Just like old times, as Bueckers returns for UConn in 102-58 rout of Dayton
Nov. 8—HARTFORD — After the initial celebration, the first time superstar Paige Bueckers set foot on a basketball court wearing a UConn jersey since the 2022 national championship game, things returned to normalcy Wednesday.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma yelled at Bueckers, who he felt tried to make up for missing the entire season last year on every play in the Huskies' opener against Dayton.
Bueckers, the 2021 national player of the year and an All-American as a freshman, will take it.
"Just like old times, huh?" Bueckers, who tore her ACL prior to the season last year, said of the dialogue with Auriemma. "Just excited to be out there regardless of what it is. Last year, sitting on the bench, I would have done anything just to be out there and get yelled at.
"So, just different perspective that I have now. Coach getting on me, me taking it and then improving from that ... just super excited and grateful to be back out on the court with my girls."
No. 2 UConn marked Bueckers' long-awaited return with a 102-58 victory over Dayton before 9,126 fans at the XL Center. Dayton is coached by UConn alum Tamika Williams-Jeter, who won two national championships as a member of the Huskies.
Senior forward Aaliyah Edwards led six UConn players in double figures with 23 points, shooting 10-for-12, adding nine rebounds and two blocked shots in 23 minutes.
Azzi Fudd added 13 points, Aubrey Griffin 12, freshman Qadence Samuels 11 and Nika Muhl and Caroline Ducharme 10 each. Freshman KK Arnold had a team-high seven assists.
Bueckers finished with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists and a steal in 21 minutes.
"She's so far ahead of herself," Auriemma said of Bueckers. "She wants to get it all back on each possession. 'I want to get the whole year back on each possession.' The game doesn't all the sudden leave you when you haven't played, but it also doesn't automatically come back that fast either.
"Given that it was the first game, she was what I thought she would be and she'll be better on Sunday (at N.C. State) and she'll be better next Thursday (against Maryland)."
Auriemma said before the game that Bueckers would be on a minutes restriction to start the season.
"There's a medical minute restriction and then there's my restriction and she's not going to like mine," Auriemma said with a laugh. "... She says she likes when I yell at her, so I just want to keep her happy."
A number of other milestones for the Huskies included the first career baskets by freshmen Arnold (pull-up jump shot), Samuels (3-pointer) and Ashlynn Shade (layup assisted by Muhl) and redshirt freshman Ice Brady, who also missed last season with a knee injury.
It was the 28th straight victory in a season-opener for UConn, which last lost to start a season in the 1995-96 campaign.
The game got off to an unconventional start when Dayton was assessed a technical foul for not having one of its players in the official scorebook. Fudd shot a pair of free throws to give UConn a 2-0 lead ... before the opening tip.
UConn went on to take a 26-13 lead after one quarter and 59-31 at halftime.
Edwards had 13 points, five rebounds and a pair of blocked shots for the Huskies in the first half. Ducharme had eight, including a pair of line drive 3-pointers in the first quarter that gave UConn a 12-3 lead.
Bueckers scored the first points of her return on a drive down the right side 1 minute, 43 seconds into the first quarter, on which she tumbled to the floor and slid on her back side under the basket.
Bueckers played the first 8:53 of the first quarter, leaving with six points, three rebounds and an assist.
She played 13:25 in the first half with six points, four rebounds and three assists, plus infused the game with her distinctive personality, lifting her palms to the air in disbelief when she was whistled for an early foul, causing the crowd to boo in animated fashion, and she helped signal a 3-pointer for Samuels that marked the first points of her career.
The Huskies led 84-40 after three quarters and broke the 100-point mark with 3:54 to play on a 3 by Samuels, her third of the game.
Bueckers called it "a bad game for me."
"I'm still learning to give myself grace," she said. "I'm not ignorant enough to think that it's going to be a linear trajectory this whole time and I'm just gonna be on the up-and-up and be the old Paige and have a great game every game. Like, this is a process coming back from an injury. It's hard."
Meanwhile, Auriemma saw great things from Edwards, who averaged career highs of 16.6 points per game and 9.0 rebounds last year and continues to grow in confidence and consistency.
"I want that to be somewhat of an average game for her going forward," Auriemma said of Edwards. "She finished around the basket, she rebounded from various spots on the floor. And I just thought she was aggressive the entire time she was out there."
Earlier in the day Wednesday, the first day of the early signing period, UConn got official letters of intent from two members of the 2024 recruiting class, Allie Ziebell and Morgan Cheli.
Ziebell, a 5-foot-10 guard from Wisconsin, is the No. 4-ranked player in the class, while Cheli, a 6-2 wing from California, is No. 18.
