With Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong returning to the court and Geno Auriemma coming back to the sidelines, UConn is widely expected to once again contend for the national championship in women’s college basketball next year.
Even with Paige Bueckers off to the WNBA, the Huskies are still armed with the winningest coach in the sport, perhaps the best shooter in the sport in Fudd, and a versatile do-it-all forward in Strong who seems to have an unlimited amount of potential. A healthy Caroline Ducharme will be back for UConn too, as will other key contributors like KK Arnold, Ashlynn Shade, Ice Brady and Jana El Alfy.
On Wednesday though, that roster just got a whole lot better.
UConn received a commitment from one of the best players in the portal in Wisconsin forward Serah Williams. The 6-foot-4 native of Brooklyn, New York, made the announcement on her X account.
Williams, sources confirmed to SB Nation, had also seriously been considering LSU and North Carolina. She visited UConn’s campus earlier this week along with USC guard Kayleigh Heckel.
At Wisconsin, Williams was a double-double machine and made the All-Big Ten First Team this season, a year after she won the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year award as a sophomore. In three seasons, she started in 89 of the 91 games she played in and averaged 16.4 points and 8.6 rebounds per game while shooting 51.5 percent from the floor. This past season, she was one of just four players nationally to average at least 19 points, nine rebounds and two blocks per game.
Williams entered the transfer portal on March 12, just days after Wisconsin and former coach Marisa Moseley went their separate ways after four years. The parting was framed as mutual, but Moseley — a former UConn assistant — never had a winning season with the Badgers and was accused by a former player earlier this year of mistreatment and emotional abuse. Wisconsin then hired former Missouri coach Robin Pingeton.
While she’s never played in an NCAA Tournament game, Williams does have some experience beating up on UConn’s Big East foes. She scored a career-best 36 points, and also had 14 rebounds, in a double-overtime win at Butler last season.
She immediately becomes UConn’s most experienced forward, as no other post player on the Huskies’ roster has more than two years of experience. Her addition will also give UConn some lineup flexibility. The Huskies can play big with Williams at power forward, El Alfy at center and Strong at small forward, or they can play smaller with Williams at the 5 and Strong at the 4.
Either way, Williams is a major addition for Auriemma’s side and only increases his chances of capturing his 13th ring next season.