Wednesday, November 20, 2019

UConn WBB Announces 2020 Signing Class


STORRS—The UConn women’s basketball team has signed five members to the Class of 2024 as
head coach Geno Auriemma announced the incoming freshmen Wednesday. The Huskies welcome Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards, Piath Gabriel, Mir McLean and Nika Muhl to Storrs next season. UConn has espnW’s No. 2 overall class for 2020. Bueckers is the No. 1 ranked recruit while McLean is ranked No. 21 and Edwards is No. 26.

UConn has espnW’s No. 2 overall class for 2020. Bueckers is the No. 1 ranked recruit while McLean is ranked No. 21 and Edwards is No. 26.

“I think we’ve got a good mix of inside, outside, middle,” Auriemma said. “When you look at our team now, we’re young in some ways. We’re inexperienced in some ways. We don’t have the kind of size that we’ve had in the past. Even though we’re going to be young next year, I think the depth and the experience that we have this year plus the youth next year. I like how we’ve been able to package a lot of different things into five different players. Not one of them is remotely like the other one, and that’s a really neat thing.”

Meet the New Huskies

PAIGE BUECKER
G, 5-11, Eden Prairie, Minn.4

Auriemma on Bueckers
“The thing that is impressive to me about Paige is how unselfish she is and her ability to get everyone involved in the game and her knack of getting to the basket. She’s going to add, to us, a bigger guard that can impact the game, whether she’s shooting it or passing it. It’s important for us to get kids that are talented and unselfish and can score, and Paige has been able to do all those things.”

AALIY AH EDWARDS
G, 6-2, Kingston, Canada

Auriemma on Edwards
“Playing for the Canadian National Team has given Aaliyah a tremendous amount of confidence and a lot of exposure to really good basketball at a really high level. She’s tough, she’s aggressive, she goes all out all the time. She can become an amazing defender for us, she can become a scorer that scores from a lot of different places. I think we’re getting a really mature, experience player that can play a lot of different positions for us.”

PIATH GABRIEL
F, 6-5, Manchester, N.H.

Auriemma on Gabriel
“The first time I saw Piath play, I was impressed by how hard she works. How hard she runs the floor. How willing she is to mix it up in the lane. There’s some things offensively that she needs to work on that I think we can help her with. Of all the big kids that I saw this season, she really impressed me with her work ethic. I think Piath is probably going to be the biggest surprise of all the kids coming into college next year.”

MIR MCLEAN
G, 5-11, Owings Mills, Md.

Auriemma on McLean
“Mir is just a different kind of athlete. She’s a little bit like Aubrey [Griffin] in that she can get to places on the floor that most players can’t. She can get the balls off the rim that most players can’t. She competes as hard, if not harder, that anybody that I’ve seen. We needed to get a lot quicker and a lot more athletic, and having Mir, we’ve done that.”

NIKA MUHL
G, 5-10, Zagreb, Poland

Auriemma on Muhl
“What I like about Nika is she just has this incredible passion for the game. She has a certain toughness about her that comes from playing in a really competitive environment over in Croatia. Along with Paige, she’s another player that I think gets a lot of satisfaction out of getting someone else the ball and not necessarily focusing ons coring. I just love her enthusiasm and passion for the game and how tough she is physically and mentally. I think the fans are really going to like Nika.”
—Staff Reports

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