Allie Ziebell has never made a decision lightly, and her commitment to the UConn women’s basketball team was no exception.
As the No. 7 prospect in the 2024 class, Ziebell went into the recruiting process with a clear plan: She would take her visits, narrow down a list of finalists, announce her official choice the spring after her junior year at Neenah High School in Wisconsin. She had a pen in hand any time a college coach called, filling countless notebooks with details from every conversation.
But then, the summer before her junior season, Geno Auriemma made her an offer and upended her timeline.
“When the offer came through, she was ecstatic, but you could almost sense the internal struggle for Allie because she is such a planner and so organized and so methodical with her approach on everything,” said Andy Braunel, Ziebell’s head coach at Neenah. “She struggled a little bit with like, ‘This is my dream school, they want me … but in my mind I wasn’t going to commit until spring.’”
Ziebell refused to be wooed by the trophies and banners that decorate every inch of the Huskies’ facilities, to succumb to the allure of her childhood dream. She stayed true to her process, pored over her notes, checked her boxes. She weighed options that would have given her more immediate opportunities, teams where she would have been the most talented player on the court from day one.
In the end, it always came back to Storrs.
“She had an official visit out to UConn … and my phone starts blowing up. It’s a text message from Geno, a text message from (assistant coach) Morgan Valley, because Allie was out there and didn’t commit,” Braunel said. “They were like, ‘People don’t come for a visit and leave not committing’ … She wasn’t going to rush any decision, and she was very thorough with her approach. But once UConn came into the scene, all of us who knew her knew there wasn’t really a question.”
Now in her sophomore year with the Huskies, Ziebell is carving out a space for herself on one of the most talented rosters in the country. She may not be UConn’s centerpiece, but Auriemma knows that if his team is going to bring home a second straight NCAA championship in 2026, Ziebell will play a significant role.
“She’s just a really good basketball player,” Auriemma said. “Having having her continue to get that kind of confidence every game, it’s going to play a huge dividends towards the end of the season.”
When Ziebell first arrived at UConn last fall, Auriemma says she was poised to step into the starting lineup when the season opened. Star guard Azzi Fudd was still sidelined while completing her recovery from an ACL tear suffered the previous year, so there was space for another shooter to fill the void until Fudd got cleared.
But Ziebell’s impressive start in the practice gym never came to fruition on gameday. Auriemma believes she fell behind after getting sick during the preseason and never fully reestablished herself, but Ziebell also felt she was holding herself back with an instinct to defer to the team’s bigger stars — Fudd, All-American Sarah Strong and now-WNBA star Paige Bueckers.
“He always talks about how I got sick and whatever, which is true, but I feel like after that, when I was feeling better, it was more of (if) they had the ball, obviously I want them to take the shot, they’re this kind of player,” Ziebell said. “I think I took a backseat a little bit and just started to learn from them instead of playing with them. I definitely think that helped me in some ways, but also harmed me a little bit.”
After averaging eight minutes over 33 game appearances as a freshman, Ziebell came into her sophomore year determined to have a bigger impact — and true to her methodical nature, she had a plan to make it happen. She spent the offseason working with UConn’s team nutritionist on optimizing her diet and developing a training regimen with strength coach Andrea Hudy that would set her up for success in the fall.
Ziebell came back to campus this season physically in the best shape of her life, but there was a mental piece still missing. Shortly after the Huskies returned from their holiday break in early January, Auriemma called Ziebell into his office for a chat that changed everything.
“He just reminded me, you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t do this, and I feel like that helped a lot,” Ziebell said. “That conversation just turned things completely over … I just know personally, that if (the coaches) have so much trust in me, why wouldn’t I have that in myself?”
Before the break, Ziebell was averaging just 5.7 points in less than 15 minutes per game and shooting below 45% from 3-point range. In 15 games since, the sophomore has averaged 9.7 points on 56% shooting from the field and 50% from beyond the arc. Her playing time has also taken a significant leap to nearly 22 minutes per game.
The performance of the season for Ziebell came just three weeks ago, when she dropped a career-high 34 points and shot 10-for-14 from the perimeter to tie UConn’s program record for single-game 3-pointers in a 97-39 rout of Xavier on Jan. 28.
But it was her showing four days later against No. 22 Tennessee that stood out to Auriemma as the real breakthrough for the sophomore. Ziebell posted 10 points on 3-for-6 shooting in 16 minutes against the Lady Vols, and she looked comfortable defensively matched up with Tennessee’s ultra-athletic guards.
“I like players that can help you in a lot of different ways,” Auriemma said. “People are going to remember 10 threes, but 10 threes don’t help you in the next game … I think the Tennessee game was a real turning point for her, knowing that she can play and be successful in that environment against a team that’s that physically gifted. That’s a player that we didn’t have maybe in October. She’s a different player today than she was in October.”
Ziebell also felt a shift following the 96-66 win over the Lady Vols, proving to herself that she was capable of making an impact in a matchup with higher stakes than a Big East blowout.
“I completely agree with him. I feel like it’s just knowing that I can play in those games and be in those big moments with those players,” Ziebell said. “To still know that I’m confident and know what we’re doing, I feel like that just gave me so much trust in myself.”
More than 50 family members and friends, including Bruanel, made the 90-minute trip from Neenah to Milwaukee on Saturday afternoon to watch Ziebell and the Huskies face Marquette at the Al McGuire Center. Clusters of fans sporting her No. 11 jersey whooped when the sophomore checked into the game for the first time off the bench, and Braunel said it’s still hard to believe that the girl he first saw on the court as a fifth grader is now competing for the No. 1 team in the country.
“This is a once in a coaching lifetime type of a kid and talent to be able to coach,” Braunel said. “My daughter went to Marquette and lived for two years right across the street so I could look outside the window and see the Al McGuire Center. Then to be there and see one of your former players playing on the court with a UConn jersey on, it’s just surreal. It’s really special.”
Ziebell wasn’t as productive in her homecoming game as she might’ve hoped, finishing 0-for-2 from the field without a point on the board. But it’s all part of the process for the sophomore, who is learning that her most impactful contributions often have nothing to do with how often the ball goes in the net.
Ziebell tied a season high with three assists at Marquette and snagged the steal in the final seconds of the third quarter that turned into a buzzer-beater layup for Fudd, creating some much-needed momentum in the team’s ugly 71-56 win. She also had the highest plus/minus on the Huskies bench at plus-13, trailing only Fudd, Strong and starting point guard KK Arnold.
“I think her freshman year at UConn, I definitely felt like she was playing not to make mistakes,” Braunel said. “(This year) she’s able to just go out and excel and be a star in her role … I feel like, especially on the defensive end you’ve seen that consistency this year versus last year where there were times she just wasn’t as consistent with her all-around game. That’s something she worked on, and I know the coaching staff put a lot of time in with her to help her get to the point where now she’s a solid contributor game in and game out.”