Why Sarah Strong should have won Most Outstanding Player

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The 2025 women’s NCAA Tournament is officially in the books. UConn was crowned champions after Sunday’s dominant 82-59 win over defending champions South Carolina.

With the victory, coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies secured a record-extending 12th national championship and ended their nine-year title drought.

Paige Bueckers capped off her stellar college career with a trophy, while fellow senior Azzi Fudd was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player with 24 points and five rebounds in the title game. But it was the youngest member of their big three, freshman Sarah Strong, who had the most impressive performance with 24 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and three blocks against South Carolina.

On the latest episode of “No Offseason”, Zena Keita, Ben Pickman, Chantel Jennings and Sabreena Merchant discussed Strong’s impact in UConn’s utterly convincing win, and why she should have been named the Most Outstanding Player. Watch the discussion below.

A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on the “No Offseason” feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.  

Zena: Let’s get into the way that UConn dominated. I knew they were going to come out fast and have an advantage because they had three go-to options. But I didn’t think it was going to be this level of domination, and of course, The Most Outstanding Player was voted as Azzi Fudd. But this game started with Sarah Strong.

Chantel: She was my Most Outstanding Player…

Zena: I chose her as mine as well …

Ben: Same here …

Sabreena: She’s The Athletic’s Most Outstanding Player (laughs).

Zena: There you go (laughs). It was the fact that, at one point, UConn had 12 rebounds … and she had six. Then later on, they had 18 rebounds and she had 11. She was doing work on the glass, defending the paint, and she was scoring. Ben, I can’t say enough about the level of readiness Sarah Strong showed in this game. What did you see from her?

Ben: She just never looked fazed at all at any moment. There weren’t many bad moments, but when they did happen, she just put her head down, ran back on defense, and it seemed like nothing happened. The thing I will remember from her first half is that she just seemed like a vacuum cleaner on the glass. Every miss that she was close to she would just haul in. She would block shots, then she would corral the block, she would just leap higher than other players or put her arms up and box someone out. Every ball that seemed to be up for question ended up in her hands. And that really did set the tone for so much else that UConn was able to do in that first half.

Zena: Did you see that one play where she got the ball and then tipped it to her teammate? I was like, first of all, is volleyball practice going on at UConn? Because we’ve now seen this three times since the Final Four game. But it was crazy to see just that athleticism and awareness from her.

Ben: We should also say her mom, Allison Feaster, who is a former player herself, was sitting probably three rows back and stood up constantly after big blocks, 3s and when UConn’s ball movement was crisp. She was super into it, and you could see, for the lack of expressiveness that Sarah Strong showed, her mom was bringing it on the total other end of the spectrum. She was getting up as much as she could and really basking in the success that her daughter and her teammates were having.

Zena: Sarah was probably my favorite part of the postgame presser because she said like three words every response (laughs). To the point that Geno was literally motioning, saying, “More words, say more.” Particularly when she was asked about what Geno meant to her, which was amusing.

Sabreena: Her on-court energy to me entirely emulates what she said in the press conference. She’s just not fazed at all. She gets called for fouls, and like Ben said, she just runs back like nothing happened. She’s never very high or low on or off the court.

Zena: One of the biggest things she also brought tonight was just efficiency. Someone who doesn’t need to do too much to be impactful. And also her defense, being able to stay in front of folks and make those senior post players struggle inside. Sania Feagin and Chloe Kitts were being blocked pretty much underneath the basket. She’s a force to reckon with, and she’s got three more years, Sabreena …

Sabreena: Yeah, and I realize you’re saying she doesn’t have to do too much to be impactful as a compliment, but she literally does everything. Every action for Paige was screened by Sarah Strong. When Paige came off and got to that pull-up, it was Sarah mostly setting the screens. She just sets such good screens. Bree Hall was in hell trying to get around those screens, and Joyce Edwards picked up her second foul because she was trying to close out on one of the screens Bree Hall couldn’t get around. And that was a big point in that second quarter when they just lost their main source of offense. Her rim protection was dynamite. South Carolina gets the bulk of their offence in the paint. They have some good shooters, but they don’t really like to shoot 3-pointers. So you think about a UConn defense where Sarah was coming in to help, got blocks on Te-Hina Paopao and Raven Johnson, but then she was also guarding her matchups one-on-one. They didn’t need to sink in at all because Sarah was doing such a good job of protecting the paint as is. Then, like Ben was saying, she was also cleaning up every possession. She literally does everything.

Chantel: There’s an ease with her game. She doesn’t move like a freshman, and she doesn’t play like a freshman. Even when she doesn’t have the ball, the cuts that she’s making and the decisions she’s making are so impressive. There were times when she would get the ball at the top of the key, and she’d bobble it. They do that handoff at the top of the key really often, and South Carolina was trying to cut through the middle. There were times when that was happening where you could say, this is the biggest stage she’s ever been on before, so a turnover at this point would be reasonable or expected for any other freshman. But she just has an ease, a comfort and a confidence to her game. And I think she should have been voted the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.

You can listen to full episodes of No Offseason for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

(Photo: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

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