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 makes its 24th Final Four appearance under Auriemma this weekend, the Huskies are led by one of their all-time greats. Paige Bueckers is on a heater in her final NCAA Tournament, averaging 29 points per game as she seeks her first national championship.
Later in April, she will likely become the sixth Huskies player to be selected with the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
On that note, let’s take a look at where Bueckers ranks in UConn history.
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10 best players in UConn’s women’s basketball history
It didn’t take Bueckers long to establish herself as a UConn icon. She was the National Player of the Year during the 2020-21 season, becoming the first freshman to ever claim the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year and USBWA Player of the Year honors. However, Bueckers battled injuries over the next couple of years. She missed a good chunk of the 2021-22 season due to a fracture in her leg, but returned for the NCAA Tournament and led the Huskies to the title game. She missed the entire 2022-23 season, though, after tearing her ACL in an offseason workout.
Bueckers was able to bounce back from the devastating knee injury. She was named a first-team All-American again in the 2023-24 season, when UConn advanced to the Final Four before losing to Iowa.
Bueckers has only added to her greatness this season, earning first-team All-American honors for the third time. 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 top players in the WNBA, Collier was a star in Storrs. She came off the bench and helped the Huskies win the national title as a freshman in 2016. Her role expanded following that season and she thrived, earning two first-team All-American honors over her final three years at UConn as the Huskies reached the Final Four each season.
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 been a first-team All-WNBA selection in each of the last two seasons.
Samuelson formed one of UConn’s best ever duos alongside Collier, another member of the Huskies’ 2015 recruiting class. As she and Collier were both 2,000-point career scorers, the pair 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 who won the national championship as a freshman.
But Samuelson has her own legacy. She’s currently sixth all-time in scoring in program history and was one of the most accurate 3-point shooters UConn’s ever had. She ranks second in 3-point makes (382) and 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 turn the Huskies into a powerhouse at the start of the 2000s, when they took home the national title in 2000 and 2002. She won the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award in 2002, scoring 20 points in the championship game.
In the WNBA, Cash was a four-time All-Star and three-time champion, winning two of her titles with the Detroit Storm and her third with the Seattle Storm. She also claimed a spot on both the WNBA’s 20th and 25th anniversary teams.
There was a short bit of time when Charles was UConn’s career leader in scoring and rebounding, securing both titles during her senior season in 2009-10. That same year, UConn won its second straight national championship and Charles was named Player of the Year as she averaged 18.2 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. She lost her title as UConn’s all-time leading scorer 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. Charles was selected as the league’s MVP in 2012 and is an eight-time All-Star who is set to play her 14th season in 2025.
5. Rebecca Lobo
Lobo was arguably the first all-time Huskies great as the engine behind Auriemma’s first championship team in 1995. She was also the National Player of the Year as a senior that year, averaging 17.1 points and 9.8 rebounds per game 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 ended, though she was 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 Lieberman Award as the nation’s best point guard three times and was named the National Player of the Year when UConn won 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 premier players in the WNBA. 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 high as Moore’s. She is undoubtedly one of the best women’s college basketball players ever, being named a first-team All-American in all four of her seasons 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. Moore was so productive in all four of her years in Storrs that she is still the program’s all-time leading scorer and is second in rebounding, fourth in 3-pointers made, fourth in steals and ninth in blocks. In the WNBA, Moore won four titles, an MVP award and was named an All-Star six times in just an eight-year career.
While Bird and Charles were a dynamic 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 twosome left and was named Most Outstanding Player in the tournament both years (2003, 2004) as UConn three-peated. As Taurasi averaged 15 points and 4.5 assists per game during her college career, she remains near the top of UConn’s leaderboard in several stats. She’s 10th in scoring, third in 3-pointers made and third in assists in program history.
Just like Bird, Taurasi became one of the best players in WNBA history. She claimed three WNBA titles, an MVP award and was an 11-time All-Star before announcing her retirement in February 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 and was chosen as the National Player of the Year three times. She averaged at least 17 points and seven rebounds per game in each of those three seasons, while only losing five games in her college career. Stewart ranks first in program history in blocks, second in scoring and fifth in rebounds.
Through eight seasons, Stewart is already one of the greatest players in WNBA history, winning three titles and two MVPs so far in her career.
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