Championship parades are quickly becoming an annual occurrence for the city of Hartford.
After honoring the UConn men’s basketball team for its back-to-back NCAA titles in 2023 and 2024, Huskies fans once again packed the streets between the Connecticut State Capitol and the XL Center to celebrate the UConn women’s basketball team winning its long-awaited 12th national championship after a nine-year drought. The players flung t-shirts and candies into the crowds that gathered along their rout, showing off their trophy and waving to children bundled in Husky hats with jerseys layered on top of sweatshirts to brave the chilly afternoon.
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The celebration would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity at most programs, but winning has become more expected than exceptional in Connecticut with a combined 18 titles between the men’s and women’s teams. And though he didn’t guarantee who the next championship will come from, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma finished his speech on Sunday by promising the crowd of approximately 20,000 that they would be back for another one next season.
“You remember (men’s) coach (Dan) Hurley said last year it was gonna be a three-peat?” Auriemma asked the fans assembled in front of the team’s double-decker bus. “Well, things didn’t go exactly according to plan, but it was a three-peat. I don’t know whether it’s going to be us or them, but damn we’re going to try and make it a four-peat.”
UConn women’s basketball has been a national brand for more than two decades now, but even Auriemma has noticed the massive swell in public support for his players this season. The team’s current popularity begins with redshirt senior Paige Bueckers, who has amassed more than 2.1 million Instagram followers and 3.6 million on TikTok, but while Bueckers’ face and No. 5 jersey dominated the crowd on Sunday, the parade didn’t feel like a bittersweet goodbye to the superstar as she prepares to enter Monday’s WNBA Draft. Instead, the overwhelming feeling was one of hope and excitement for what the Huskies are bringing back in 2025-26.
The parade was a brief respite for the UConn coaching staff, who had to pivot immediately to planning for next year as soon as they were on the plane home from Tampa after the championship game. The transfer portal opened for women’s basketball players in the middle of the NCAA Tournament regional rounds on March 25 and will remain open until April 23, so the Huskies immediately began scouting potential additions when their season finally ended.
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“The last week has been way worse than it was nine years ago. Nine years ago you came home and you celebrated and you just kept celebrating,” Auriemma said. “Now you come home and you’ve got all these other things that are involved in coaching college basketball, so it almost felt like business as usual. We got home Monday, and Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I was in the office all day. It’s gonna get busy because of all the obligations we have when this happens, which is not a bad thing, but it’s different than it used to be for sure.”
The only UConn player currently transferring out is sophomore guard Qadence Samuels, who averaged just 5.5 minutes per game in 2024-25, and Auriemma seemed confident Sunday that the team is not expecting other departures — though that could change with 10 days left for players to enter the portal. If the rest of this year’s roster comes back for 2025-26, the Huskies could have their most veteran squad in years with 10 returners including six upperclassmen plus at least two scholarship spots available for incoming transfers.
“On the plane ride home, everything was about, what do we need? What spots are the most crucial? Is anybody out there that fits?” Auriemma said. “We’ve been so lucky … so is it realistic to think there’s people out there who are a perfect fit for us? I don’t know. We’ve got a lot of pieces back, so there’s not decisions that have been made about anyone definitely coming. Q is in the portal, which was a good move for her because she loves to play, and I think she’ll get an opportunity someplace to play. But that’s the only thing that’s certain right now.”
Star guard Azzi Fudd, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four, is poised to become a face of the program alongside freshman phenom Sarah Strong after announcing during the NCAA Tournament that she will return to UConn next season to use her final year of eligibility. Fudd’s college career has been marred by injuries to this point, but the redshirt junior is entering her first healthy offseason fueled by the goal of adding a 13th trophy to the Huskies’ case.
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“This championship means everything, and this team was so special,” Fudd said in her speech at the parade. “We’ve been through so much together, so to get through all that adversity and bring it home, just the bond we have and the love we played with, it showed every single night … I just wanna say, UConn Nation, you guys are the best. Let’s run it back next year?”
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