History of UConn women's basketball homecoming games as Paige … – CT Insider

UConn coach Geno Auriemma applauds during the second half of the team’s NCAA college basketball game against Maryland, Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, in Storrs, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)
STORRS —The UConn women’s basketball team got Paige Bueckers home when it advanced to the 2022 NCAA Final Four at the Target Center in Minneapolis, about a 20-minute drive from where she grew up in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
The Huskies’ game against the University of Minnesota at Williams Arena Sunday at 5 p.m. Sunday will serve as Bueckers’ actual homecoming. It will be UConn’s first regular-season game in the Land of 10,000 Lakes after going 3-1 in two Final Fours at the Target Center, including winning the 1995 title. Bueckers is the second Minnesota native to play for the Huskies following Sarah Northway (1995-97), a member of the first national championship club.
The late Hall of Fame North Carolina men’s basketball coach Dean Smith is often credited for starting the trend of putting together homecoming games for his players who traveled far to school in the 1970s and 1980s, though one can go back to when UCLA coach John Wooden brought New York City native Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) back to play in the 1968 ECAC Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma started putting together homecoming games in the late 1990s after he began to recruit more on a national level than regional level following his team’s 1995 perfect season. It continues this season with Bueckers as well as with fellow senior Aaliyah Edwards. The Huskies will face Toronto Metropolitan University on Dec. 20 at the Mattamy Athletic Centre, about 150 miles her from her home in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
“We like to bring them back home and show them off,” Auriemma once said.
Not everyone gets one — many have them built in during the conference season — and they’re not always easy to put together. When UConn asked Ohio State about playing in Columbus as a homecoming for Dayton native Tamika Williams, it was told by a coach at school then that, “If Tamika Williams wants to play at Ohio State, she should have come to Ohio State.” The Huskies played Wright State instead.
When UConn inquired about a homecoming game at Syracuse for North Syracuse native Breanna Stewart, it was turned down and the Huskies turned to Colgate. After the Huskies beat the Orange in a 2017 NCAA tournament second-round game, Auriemma was asked if he’d consider a home-and-home with his team’s former Big East rival. His response was to the point: “We only call once.”
Even putting together a game for Edwards was tough. UConn thought it had a deal in place to play Pittsburgh in Toronto but when the Panthers changed coaches the deal went south. 
No school is obligated to agree to play UConn and that’s fine. Why a school wouldn’t, considering the likely big crowd, the attention it would get, and the publicity it would get for its own program, is something only the school can explain.
As UConn brings Bueckers back to Minnesota, let’s look at Husky homecoming games over the past 25 years:
Players: Paige Sauer of Midwest City and Stacy Hansmeyer of Norman
Final: UConn 84, Oklahoma 68
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said she would always remember the number 10,713 and she has. That was the school-record crowd that poured into the Lloyd Noble Center to watch the Huskies. Hansmeyer, who played for Coale at Norman High, had six points while Sauer had four. 
Player: Tamika Williams of Dayton, Ohio
Final: UConn 97, Wright State 39
After being turned down by Ohio State, UConn sought out Dayton and that didn’t work. Wright State was next and the Dayton-based school obliged. A school-record crowd of more than 4,200 cheered on hometown hero Williams as she and teammate Sue Bird each scored 20 points in the victory.
Player: Diana Taurasi of Chino, Calif.
Finals: UConn 84, Pepperdine 53; UConn 72, USC 69
UConn had visited Malibu during Taurasi’s freshman year and Taurasi was awful. She was better as a senior but saved her best work for USC at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Taurasi scored the Huskies’ final nine points, finishing with 26, as UConn overcame a 15-point first-half deficit before 6,172.
Connecticut star Diana Taurasi looks over at her teammates during a time out against Tennessee in the second half of the NCAA Division 1 Women’s championship Tuesday, April 6, 2004, in New Orleans.
Player: Ann Strother of Castle Rock
Final: UConn 63, Colorado State 44
A crowd of 7,048 took time out from the holiday season to support Strother, the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2002. Strother responded by scoring 20 points and then got to drive home with her parents for Christmas.
Player: Barbara Turner of Cleveland
Final: UConn 85, Cleveland State 51
It was a struggle for Turner, who had only eight points and two rebounds. But two other Ohio natives came through for the Huskies as Mel Thomas (Cincinnati) scored 19 points and Brittany Hunter (Columbus) added a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Player: Charde Houston of San Diego
Final: UConn 85, San Diego State 53
This game is best remembered as Maya Moore’s first UConn start. Houston, meanwhile, came off the bench and is the only Huskies’ player to do it in her homecoming game. She had six points in 15 minutes as UConn survived 28 turnovers.
Player: Kalana Greene of St. Stephen, S.C.
Final: UConn 77, South Carolina 48
Greene suffered a serious knee injury that ended her junior season when the Huskies faced the Gamecocks a year earlier at Gampel Pavilion and she was still on the comeback trail for her homecoming, finishing with five points. It was Dawn Staley’s first season as South Carolina coach.
Player: Maya Moore of Lawrenceville, Georgia
Final: UConn 71, Georgia Tech 51
The crowd of 7,325 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum roared when Moore was introduced in the starting lineup and roared again when she was taken out for the only time with 57 seconds left. In between, the three-time Wade Trophy winner had 30 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.
Connecticut forward Maya Moore (23) takes the ball to the basket past Georgia Tech guard Mo Bennett during the first half of an NCAA basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010, in Atlanta. Connecticut won 71-51. Moore scored 30 points in her homecoming to Atlanta, leading No. 1 Connecticut to its 81st consecutive victory. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Connecticut forward Maya Moore (23)waves to hometown fans after a 71-51 win over Georgia Tech in an NCAA basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Amis)
Player: Morgan Tuck of Bolingbrook, Illinois
Final: UConn 86, DePaul 70
The Huskies, on their way to their fourth straight national championship, watched the Blue Demons put up a fight against their former (and future) Big East rival. Tuck finished with 16 points in a win before a sellout crowd of 4,001 at McGrath-Phillips Arena.
Player: Breanna Stewart of North Syracuse, N.Y.
Final: UConn 94, Colgate 50
When things didn’t work out with Syracuse, Colgate — 40 miles away in Hamilton — stepped up. A crowd of 1,782 packed Cotterell Center with Stewart’s father, Brian, greeting fans as they walked in. The three-time national Player of the Year had 22 points, seven rebounds, and 10 assists.
Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart, calls a play in the third quarter of an NCAA college basketball game against Colgate in Hamilton, N.Y., Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. Connecticut won 94-50. (AP Photo/Nick Lisi)
Player: Katie Lou Samuelson of Huntington Beach, Calif.
Final: UConn 78, UCLA 60.
The bad news for the Huskies was Samuelson sat out with a sprained left foot — the same foot she broke in the 2016 national semifinals against Oregon State — suffered two weeks earlier against California. But classmate Napheesa Collier had 23 points in front of 9,263 at Pauley Pavilion, a crowd that included Kobe Bryant and his family.
Player: Gabby Williams of Sparks, Nevada.
Final: UConn 88, Nevada 57
The Huskies’ schedule was full, but Seton Hall coach Tony Bozzella delayed a home-and-home by a year to give UConn an opening. Williams, who grew up a few miles away and whose father and sister played at Nevada, had 18 points and six rebounds before 7,815 at the Lawlor Events Center.
Player: Kia Nurse of Hamilton, Ontario
Final: UConn 104, Duquesne 52
A crowd of 3,000 packed Mattamy Athletic Center for the Huskies’ first game in Canada and Nurse, who led Team Canada to the 2015 Pan American Games gold medal in Toronto, scored 24 points in the easy win. 
Player: Napheesa Collier of O’Fallon, Missouri
Final: UConn 98, Saint Louis 42
A night after becoming the first player at Incarnate Word Academy — which she led to three state championships in her three years in an All-American career at the school — to have her number retired, Collier had 22 points and 11 rebounds in front of a partisan UConn crowd of 7,105. 
Connecticut’s Napheesa Collier (24) heads to the basket as Saint Louis’ Kendra Wilken (34) defends during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Player: Crystal Dangerfield of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Final: UConn 64, Vanderbilt 51
The Huskies played at Memorial Gym for the first time since a 1992 NCAA tournament second-round loss to the Commodores to bring Dangerfield home. The point guard had eight points and four assists while Megan Walker scored 25 points to lead the way.
Player: Christyn Williams of Little Rock
Final: Arkansas 90, UConn 87
UConn was originally scheduled to play Arkansas-Little Rock during the 2021-22 season for Williams’ homecoming, but COVID-19 had teams scrambling and the Huskies and Razorbacks came together. Chelsea Dungee had 37 points in the upset. The Huskies had a chance to tie but Williams (16 points) did not call an immediate time out to advance the ball after a grabbing a rebound. Only 0.3 seconds remained when she did call time and a final shot didn’t beat the clock.
Arkansas forward Marquesha Davis (1) and Connecticut guard Christyn Williams (13) go after a loose ball during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021, in Fayetteville, Ark. (AP Photo/Michael Woods)
Player: Olivia Nelson-Ododa of Winder, Georgia
Final: Georgia Tech 57, UConn 44
Four days after Bueckers injured her knee in the final minute of a win over Notre Dame, UConn traveled to Atlanta and struggled. Nelson-Ododa had a double-double (12 points, 10 rebounds) but the Huskies were outscored 18-5 in the fourth quarter to end a 239-game winning streak against unranked teams dating back to 2012.
Player: Evina Westbrook of Salem
Final: Oregon 72, UConn 59
The home-and-home between the Huskies and Ducks was signed before Westbrook transferred to UConn from Tennessee in 2019. But the game did get her home and she had eight points and five rebounds. Without Bueckers, Williams, and Azzi Fudd, Auriemma used only six players. The Huskies scored the first 10 points but trailed by as many as 23 in the second half.

source