Sarah Strong is UConn’s best title hope in nearly a decade

Strong has been nothing short of a revelation through her first eight collegiate games. At this point, the question of whether she is the National Freshman of the Year frontrunner² is less interesting than whether she’s going to be an All-American. The start to her debut season has been among the most impressive of any player in UConn history.

And in the second-ranked Huskies’ 85-52 win over No. 22 Louisville last night, she was the best player on the court, putting up 21 points on 8-for-10 from the field and 3-for-5 from three, eight rebounds, three assists and two stocks in just 26 minutes. On a per-minute basis, it was the best game of her young career.

“We didn’t do a good job of forcing [Strong] left, which was in the game plan, … we weren’t supposed to give her wide, wide open looks, and we backed off of her,” Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said. “And we did. And she makes you pay for it. So, you tip your hat to her, because she took advantage of the things we didn’t do well. And she’s an extremely talented player who I’ve got a ton of respect for, but we gave her what she wanted. And you can’t do that to elite players.”

The sheer number of ways that Strong challenges opposing teams makes her a uniquely imposing matchup to defend. Her combination of burst and lateral quickness at her size make her right-handed drives almost impossible to stop, and when she seals her defender in the post, she has a variety of moves and angles she’s comfortable finishing from. Strong is shooting 35.7% from three and has already made multiple pull-up 3-pointers this season. She is a menace guarding two positions both as the primary defender and in help.

“Sarah brings a dimension that we probably haven’t had that dimension in a post player … I don’t know that anyone has had the offensive skill set that Sarah has since [Breanna Stewart] was here,” Auriemma said after the game.

What makes her a potentially historic player is how Strong is still improving. Her pull-up 3-point attempts include three from last night: one went in from a get keeper against Elif Istanbulluoglu, one was a stepback out of the pick-n-roll (PnR) that hit side rim and the last one came after she looked back at Husky head coach Geno Auriemma and asked what to do. Auriemma insisted she take her defender, Isla Juffermans, off the dribble. Instead, Strong turned around and jacked up a 3-pointer, prompting Auriemma to agitatedly pace along the sideline complaining about “the best player on the fucking court” having to ask him what to do.

Developing an understanding of gameflow and better selectivity are things which tend to naturally develop in top players.³ At times, these can develop fairly quickly. What usually develops much more slowly are the ancillary skills, the ways that a player impacts the game even when they aren’t making shots, and how consistent those skills are. Even among recent WNBA prospects who were standouts in these aspects, most had that impact emerge over time: Napheesa Collier, Aaliyah Edwards, Allisha Gray, Shakira Austin. The rare few who have this ability from Day One tend to be all-time greats — Paige Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Hannah Hidalgo — or at least surefire pros — Te-Hina Paopao, Cameron Brink, Tyasha Harris, Lexie Brown.

Strong’s ancillary skills are already among the best in recent memory. Her perimeter off-ball movement opens driving lanes and catch-and-shoot opportunities others don’t create. Her ability to read the court both as a cutter — she’s already scored 22 points on cuts, per Synergy⁴ — and a passer — she has yet to record more turnovers than assists in a game and is UConn’s third-leading passer — bends the court in every direction just by grace of her presence.

Strong has yet to be seriously challenged defensively, but her reps against Power Four opponents have shown elite athleticism and a very good ability to defend both on the driver and in the post. Without more reps, The Next’s draft scouting team isn’t comfortable putting a grade on her yet … but if we did, it would be a 70 FV, good for roughly the 12th-best prospect in WNBA history.

And Strong, of course, isn’t even the Huskies’ best player. In fact, very few teams have ever had a second-best player as good as Strong. Teams to have multiple 70+ FV prospects include:

• 2024-25 Notre Dame
• 2004-06 LSU
• 2000-01 UConn
• 1997-99 Tennessee
• 1985-86 USC
• 1982-84 USC

2017-20 Oregon also belongs on any list of “best top two players in college basketball history,” though both Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally were more 60+ grades than full 70s.

The point being: If you have two players as good as Bueckers and Strong on the same team, it’s not unreasonable to expect a national championship game appearance. A Final Four berth should be the baseline. But if Olivia Miles keeps hitting pull-up 3-pointers, one team this season will have one of the few greatest teammate pairings in collegiate history and end up without a title to show for it.

Miles and Hidalgo are currently playing off each other as if they’ve been sharing court time for years. Bueckers and Strong are getting there: multiple times in the first half, a pass to or cut off of Bueckers from Strong was just a half-beat late, leading to a loose ball instead of a flashy bucket. But their chemistry seems to be growing every game. More than anything, how far that synergy can develop will determine whether or not the Huskies get back to the promised land.

“There’s not a lot of things that Sarah can’t do,” said Bueckers, “and so it’s been awesome to continue to build that chemistry and just to see her play at this level, on this stage, and do what she does. It’s been awesome.”

1. Steals + blocks ↩︎
2. The downballot candidates so far being Liv McGill (Florida), Kiyomi McMiller (Rutgers), Jaloni Cambridge (Ohio State), Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt) and Syla Swords (Michigan). But we’re also less than a third of the way into the 2024-25 season, so this list is largely meaningless. ↩︎
3. As opposed to things such as “being a power forward who can excel as both the handler and roller in the pick-n-roll,” something no one has ever developed out of nowhere, and which Strong appears to be capable of already. ↩︎
4. Only five high-major players have scored as many points on cuts as Strong while matching her level of efficiency: Allie Kubek (Maryland), Gabriela Jacquez (UCLA), Bueckers, Karoline Striplin (Indiana) and Addison O’Grady (Iowa). Certainly an eclectic mix of players. ↩︎