UNCASVILLE – UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t sure what he would get out of freshman Olivia Vukosa in UConn’s first exhibition game Monday night against Syracuse – mostly because he hadn’t exactly been overwhelmed by her in recent practices.
“I don’t think Olivia has had one day of practice that was as good as today,” Auriemma said after UConn beat Syracuse 88-60 Monday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. “So maybe she’s one of those kids that – I don’t know what they’re teaching in Catholic schools these days – but her practice habits are not great. Yet here in the game, if you were looking at her, you would say, ‘She doesn’t look like a freshman out there, right?’
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“As her practice habits and as her intensity grows every day in practice, like I like to say about a lot of these kids – this is probably the worst she’s ever going to look. She’s only going to get better from here. I thought she looked pretty darn good tonight.”
Vukosa, a 6-foot-5 center from Christ the King (N.Y.), had 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting from the field and led the Huskies with nine rebounds in 18 minutes of play. She made her debut as a Husky with a little over a minute to play in the first quarter and immediately went to work, grabbing her first defensive rebound and making a layup off an assist from Ashlynn Shade with 54 seconds left in the quarter.
She was a steady presence in the game throughout. Vukosa had two steals and missed two 3-pointers but everybody else was missing from 3 as well (3-for-22) so she wasn’t alone.
Vukosa, who said Saturday that she needs to work on her physicality, held her own against Syracuse’s bigs Monday.
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“I thought that was a good matchup for her,” Auriemma said. “I thought it would be good for her to be in that environment.
“She’s what we needed – we needed a rebounder, we needed somebody that can run the floor, that can make a pretty good pass when they have to, somebody the other team’s going to have to guard because she can make a 17-footer or a 3. She has a lot of the things that would help our offense a ton. As she starts to learn how to make the play after the play after the play, and keep at it, I think she’s got a great future here after what I saw tonight.”
Vukosa, who was rated the No. 2 recruit in the country by ESPN, said Saturday that as practice progressed this fall, she was starting to realize how much more physical college basketball is than high school.
“I thought I was strong in high school, but I guess I was used to playing kids who were a lot smaller than me so it was easier to push everybody around,” she said. “But now coming here, and playing people who are my height, going against practice players … I’m just making sure I am physical and working hard in the weight room as well.
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“I’m realizing this just playing against our practice guys, they’re more physical and going up against (center Jana El Alfy) too, same thing.”
Auriemma said he liked the early exhibition games because they gave the players something to focus on and Vukosa will only benefit from the early high-level competition.
“When they see what happens in a game situation, it may be the exact same thing you said or happens in practice,” Auriemma said. “They may believe it, they may not believe it, but when it happens in a game, you go back and show them film and it maybe resonates a little more.”
UConn will face Texas, which went to the Final Four the last two years, Monday in its final exhibition game at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, another test for Vukosa and the other UConn newcomers.
“Next week will be much harder, but all this is really good for her,” Auriemma said.
