Commitment City: Women Land No. 1 Player Paige Bueckers; Football Adds Notre Dame Transfer D.J. Morgan

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No. 1 Recruit Bueckers Commits To Huskies

The Story: The top high school junior in the country, Paige Bueckers, committed to UConn last night, giving the women’s basketball team its marquee player of the future and shoring up questions about the direction of the program.

WHO IS SHE? Bueckers, a 5-foot-11 point guard, was Minnesota’s Gatorade Player of the Year for the second consecutive season after she averaged 24.4 points, 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 steals in leading her team to a 32-0 record and a state title. She has represented the United States at the under-16, under-17 and under-18 levels.

She chose the Huskies over virtually every other school, with Notre Dame, South Carolina, Minnesota, Oregon, Oregon State, Maryland, Texas, Duke and UCLA among her 10 finalists. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, she’ll also be the first women’s basketball player to head to UConn on scholarship. Hopkins High School coach Brian Cosgriff said Geno Auriemma‘s continued presence played a role in landing Bueckers’ commitment. “It makes a difference when he’s showing up for games and other schools are sending their assistant coaches,” Cosgriff told the newspaper.

MAKING AN IMPACT: Bueckers acknowledged that part of her decision to commit to UConn was the opportunity to start as a freshman, with Crystal Dangerfield set to graduate after next season. Bueckers seemingly has an opportunity to run the Huskies’ offense from day one, though Megan Walker, who experienced her own ups and downs as a highly touted freshman, will surely tell her that’s not always a given.

WHAT DID SHE SAY? “As a young kid, I always dreamed of playing basketball at the Division I level, under coach Geno Auriemma at the University of Connecticut, and now I take my first steps into realizing that dream.”

It’s worth noting that Bueckers, born in 2002, would have been 6 years old during Maya Moore‘s freshman season.

ANOTHER NO. 1: Buckers is the sixth top-ranked player to commit to UConn in the past 10 years, joining Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (2011), Breanna Stewart (2012), Katie Lou Samuelson (2015), Walker (2017) and Christyn Williams (2018).

NO MORE WORRIES: The Huskies signed only one recruit in this year’s recruiting class, shooting guard Aubrey Griffin, stoking fears that the sky is falling and that other programs have finally caught up on the recruiting trail. Griffin, a McDonald’s All-American, is seen as more of a part of the Huskies’ rotation than a centerpiece, and with both Samuelson and Napheesa Collier set to depart, and a bench that Geno doesn’t trust one bit, next season looks like it will be a bit more bumpy than usual.

Geno has plenty of scholarships available — teams are allowed 15, and he has only 10 players this season — and could add a transfer or two by the time the fall rolls around. He’s also still looking overseas for a freshman and has his eyes set on Nika Muhl, who could help the Huskies but may also choose to stay at home in Croatia and play professionally. But by adding Bueckers as part of his Class of 2020, he’s landed a bonafide star and very much likely UConn’s next household name.

COLLIER HONORED: Meanwhile, although Collier was snubbed for the Naismith and Wade trophies as the national player of the year, she still could be given that award by The Associated Press. She was the top vote-getter for the organization’s All-America team, joining Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, Louisville’s Asia Durr and Mississippi State’s Teaira McCowan. Voting took place after the season and 28 people cast a ballot, with Collier named on the first team of 27 of them. Samuelson, meanwhile, was named to the All-America third team, and Dangerfield was an honorable mention.

IRISH, AGAIN: The Huskies will face Notre Dame in the national semifinals after the Fighting Irish defeated Stanford 84-68 in Chicago last night. Jackie Young had 25 points and 10 rebounds and and Arike Ogunbowale had 21 points for the defending champions, who lost 89-71 at home to UConn on Dec. 2.

Also punching a ticket to the Final Four is Baylor, which routed Iowa 85-53 last night in North Carolina. The Bears, the overall No. 1 seed, will face Oregon in the other semifinal.

SAY GOODBYE: The Huskies will depart for Tampa, Florida, this afternoon, so well-wishers are invited to attend a small send-off rally that will begin at the Jonathan statue at noon.

Football Team Adds Notre Dame Transfer

The Story: Notre Dame safety/outside linebacker D.J. Morgan wrote on Twitter yesterday afternoon that he will transfer to UConn, giving the Huskies additional depth at positions of significant need.

EXPERIENCE NEEDED: Morgan announced his intention to transfer from Notre Dame in January after playing in just two games in three years and said at the time that he has two years of eligibility remaining.

Randy Edsall said after the second signing day announcement in February that the Huskies were keeping a few scholarships open in case a veteran player wished to transfer, and they’ve found one such player in Morgan.

INSTANT IMPACT? It’s not exactly like the Huskies are adding the next Zach Frazer, but Morgan, 6-foot-2 and 224 pounds, was a three-star recruit out of California in 2016 who chose Notre Dame over offers from Arizona State, California, Nebraska and Utah, among others. (It probably helped that former women’s basketball standout Skylar Diggins is a cousin of his.) Originally a safety, he moved to outside linebacker before last season, but failed to see the field even on special teams.

The Huskies could use help at both outside linebacker and safety, with their projected returnees all primarily underclassmen. Whether Morgan, who expects to graduate from Notre Dame in the summer semester, will earn a starting role or step in as a reserve at either position won’t be decided until August.

TRANSFER TALK: The Huskies will be adding their fifth graduate transfer of the offseason in Morgan, who will join Toledo running back Art Thompkins, Columbia defensive lineman Michael Hinton, West Florida quarterback Mike Beaudry and Seton Hill wide receiver Ardell Brown in Storrs. Linebacker Dillon Harris will also transfer to UConn after two seasons at Lackawanna Community College.

All told, the Huskies will be adding 20 players for next season — and they won’t hesitate to add others should they see fit.

Morning Reads

CRYPTIC VITAL: Although there were suggestions that Christian Vital may choose to leave UConn this summer, he may have put those ideas to rest with a mysterious tweet — or maybe he’s just finally finished that term paper. (Christian Vital on Twitter)

MOVIN’ ON UP: Fresh off a series win against UCF over the weekend, the baseball team was ranked No. 22 in the country by Baseball America and by D1Baseball.com. (UConnHuskies.com)

MIDWEEK TREAT: The Huskies will host Fairfield this afternoon and UMass Lowell tomorrow afternoon. The starting pitchers have not been announced. (UConnHuskies.com)

MARCELINO HONORED: Infielder Briana Marcelino was named the AAC’s player of the week after she had three multi-hit games and hit two home runs in the finale of a series at Wichita State over the weekend. UConn will face Hartford in a doubleheader today. (TheAmerican.org)

DUE NORTH: The women’s lacrosse team will head to New Hampshire this afternoon for a game against Dartmouth. (UConnHuskies.com)

CRONIN TO UCLA? With UCLA striking out on several of its top targets, it is reportedly considering Cincinnati’s Mick Cronin as its next men’s basketball coach. (Los Angeles Times)

UNC UNDER REVIEW: North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell and her staff have been placed on administrative leave as the university investigates “issues raised by student-athletes and others.” (Raleigh News & Observer)

One response to “Commitment City: Women Land No. 1 Player Paige Bueckers; Football Adds Notre Dame Transfer D.J. Morgan”

  1. Another QB Transfers to UConn; Baseball Ready for NCAA Tournament – The UConn Daily

    […] ALL ABOUT TALENT: Coach Randy Edsall suggested late last week that there would be additional players joining UConn after Memorial Day, and he said after the spring signing day that the coaching staff would continue to monitor the transfer portal in order to get players they believe will fit in at the school become available. That also happened in early April when D.J. Morgan, a linebacker from Notre Dame, announced his intent to transfer to UConn. […]