VILLANOVA, Pa. — Even with a microphone inches from her face, Sarah Strong‘s voice was barely audible as she addressed the media after the UConn women’s basketball team’s win over Villanova.
The undefeated Huskies had an ugly showing against the Wildcats on Wednesday night, leaving Finneran Pavilion with a 14-point victory that didn’t feel much better than a loss. UConn started 4-for-12 on layups and trailed for almost the entire first half, overcoming its first halftime deficit since the 2025 Sweet 16. Villanova’s 69 points tied the most UConn has allowed in any game this season, and the Huskies’ 18 turnovers were the second-most they’ve given up in Big East play.
But there were no excuses for the visibly-ill Strong, who finished with her seventh double-double of the season logging 21 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, five steals and three blocks.
“(We need to) start the game off playing a full 40 minutes,” she practically whispered. “Not wait until halftime for Coach to yell at us to start playing.”
As soon as she stepped off the podium, the Huskies’ director of communications handed her a cough drop.
Strong’s sore throat is one of several symptoms contributing to No. 1 UConn’s recent run of underwhelming performances against Big East opponents. The team has trailed at some point in four of its last five games, including for a season-high 16 and a half minutes at Villanova. Three of its four lowest-scoring performances in conference play have come in the past 12 days, and it played its two closest Big East matchups of the season back-to-back at Marquette on Saturday, then against the Wildcats on Wednesday. The Huskies’ 15-point win in Milwaukee ended their streak of 21 consecutive wins by at least 25 points.
From the outside, UConn’s play has been bafflingly sluggish at times considering how unstoppable the team looked through the majority of the regular season. But nothing about the slump is shocking to coach Geno Auriemma.
“You just have to go through it,” Auriemma said. “All of November, all of December, all of January, has been this kind of (upward) trajectory. That doesn’t normally happen. When you go through a season, there’s down, up, down. There’s time where you’re just rolling and there’s times when it’s a struggle, and we hadn’t had any of those this year. Not that you knew it was coming, but you’re not surprised.”
Though Auriemma is almost certainly harsher behind closed doors, the Huskies coach isn’t showing much concern about the apparent complacency on the court. The players know they’re playing below the team’s usual standard, and they’re plenty hard on themselves after a showing like Wednesday night’s without him piling on in public.
“We know we’re going to get every team’s best, so the way that we came out and started the game is unacceptable,” star guard Azzi Fudd said. “We need to fix that. We need to be able to, going forward, start the game, play the full 40 minutes and not take anything for granted, not overlook anyone.”
Strong has played at less than 100% for nearly two weeks grappling with an illness, and Auriemma said Wednesday that the sophomore is currently “doing as little as she can” during practice. Fudd was also coughing at the podium after the Villanova game, and Auriemma said there’s been some sort of flu going around the locker room.
How Allie Ziebell unlocked new confidence to become key contributor for UConn women’s basketball
On top of the sickness running through the team, the Huskies are also managing a slew of minor injuries. Wednesday was freshman forward Blanca Quinonez‘s first game back after missing six games with a shoulder injury, and it was clear she was rusty finishing with four points and four steals but also three fouls and four turnovers. Redshirt senior Caroline Ducharme also missed six games due to migraines, and Strong is dealing with tightness in her calves that led the team to sideline her for rest against Butler on Feb. 7.
Unlike almost every other team in the country, UConn hasn’t had more than four days between games since its holiday break in late December. Amid one of the weakest seasons in the history of the Big East, the Huskies needed to get more competitive opponents on the schedule to build a resume and prepare for the NCAA Tournament, which meant scheduling Notre Dame and No. 21 Tennessee during their bye weeks in conference play. With so little recovery time, the majority of the team is playing through both physical and mental fatigue down the stretch.
“The end of the season has something to do with it. We have four or five guys that are constantly in the infirmary at school,” Auriemma said. “This is probably a time when you need maybe two or three days (off). That’s why after the regular season ends a week from Sunday, we won’t play until Saturday, so you really do have an opportunity to get back together, get your stuff together again.”
Auriemma knows there’s little he can do as a coach to combat the slump until the team reaches its six-day break in between the regular season finale and its first game of the Big East Tournament. The Huskies simply have to play through it, and there’s value in learning how to win when things look ugly and no one is feeling their best.
“You can’t just go, oh well we’ve got these guys hurt, these guys that were sick. So what? Every other team in the country deals with this stuff,” Auriemma said. “I said in the second half, we have an opportunity to just grind out this win. Somehow, some way, we’ll figure it out. It doesn’t matter what it looks like on the outside … We’re 28-0, and whether you win by one or win by 100, that’s all that matters at this time of the season.”
UConn women’s basketball survives first-half scare to clinch Big East championship at Villanova