Just 48 seconds after UConn women’s basketball center Jana El Alfy checked in midway through the second quarter against Butler on Saturday, the redshirt sophomore picked up a foul that immediately aggravated coach Geno Auriemma.
The foul was El Alfy’s second of the game, and though it was minor — some incidental contact while going for an offensive rebound that gave Butler an inbound — Auriemma swore in visible frustration on the sideline. El Alfy quickly followed up the error by scoring on a strong putback off a miss from star guard Azzi Fudd, but the damage was already done. Auriemma pulled El Alfy back out of the game at the first opportunity, less than two minutes after putting her on the court.
“Coaches don’t necessarily give you playing time … (I) look around and go, this is what we need. And right now, there’s a big gap between Sarah Strong and the rest of our big guys,” Auriemma said postgame. “I don’t need them to be Sarah Strong, but all of them, we need them to be rebounders and rim protectors and physical presences out there.”
It wasn’t the first time Auriemma has criticized the impact of his post players this season, but that gap has never been starker than it was with Strong sidelined in Saturday’s 80-46 win. The sophomore superstar sat out for rest after experiencing some “tightness” during the week, and with freshman forward Blanca Quinonez also out for a fourth straight game due to a shoulder injury, the Huskies had to rely on starting center Serah Williams and El Alfy more than usual.
El Alfy played more than 20 minutes for just the second time this season and the first since she was sidelined for four games by a concussion in early January. She grabbed a career best 11 rebounds to lead the Huskies, though she added just four points on 2-for-5 shooting and picked up three fouls.
Williams logged a more balanced stat line in her 21 minutes on the court with 11 points shooting 4-for-6 plus three rebounds, four assists, three blocks and a steal. Auriemma has frequently praised the Wisconsin transfer’s development as a passer and defender in recent weeks, but he also took a shot at her limited production on the glass Saturday. El Alfy brought down a team-high five offensive boards while Williams finished with all three of her rebounds at the defensive end. Williams has appeared in three more games and averages eight more minutes than El Alfy but has only brought down four more offensive rebounds than the redshirt sophomore this season.
“(El Alfy) had five offensive rebounds, and we have some guys that go a month and don’t get five offensive rebounds, so I was really happy with that,” Auriemma quipped. “(Williams’) offensive rebound total was the same as my granddaughter’s: Zero.”
UConn excelled in last year’s NCAA Tournament despite its lack of a traditional post presence, playing the vast majority of the run with four guards on the floor around 6-foot-2 Strong as the five. But with Strong shouldering more responsibility this season as the Huskies’ centerpiece at both ends of the floor, Auriemma knows there are matchups ahead where the team will need a bigger presence in the post. UCLA, South Carolina and Texas are heavy favorites to secure the other 1-seeds in the tournament behind UConn, and all three programs have a center 6-foot-6 or taller averaging at least 10 points and six boards per game.
El Alfy rose to the challenge as the Huskies’ starting center during the 2025 tournament, putting together one of her best performances of the season against All-American UCLA star Lauren Betts in the Final Four. Her ceiling has always been high, but the redshirt sophomore still grapples with inconsistencies that Auriemma has little tolerance for. He doesn’t need El Alfy to suddenly become an elite scorer; He just wants to see her play smart basketball.
UConn women’s basketball dominates Butler 80-48 in first game without Sarah Strong
“I think the thing with Jana is being able to use her physicality out there without committing those silly, over-the-top fouls,” Auriemma said. “The second half (she) was trying to bully four people while (she’s) trying to get a shot up on the rim. So I think sometimes less is more, and if you stick to, ‘I need to be a better defender. I need to be a better rebounder. I need to be a better screener and ball-handler,’ then whatever points are there you’re going to be able to take advantage of.”
The biggest change Auriemma wants to see from Williams is simpler — and more challenging to implement. The senior center has all the tools to be an impact player for the Huskies, and she showed it against top Big Ten competition throughout her three years at Wisconsin before transferring to UConn this season. But Williams has never been in a scenario before with stakes this high, where winning is not just a goal but a requirement, and playing under that kind of spotlight requires a different level of mental intensity.
“You have to establish yourself as a dominant player, where every shot they take you think is your rebounds and every shot we take you think of as, ‘This is a pass to me, and I’m gonna go get it,’” Auriemma said. “I think it’s a mindset of, ‘I’m 6-foot-4, I’m really athletic, I’ve played a lot of basketball, and that means I’ve got to be dominant every day. I show up and I’m dominant every day.’ It’s improving in practice … but down the stretch it’s going to be, we need this rebound really bad, and you have to get it. That kind of dominant mindset is what we need more than anything.”