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Geno Auriemma has been the architect of one of the top programs in college sports history, but you don’t win 11 national championships without star players – and UConn has had many of them over the years.
As UConn will make its 24th Final Four appearance under Auriemma this weekend, the Huskies are led by another star who is one of the best players in program history and will likely become their sixth player to be selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA Draft later in April. Paige Bueckers is on a heater in her final NCAA Tournament, averaging 29 points per game as she seeks her first national championship.
With Bueckers just two wins away from winning her first national championship, where does she rank among the best players in UConn history? Let’s take a look at where she stands as Bueckers will expand the number of UConn players selected in the WNBA Draft from 45 to 46 soon.
10 best players in UConn’s women’s basketball history
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It didn’t take Bueckers long to establish herself as a UConn icon, winning National Player of the Year as a freshman in the 2020-21 season, becoming the first freshman to ever win the award. However, Bueckers battled injuries over the next couple of seasons. She missed a good chunk of the 2021-22 season after suffering a fracture in her leg, but was able to return for the NCAA Tournament and lead the Huskies to the title game. She missed the entire 2022-23 season, though, tearing her ACL in an offseason workout.
Bueckers was able to bounce back from the devastating knee injury. She was a first-team All-American again in the 2023-24 season, leading UConn to the Final Four before losing to Iowa.
Bueckers has only added to her greatness this season, earning her third first-team All-American honors. She’s also made program history in the process, scoring 40 points in UConn’s Sweet 16 win over Oklahoma, which is the most points ever scored by a Huskies player in a tournament game. A national championship is the only thing that has eluded Bueckers at this point, but she’s two wins away from achieving that.
Before she became one of the best players in the WNBA over the last couple of years, Collier was a star in Storrs. She helped the Huskies win the national title as a freshman in 2016, contributing as a role player that year. Her role expanded following that season and she thrived, earning two first-team All-American honors over her final three years at UConn. She continued to help the Huskies reach the Final Four in each season as she joined all-time ranks in program history. After averaging over 20 points and 10 rebounds as a senior, Collier left Storrs as the program’s third all-time leading scorer and fourth in rebounds. She’s earned first-team All-WNBA honors in each of the last two seasons.
8. Katie Lou Samuelson
Samuelson helped form one of the best duos in UConn’s history alongside Collier, with both being a part of the Huskies’ 2015 recruiting class. As she and Collier were both 2,000-point career scorers, the duo finished with the most combined points for any two players from the same class in UConn’s history. Just like Collier, Samuelson was also a two-time first-team All-American after helping the Huskies win a national championship as a freshman. She’s currently sixth all-time in scoring in program history and was arguably the best 3-point shooter UConn’s ever had. She’s in program history in 3-point makes (382) as she led all of Division I in 3-point shooting in the 2017-18 season (47.5%).
7. Swin Cash
Cash is one of the handful of players who can call herself a UConn and WNBA great. She helped UConn turn into one of the top powerhouses in all of sports at the turn of the century, leading the Huskies to national titles in 2000 and 2002. She won the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 2002, scoring 20 points in the title game. In the WNBA, Cash was a four-time All-Star and three-time champion, winning two of her titles with the Detroit Storm before becoming a champion on the Seattle Storm. That helped her earn a spot on both the WNBA’s 20th and 25th anniversary teams.
There was a small bit of time where Charles was UConn’s all-time leading scorer and rebounder, securing both titles during her senior season in 2009-10. She also helped UConn go back-to-back that year, winning Player of the Year that season as she averaged 18.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. She lost her title as UConn’s all-time leading scorer in the following season, but Charles is still the program’s all-time leading rebounder. She’s also the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder and is second all-time in scoring, winning MVP in 2012 and is an eight-time All-Star as she’s set to play her 16th season in 2025.
5. Rebecca Lobo
Lobo was arguably the first all-time great in UConn’s history, helping Auriemma win his first title in 1995. She was also the National Player of the Year as a senior in 1994-95, averaging 17.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game that year after averaging a double-double in the two previous seasons. She’s still second in program history in rebounds and blocks, providing strong defense on top of her scoring. Lobo had a relatively brief WNBA career as the league wasn’t formed until a couple of years after her time at UConn, getting named an All-Star once.
4. Sue Bird
Bird was a part of the recruiting class of 1998 alongside Cash, serving as the point guard for a few great Huskies teams that won two national titles. She won the Nancy Liberman Award as the nation’s best point guard three times and was named the National Player of the Year when she helped UConn win the title for a second time in three years in 2002. Her 231 assists that season are the third-most ever in a single season in UConn history. After leaving Storrs, BIrd quickly established herself as one of the best players in the WNBA and became one of the best players in league history. She finished her career in 2022 as a 13-time All-Star and four-time champion.
3. Maya Moore
Not many women’s basketball players have had a peak as strong as Moore’s. She was undoubtedly one of the best women’s college basketball players of all-time, getting named a first-team All-American in all four of her seasons at UConn and winning two national titles. She also won National Player of the Year twice, averaging 22.8 points and 8.2 rebounds per game as a senior in 2010-11. As she was productive in all four of her years in Storrs, Moore is still the program’s all-time leading scorer and is second in rebounding, fourth in 3-pointers made, fourth in steals and fourth in blocks. In the WNBA, Moore won four titles, an MVP and was named an All-Star six times in just an eight-year career.
2. Diana Taurasi
While Bird and Charles were a strong duo, Taurasi helped put them over the top in the 2001-02 season before doing the heavy lifting herself. She won two national titles after the star duo left, winning National Player of the Year in both years (2003, 2004) as UConn three-peated. As Taurasi averaged 15 points and 4.5 assists per game over her college career, she remains all over the all-time leaderboard lists in several stats. She’s 10th in scoring, third in 3-pointers made and third in assists in program history. Just like Bird, she also became one of the best players in WNBA history, winning three WNBA titles, an MVP and being named an All-Star 11 times before retiring earlier in 2025.
It’s hard to have a better college career than what Stewart had. She won a national championship in all four years she was at UConn, winning National Player of the Year three times to establish herself as one of the all-time greats. She averaged at least 17 points and seven rebounds per game in each of those three seasons as she only lost five games in her college career. Stewart’s second in program history in scoring, fifth in rebounds and is UConn’s all-time leader in blocks. Stewart’s also one of the best players in WNBA history, winning three titles and two MVPs in the eight seasons she’s played.
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