March 18, 2026, 5:58 a.m. ET
STORRS, CT – Geno Auriemma couldn’t imagine what he was seeing.
During a UConn girls’s basketball follow final February, the Huskies have been scrimmaging utilizing guidelines from the now-extinct type of ladies basketball referred to as six-on-six that designates gamers as guards or forwards. Three gamers from every group on both aspect of the courtroom – enjoying offense or protection – not crossing the middle line.
Things acquired heated shortly as teammates clapped in one another’s faces and dedicated exhausting fouls.
At the middle of all of it was Huskies ahead Sarah Strong, then a freshman whose quiet disposition was normally extra stoic than spitfire. After recruiting her for years and training her for months, it was the primary time Auriemma acquired a glimpse of Strong’s full aggressive nature. It reminded him of one in all his program’s most well-known provocateurs, Diana Taurasi.
“You saw a different side of Sarah. You saw the Diana side,” Auriemma stated. “(Strong) has a very mild, easygoing demeanor, but that just masks what’s underneath.”
Strong, now a sophomore, nonetheless hardly ever sheds that masks. As a frontrunner for a slew of awards together with National Player of the Year, whose expertise has WNBA coaches salivating two years earlier than she can be draft eligible, Strong stays an enigma to most of the people and, at instances, to those that know her finest.
She doesn’t search the highlight, but it surely finds her on the courtroom. Strong is the whole package deal, a 6-foot-2 ahead who units the desk for her teammates, scores in any respect three ranges and smothers challengers on protection. She was a core member of UConn’s 2025 NCAA championship group and is a significant motive the undefeated Huskies are favorites to make the title sport once more.
Strong’s biggest strengths are what she doesn’t at all times present: Her relentless competitiveness, intense research of her personal sport and talent to be taught new issues shortly, whether or not it’s a basketball idea or educating herself to play the guitar and keyboard.
Strong performs aggressively however doesn’t showboat. Any flash is in her ability, not her emotional response. In follow, although, Auriemma purposely criticizes his finest participant to convey out the hearth he is aware of is there.
“Anything that puts her at a disadvantage and she has to fight back, I think she secretly relishes that,” he stated.
Strong admitted as a lot. In her eyes, conceitedness is the best sin.
“When people do too much on the basketball court, that really, that’s what gets me there,” Strong stated. “I only get started if someone else gets started, I want to make that clear. Because I try not to yell, ‘And-one!’ or little things. Like, don’t talk trash to me, because I’m just gonna take it too far.”
When Strong was in fifth grade, she performed on an AAU boys group coached by her father. Being underestimated by a few of her male teammates solely made her go tougher.
Nobody can deny Strong’s ability now. She leads the Huskies in factors, rebounds, steals and blocks. Her group simply received its sixth consecutive Big East championship and earned the No. 1 general seed within the NCAA Tournament.
As proficient as Strong is, she and Auriemma imagine she hasn’t scratched the floor. Strong is simply beginning to outline her model of superstardom, and she or he’ll determine whether or not to allow you to in on the key.
Why you possibly can’t measure Sarah Strong towards previous UConn stars
There’s a pure inclination to examine Strong to the UConn greats that preceded her, gamers like Sue Bird, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, and Taurasi. Auriemma disputes any one-to-one ability comparisons however stated Strong possesses the identical aggressive drive, intelligence and multidimensional qualities as earlier Husky gamechangers.
“All the great players that I’ve had the opportunity to coach all had similar makeups,” Auriemma stated. “Sarah’s one of those high-level players who looks you right in the eye every time you’re talking to her and gets every single word you’re saying. And if she has a question, she’s not afraid to ask it because to her, ‘I don’t want to miss anything when I’m on the court.’
“She’s curious about the game and, I think she’s curious about life in general, and that contributes to her ability to play at such a high level.”
Strong holds UConn’s freshman document for rebounds, ranks second behind Moore in freshman factors and ranks second behind Bueckers in freshman assists. This season, in Strong’s 59th profession sport, she grew to become the third-fastest participant in program historical past to rating 1,000 profession factors, behind Moore and Bueckers. She additionally broke UConn’s sophomore steals document.
Strong grew up admiring Moore and Stewart, however squirms when observers strive to juxtapose her sport with any Husky legend.
“I don’t know why we’re comparing that. Like, I’ve only been in college two years,” Strong stated. “Thank you for the compliment, but I don’t know, they’re really good and I don’t want to compare myself to them. I’ll just focus on what I can do to become a better basketball player.”
How Strong developed her sport, her confidence adopted
Strong has been working at perfecting her ability since she was 7, when her youth video games have been the opening act for her mother’s skilled video games in Spain.
Basketball is in Strong’s blood. Her mother, Allison Feaster, was a No. 5 draft decide within the 1998 WNBA Draft out of Harvard. She performed 10 seasons within the league earlier than ending her profession abroad. Her dad, Danny Strong, performed at NC State and had a 15-year professional profession in Europe. In 2006, the 12 months Strong was born, her mother performed for the Charlotte Sting whereas pregnant. Because of that, Feaster likes to say that Sarah was on a WNBA courtroom within the womb.
Strong was born in Spain and lived throughout that nation and Italy, the place her mother performed, earlier than shifting to North Carolina at age 10. Back within the States, Strong lived shut to each units of grandparents and competed for her dad’s journey basketball group. The transition wasn’t simple, however Strong is adaptable.
“Her life experiences have really lent themselves to her development as a player,” Feaster stated. “She’s had exposure to, ‘Oh, I got to get into this new system and survive.’ And whether it’s learning the language or figuring out how to play, she’s just really adept at that.”
Every Sunday, Strong and her dad educated for hours. Often, their exercises have been in a backroad health club referred to as, “The Barn,” an industrial shed with a full-size courtroom and weight room. Strong performed level guard when she was youthful and thrived as a ball handler and passer. After she hit a progress spurt, she and her dad labored on her footwork so she may dominate the paint, too. They watched and dissected hours of video – of Strong’s video games, UConn video games, NBA video games – to the purpose the place Strong can’t watch a basketball sport with out analyzing each side.
“We always had the approach, ‘If you learn, let’s learn everything,’” Danny Strong stated. “Let’s learn the game holistically. Her mom played inside, played outside. I played inside, played outside, and we both had long careers because we could do both. I think you become very valuable for your team when you can do a mixture of everything.”
The one factor Sarah Strong might have lacked again then was confidence. Her father had to urge Strong to take over video games in highschool as a result of she would cross as an alternative of shoot in important moments.
Strong steadily accepted extra accountability, stated Todd Monsey, who coached Strong for 4 summers as part of USA Basketball’s 3-on-3 groups. Strong helped the U18 group win three consecutive FIBA World Cup gold medals from 2022 to 2024.
“When Sarah started to really believe that she was possibly the best player on every court she steps on — not that someone told her that, but that she really believed it — is when I think that the person grew and the player also grew,” Monsey stated.
For Danny Strong, that shift was exemplified earlier than UConn performed within the 2025 nationwide title sport. Father and daughter have a long-running pregame custom the place Danny calls Sarah and delivers a motivational speech.
But as UConn ready to face South Carolina, Danny was confused. He’d by no means competed in a nationwide championship, what may he say to assist his daughter? Then, his telephone rang.
“She called me before I called her and said, ‘Dad, we’re locked in. We got this,’” Danny Strong recalled. “It was amazing, you know? We went through this whole path of me being that motivation, me being that person to have the words to say, and here she comes, calming my nerves in this moment.”
‘It’s like having a toy you can play with’
UConn went 37-3 en route to this system’s twelfth NCAA championship final season. In a kind of losses in late December, Strong missed a pair of free throws within the closing seconds and UConn misplaced to USC by two. The game haunted Strong, who spent her Christmas break at house watching it again and again.
Strong likes to win at the whole lot. Soccer, chess, faculty subject day competitions. She’s nonetheless that manner, particularly towards her teammates in UConn assistant coach Chris Dailey’s “CD games,” which might be something from trivia to bouncing ping pong balls right into a cup.
Since the USC sport, nonetheless, she’s labored to cease herself from ruminating and spiraling over errors. Perfection, in spite of everything, is unimaginable.
“Every game, just kind of reflecting on it, talk to my coach, talk to my family about it, because I’m sure they watched, get their advice and just forget about it,” Strong stated. “It’s a game at the end of the day. I can’t do anything. I can’t go back to change it. It happened, so just focus on the next game.”
Strong nonetheless has imperfect video games, however UConn hasn’t misplaced this season. The Huskies are 34-0 and beating opponents by a mean of 38.4 factors. According to Her Hoop Stats, Strong is the Division I chief in win shares (8.5), a sophisticated statistic that estimates the whole variety of wins a participant contributes to their group throughout a season based mostly on their offense and protection.
UConn guard Azzi Fudd, who’s projected to be a top-five decide on this 12 months’s WNBA draft, calls Strong the very best participant she’s ever performed with, excessive reward contemplating she and Bueckers spent three seasons enjoying collectively at UConn. Strong averages 18.5 factors per sport, shoots 60.1% from the sphere, 42.7% on 3-pointers and 87.3% on free throws. She’s equally infallible on protection, the place she forcefully blocks pictures and deftly disrupts dribbles.
The Huskies common 15.6 steals per sport, essentially the most in Division I, and Strong leads the group in common steals (3.4) and blocks (1.6). And, she does it with out fouling, averaging 1.6 private fouls per sport.
“I don’t go into a game thinking about how consistent can I be,” Strong stated. “I feel like when I think about consistency or percentages, that’s when everything goes wrong. So I’m just kind of out there just having fun and playing basketball.”
Strong’s versatility and effectivity make her a nightmare for opponents. She is just too tall and robust to be defended by a guard, however too fast to be defended by a put up participant. She is a hub for UConn’s offense on the high of the important thing, the place she whips passes to open teammates, and is a grasp of shifting with out the ball to discover open pockets of house and shortly minimize to the basket.
She is a puzzle but to be solved, by opposing groups and by her personal coaches. Auriemma stated he and his employees are repeatedly tinkering with one of the best ways to make the most of Strong, very similar to they did with former UConn star Napheesa Collier.
“It’s like having a toy that you can play with, and how many different things can I make this toy do?” Auriemma stated. “Knowing that there’s probably not much that you’re going to come up with and go, ‘I don’t know if that fits her game.’”
To keep ready to play any function the Huskies want, Strong avoids creating particular person statistical targets. Instead, she units a number of small aims every day: Communicate higher, crash the boards, assist a teammate. It makes success really feel extra attainable and fewer self-serving.
“I’d rather succeed little by little,” she stated.
Strong stays her personal harshest critic. If she misses a shot she usually makes or will get a shot blocked, Auriemma can inform from her eyes she’s chastising herself. But, he stated, Strong received’t let these moments have an effect on her play.
“Very much a perfectionist, but doesn’t let it paralyze her,” Auriemma stated. “She’s not afraid to take risks.”
Strong is chasing championships, not the highlight
Although Strong is sweet at many issues, embracing the highlight isn’t one in all them. In UConn’s postgame press conferences, she solutions questions requested immediately however prefers to let her teammates, like Fudd and level guard KK Arnold, do many of the speaking.
Asked whether or not she considers herself an introvert, Strong shot a sideways look at UConn’s sports activities data director, Anna LaBonte, and requested for her opinion.
“You’re like an extroverted introvert,” LaBonte supplied.
“Yeah, I’m a little bit of both,” Strong stated. “Once you get to know me, I really won’t shut up. I don’t know how to read people. So at first, maybe.”
Strong retains her playing cards shut to the chest. She first met Arnold after they have been USA Basketball teammates in 2022, and their bond grew when Strong arrived on campus in Storrs.
“She starts out quiet and then pops out of her shell,” Arnold stated.
During Strong’s first summer season with USA Basketball, Monsey stated Strong was so quiet the teaching employees hardly ever heard her converse. At follow and in group textual content messages, Strong responded with a thumbs up to present she understood.
One night time in Hungary, Strong walked up to a piano in Team USA’s lodge foyer and began to play well-liked radio songs. The remainder of the group reacted with shock as a result of Strong had by no means talked about she performed.
“I don’t think there’s much that Sarah Strong can’t do,” Monsey stated, laughing.
Strong is an introspective individual. She retains a day by day journal, a follow she began final season, jotting down emotions and pregame targets. She likes to look again at earlier entries.
Still, Strong doesn’t really feel an urge to share these self-examinations with anybody outdoors her inside circle. Her social media profiles are polished {and professional}, stuffed solely with UConn basketball pictures and sponsored ads. No selfies or trip pictures. No household pets or events. Nothing that gives a glimpse into her private life.
“They know enough,” Strong stated.
None of this has occurred by chance. Strong’s dad and mom inspired her to keep grounded and permit her sport to converse for itself.
“I know there’s an expectation of athletes who are in the public eye to always have something to say or to act a certain way,” Feaster stated. “I applaud her for being true to who she is but also understanding that there’s growth to be had as well throughout the process.”
Strong prefers to lead by instance, however she is slowly getting snug being extra vocal. Although she leaves the rousing locker room speeches to others, she’s going to converse up within the warmth of the second if the group is struggling. Like in that six-on-six sport.
“She’s starting to become a great leader and seeing her from last year compared to this year is a huge growth,” UConn heart Jana El Alfy stated. “Seeing her talk more, I think that’s what we really need from her, just being an even better leader than she was last year.”
Strong fortunately let Bueckers and Fudd prepared the ground final season. Fudd nonetheless absorbs plenty of the eye this season. But, subsequent season the Huskies can be Strong’s group. She’s about to turn into the first face of this system, whether or not she likes it or not.
It’s an enormous job for a group steeped in historical past. The Huskies try to win a second consecutive nationwide championship. Only three girls’s basketball applications have accomplished it: UConn (2002-2004, 2009-2010, 2013-2016), Tennessee (1996-1998, 2007-2008) and USC (1983-1984).
“You come to UConn because you want to win national championships and do whatever happened in the past – but at the same time, it’s your season,” Strong stated. “Their championship isn’t going to help you.”
Although she’s already been named unanimous Big East Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, Strong doesn’t care about particular person accolades. She cringes when she thinks about making an award acceptance speech. Growing up, her mother stated, she wasn’t watching her personal highlights on the breakfast desk.
When requested to title an accomplishment she’s proudest of, Strong talked about the Huskies’ complete group achieved GPAs of no less than 3.0 within the fall semester and highlighted Big East Freshman of the Year Blanca Quiñonez for incomes a 4.0.
It’s simpler for Strong to uplift her teammates than to have fun herself, and simpler for her to care about how she’s perceived on the courtroom than off it.
“I’m not really focused on the spotlight. I just feel like I’m just here,” Strong stated. “Especially people on the outside, I’m not gonna try to feel any pressure from them. The only pressure I feel is from my coaches and showing up for my team.”
Strong calls the pictures about what you see, on and off the courtroom.
Maybe, when you preserve watching lengthy sufficient, you’ll see her masks slip. But don’t depend on it.
