After doing it for almost four decades, Geno Auriemma is kind of used to it. The wins, the losses, not taking basketball home during the holidays when you’re with your family. But even as the UConn Huskies lost to USC last Sunday, the veteran’s experience did not make it any easier to swallow down the tough loss. His team was equally dejected, even as Azzi Fudd finally made a comeback from injury to lend support to Paige Bueckers and Sarah Strong. But Auriemma knows it would be weighing on his team’s mind.

UConn is now gearing up for a conference game against Providence tomorrow, but before that, the coach revealed what he had told his team before bidding them off for the holidays. “I think mostly we talked about needing some downtime because of the toll that that stretch took on us. It was pretty grueling, not just who we played but the circumstances under which the games were played.”

“I mean, you don’t ever wanna go home for the holidays in a down frame of mind. You can’t take the game home with you, although I’m sure some of the guys did. Some of the guys were probably a little bit – you get some disappointment, you get some frustration, you’re angry about the way you played it out maybe.”

While the duo of senior Bueckers and freshman Strong was heavy on the opponents, with the added pressure of junior guard Fudd playing eight minutes of the second quarter, JuJu Watkins and Co. prevailed.

Auriemma suggested how he told his players to turn their basketball brains off just for a few days and rest. “But you have to turn that off and go home and realize that whoever you’re going to be with during the holidays, they’re not really thinking about the game. They’re just happy to see you so I tell them to just enjoy it.”

It was UConn’s third ranked opponent in 15 days, including two in the Top 10, a fourth that had been in the Top 25 until a day before they played. The loss to the Trojans was also the second time in four seasons that the Huskies lost their final game before Christmas.

One was in 2021 to Louiseville, but the only time this happened before then was Auriemma’s first season as the Huskies coach, a loss to Georgetown 67-63 in overtime on Dec. 13, 1985, per CT Insider.

Nevertheless, the HC knew he couldn’t let his team ruin their own festive season with this loss. Perhaps one thing to look forward to was the return of their injured star player.

“Bringing Azzi back changes things”: Geno Auriemma

In the game against the USC Trojans, Azzi Fudd played eight minutes in the first half, missing all four of her shots and not getting off the bench in the second half. After missing almost the entire last season and playing a total of 40 games in her three seasons at UConn might give some perspective.

Fudd is no doubt talented, with Geno Auriemma even calling her the “perfect basketball player,” but injuries have held her back.

“A couple of practices isn’t really going to get you ready to play, so I think getting away and giving it an extra four or five days… I think all that, mentally, makes her a little more comfortable knowing that there has been enough time for it to be 100%,” the coach said. “Obviously bringing Azzi back changes things. I’m hoping that we can settle into a regular routine, a regular rotation.”

Now their next opponent is not so scary – the Providence Friars last won against the UConn Huskies in the 1993 Big East Tournament Semifinals. Auriemma’s squad is not so down in the dumps that they would lose an easy game. All he can hope for is that the team is bringing in a little bit of the holiday cheer to their mindset.