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Michael Voepel
The day before Sarah Strong and the UConn women won the 2025 NCAA title last April, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley made a prediction about the Huskies’ then-freshman forward.
«In the next three years, she might be the best player to come out of UConn,» Staley said at the Final Four. «And those are strong words. But what she’s able to do — stay calm, the IQ is off the charts, the skill set off the charts. Big play after big play after big play.»
Staley knows what it’s like to have huge expectations as a freshman. She experienced it as a player at Virginia in 1988-89, averaging 18.5 points, 5.1 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 3.3 steals. And she has both coached and coached against such players.
Strong had 24 points and 15 rebounds in the Huskies’ win over South Carolina in the 2025 national championship game. She started all 40 games last season, averaging 16.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals. As a sophomore, the 6-foot-2 Strong is one of the front-runners for national player of the year. For the No. 1-ranked Huskies (4-0) this season, she is averaging 20.5 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 5.0 APG and 3.3 SPG.
Michigan on Friday and Utah on Sunday. Strong is coming off a 100-68 win over Ohio State in which she had 29 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists, 5 steals and 3 blocks.
«We put the ball in Sarah Strong’s hands,» UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, «and we’re going to get something really, really good.»
There is a lot more time to watch Strong’s progress as she climbs the ranks of UConn greats. For now, let’s look at how some of her UConn predecessors dealt with the pressure of being highly regarded freshmen, how that carried over to their sophomore seasons, and the defining traits that Strong appears to share with them.
«I would say those kinds of players … you could almost see the way they carried themselves was just different,» Auriemma said. «They expect way more of themselves. That’s what I would say right now about Sarah. Whatever she expected of herself last year — which was probably a lot — she expects way more from herself this year.»
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Moore was a superstar as a freshman, helping lead the Huskies back to the Final Four after a three-year absence. They lost in the semifinals to Stanford. Then Moore was the consensus national player of the year as a sophomore and made the most 3-pointers of her career that season (90). UConn went undefeated her sophomore and junior seasons, and the 6-foot forward led UConn to a 150-4 record over her four-year career (2007-11) in Storrs.
Strong, also could become the consensus NPOY in her second season. How smooth she looks is an electric quality.
«When you watch how she does it, it just kind of makes you realize, ‘That’s not normal,'» Auriemma said of Strong. «Most kids, you can tell they’re working really hard to get their 29 points. I don’t know that she works really, really hard. I mean, it’s not as easy as she makes it look … but it kind of is.
«She has such great body control, fantastic vision, she knows how the game is being played and where her advantages are, and there isn’t a shot on the floor she can’t make.»
Allison Feaster, who played collegiately at Harvard and then spent 10 seasons in the WNBA.
Admittedly, Bueckers’ sophomore year was different than that of any of the previously mentioned players because it was injury-plagued, so she didn’t get the chance to make the progress she wanted. Still, Bueckers stayed the course through that season, and was back to help the Huskies make the 2022 NCAA final, where they lost to South Carolina.
Bueckers missed 2022-23 with a knee injury, lost in the national semifinals again (to Iowa) in 2024, and then last season she and Strong helped lead UConn to its first NCAA title since 2016. Like Bueckers, Strong never looked rattled as a freshman.
«She plays with such confidence and such poise,» Auriemma said of Strong, «because she knows, ‘I will never be on the court in any situation where I don’t know what to do.’ That’s a pretty great luxury to have as a kid.»
ESPN’s Alexa Philippou contributed to this story.
