bueckers said.

But Fudd, who was Brady’s roommate all of last year, says the redshirt freshman has come back “better than I remember.”

Defending champion LSU basketball is the odds-on favorite to win another NCAA title this upcoming season.

The Tigers lead the pack both on FanDuel Sportsbook (+230) and DraftKings Sportsbook (+300). UConn comes in just behind them, at +600 on FanDuel and +500 on DraftKings, even after the Huskies snapped their Final Four streak in 2023.

LSU and UConn also hold No. 1 seeds in ESPN’s preseason bracketology. In the 2023 edition of March Madness, LSU entered with a No. 3 seed, and UConn with a No. 2 seed.

While 2023 runner-up Iowa sits immediately behind LSU and UConn in the betting odds, at +800 on FanDuel and +900 on DraftKings, ESPN projects Iowa as a No. 2 seed for the NCAA Tournament. Ohio State and UCLA are the other two top seeds in the preseason prediction.

South Carolina entered the 2023 postseason as the No. 1 overall seed and as a huge favorite for the title. But after losing their entire starting lineup, the Gamecocks are fifth in championship odds on DraftKings (+1100), sixth on FanDuel (+1300) and a No. 2 seed in ESPN’s bracketology.

NCAA women’s basketball: 2024 national championship odds

These are the top 16 teams in betting odds for the 2024 national championship, as listed by FanDuel Sportsbook on Oct. 31.

  • LSU (+230)
  • UConn (+600)
  • Iowa (+800)
  • Utah (+1100)
  • Indiana (+1100)
  • South Carolina (+1300)
  • Stanford (+1300)
  • UCLA (+1700)
  • Ohio State (+1700)
  • Notre Dame (+1700)
  • Maryland (+2700)
  • Tennessee (+2700)
  • Texas (+2700)
  • Ole Miss (+5000)
  • Duke (+5000)
  • Baylor (+5000)

Azzi Fudd will not be entering the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Speaking with ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo, Fudd was asked point-blank if she planned on leaving UConn after the 2023-24 season. Since Fudd turns 22 in November 2024, she is eligible for that year’s WNBA Draft. The UConn guard had a definitive answer.

“I plan on staying,” she said. “Why would I want to leave the basketball capital of the world?”

Fudd isn’t the only player to stay with her college team despite early draft eligibility.

Last year, Cameron Brink opted to forgo the WNBA Draft and stay at Stanford despite being eligible for the 2023 draft. “It’s fun, college is fun,” she said last October. “Why not stay?”

Caitlin Clark, who has an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is undecided on her future at Iowa, though she has said that she’s going to “treat this year like this is my last year.”

“It’s really not something I think about every single day,” Clark said in early October. “It’s not something I let weigh on me. I’m focused on helping this team be the best team they can be, and when I know that decision, all of you will know. I think the biggest thing will be I’m just going to trust my gut and go with that.”

There are also questions about whether redshirt junior guard Paige Bueckers will leave for the draft. The UConn star, who missed the majority of the last two seasons due to injuries, has remained noncommittal about her future. 

“I guess we’ll see,” she said when asked about her future with UConn, as CT Insider’s Maggie Vanoni reported from the first practice of the season for the Huskies.

Her answer was similar in March when asked about staying at UConn beyond 2024. She is entering her fourth season with the Huskies, but she could stay through 2026.

“There’s always a chance,” she said. “I have three more years of eligibility. I’m not declining, not saying for sure I will or for sure I won’t. But there’s definitely an opportunity for me to return for a fifth year, even maybe a sixth year.”

Azzi Fudd is learning not to overthink her game with UConn basketball.

During an exhibition game in Italy this offseason, she put up 31 shots in a single game. Only nine of those went in. But that was OK.

“Her demeanor, her focus never wavered,” her father Tim Fudd said. “She shot every shot like she was supposed to shoot it and like it was meant to go in.”

Even though Fudd has been in and out of the Huskies’ lineup with injuries over her first two seasons, her growth has been evident. And as she heads into her junior year, she’s aiming to continue that trajectory.

“That was one of the hardest adjustments, and I think I struggled with that my whole freshman year,” Fudd said. “Like looking back at my game l’m and watching myself I can see like that’s not the player I am. So ever since that year ended, that was my goal (to) never play like that again. Like, just focusing on trying to get my mental side stronger and healthier, which is something that, you know, you can’t fix in the weight room or with (UConn’s athletic trainer) Janelle (Francisco) in the training room.”

Her body language, according to her parents, is the biggest tell for when Fudd is beginning to lose confidence in her game. But as she’s matured, she’s getting out of her own head.

“That’s something I still am working towards, kind of playing without thinking if that makes sense,” she said.

The new mentality has impressed head coach Geno Auriemma. And if she stays healthy, she could become one of the team’s two biggest offensive threats this season alongside Paige Bueckers.

“We’re trying to get her to just play free and clear. Don’t worry about, you know, trying to be perfect,” Auriemma said. “She wants everything to be 100 percent every time. But that’s starting to go away little by little. She’s not a natural risk taker, you know? Which maybe good because Paige and Nika (Mühl) take so many risks that we probably need a steady person out there.

“But she’s adding more to her game than just catch and shoot, catch and shoot, catch and shoot. I bet she’s gotten to the basket and finished in the lane more in, you know, these few practices than maybe she did all last season.”