History repeats itself, and with 11 national championships going into this season, UConn was due to add another at some point. Since 2016 when UConn one last, it’s been a series of disappointing close calls and injuries that kept the Huskies from the mountain, until now.

That is what makes this one so sweet. When super-star Paige Bueckers committed to UConn and head coach Geno Auriemma as the top player in the class of 2020, her goal was to bring a national title back to Storrs. And she came close a few times. In her freshman COVID-19 bubble season, she was the best player in the country, sweeping the National Player of the Year awards and leading her team to the Final Four to fall to Arizona.

In 2021-22, UConn made it a step further, losing to South Carolina in the national championship game. But it was a season that began years of severe injury trouble for the Huskies. In December 2021, Bueckers suffered a tibial plateau fracture and partially torn meniscus in her left knee and needed to miss 19 games before returning at the end of February. She will tell you that she pushed her recovery timeline to make it back in time for the tournament, and that her body and leg weren’t at full strength.

But after coming close to winning it twice under Buecker's ability to score and make her teammates better, it seemed that the 2022-23 season would be their year. Until she tore her ACL in that same knee in August. With their best player out for the entire season, UConn fell in the Sweet Sixteen to Ohio State.

The rocky road was looking up for the 2023-24 season. Bueckers was back. Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl were playing well. Then, Azzi Fudd who was supposed to add another punch to the line up, tore her ACL and medial meniscus after playing in only two games. UConn was again short on players.

The good news? Bueckers announced her intent to return for a fifth season, and was playing better than in her freshman campaign, once again reminding people that she and UConn were legends for a reason. Despite the injuries, UConn played in the Final Four against Caitlin Clark and Iowa, only to lose by two points.

The 2024-25 season was for unfinished business. Bueckers returned to get what she started out wanting – a national championship. Azzi Fudd stayed healthy. Sarah Strong became the best freshman in the country and one, if not the most versatile forwards in the game. Kaitlin Chen, a Princeton grad who once scored 18 points against UConn, transferred in, and Jana El Alfy held things down as the big on the court.

It had to be UConn’s year, right? Starting the season ranked second behind defending national champions South Carolina, they had three losses during the season, to No. 7 Notre Dame and No. 8 Southern California in December, and to No. 19 Tennessee in early February.

The losses showed that six weeks out from the tournament, they were good, but they weren’t great. Improving but not there yet. Then on Feb. 16, UConn crushed South Carolina, 87-58 to show how they can beat the top teams. Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks don’t get blown out very often, if at all.

Finally, the Huskies began to roll through the competition behind the ever-dazzling Bueckers, Fudd, and Strong.

In the NCAA tournament, Southern California got the final one seed, and UConn earned the first two seed, setting them on a collision path for a rematch featuring two of the most exciting players in college, Bueckers and 2024-25 National Player of the Year, JuJu Watkins.

UConn won handily against Watkins-less USC, who had torn her ACL in the second round of the tournament. Then they dominated the other Los Angeles school, UCLA in the Final Four. If there were concerns about their ability to contain 6’7” center Lauren Betts, and spunky guard Kiki Rice, they were answered with a 85-51 win. They earned a chance to play South Carolina in the final. Again, UConn had no issues against the Gamecocks to earn a 82-59 win and end UConn’s nine year drought.

It wasn’t like UConn wasn’t elite in those years. It was that the program had lifted the standard for the sport, allowing more teams to seek greatness and win championships. Women’s college basketball has grown so much - in viewership, attendance, interest, and in the level of competition, physicality, and athleticism since it was welcomed to the NCAA in 1982, and UConn had been the leader in excellence.

The fact that UConn could scale the mountain again despite all of the changes to the game since their last title, makes it even more impressive. For a player as storied as Bueckers to etch her name on the list of other elite UConn players, and to chip away at the rock for years, makes it more impactful. The team and the player that faced so much adversity and growth to get to this point, are back on top and poised to remain there.