Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
STORRS — Some of the 6,000 fans that went to Gampel Pavilion for the UConn women’s basketball team’s national championship rally Monday waited in a steady drizzle for an hour and a half outside the team’s on-campus facility to show their appreciation for everything the Huskies accomplished this season.
It was their way, and their pleasure, of showing the players how much they mean to them.
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“It was worth it,” said Shansong Huang, a grad student from China. “If it is UConn women’s basketball, I can wait forever.”
Huang was wearing a pair of Paige Bueckers basketball shoes around her neck as she sat in the front row of seats at Gampel holding a sign that read, “Paige Rizz Buckets” in homage to the fact that Bueckers often talks about having more Rizz (slang for charm) than Azzi Fudd.”
As for the shoes, they got them right after they were released.
“I hope they could see this to see their fans are supporting them, but I am not expecting that they could sign it,” Huang said. “I know they are super busy. I just want to show my support.”
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UConn fans celebrate during the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
The players mingled with fans in the front row afterward to sign a few autographs and take a few pictures. They also threw hundreds of T-shirts and mini basketballs into the stands.
The fans were content with the national championship and weren’t there hoping to impose on the players. As such they brought homemade signs with sentiments such as “We Love You Paige,” “We Love UConn Women’s Basketball,” “Thank you Huskies,” and “Thank you Paige.”
Freshmen Zohra Noori from Central New Jersey and Maya Skrtich from Easton, attended both the national semifinal and national championship watch parties at Gampel and felt the need to finish the season seeing the players live to thank them.
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UConn’s Ice Brady signs an autograph for a fan during the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
“I came to the watch parties this weekend, and the energy in the crowd was so great that I needed to see it one last time,” Noori said. “I didn’t doubt them for a second. I have been saying since I got here for school in August that this was going to be the season they would actually pull it off. I just think their team dynamic is so good this season that they would pull it off.”
The university tried to create a great atmosphere for the fans Monday. The school’s pep band and cheerleaders were on hand to keep the fans in a festive mood. A DJ played music as everyone waited for the team’s arrival from Bradley International Airport.
The national championship trophy was on display on the stage, and after the players stepped down from the stage to mingle with fans, they took turns carrying around the trophy and showing it off to the crowd.
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The first fans arrive for the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
The players all wore national championship hats, and they personalized them by tying to the back of them their own snippets of the Amalie Arena nets that they cut down. Bueckers was wearing one of the two nets cut down, and when asked if she had taken it off at any time since Sunday she replied, “Not yet.”
The massive video scoreboards at the East and West ends of Gampel displayed huge graphics proclaiming, “National Champ12ns 2025” throughout most of the ceremony.
Prior to the Huskies’ arrival, the scoreboards played the pregame video shown before each of the games. After the players were on the stage, separate videos of highlights from the national semifinal win over UCLA and the championship game win over South Carolina were played to tremendous approval from the crowd.
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The first fans arrive for the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
It all thrilled Makayla Ducasse, a high school sophomore from Boston who hopped on a bus after school Monday and took it an hour and a half to Connecticut so she could be part of the ceremony.
“This is my dream school,” Ducasse said. “UConn means so much to me. I just got interested in basketball this year, and going to every game and watching how far they have come has been inspirational. I feel they deserve this so much I am not saying anyone deserves it more, but their passion and their mindset definitely made them deserving.”
She said every other weekend during the season, either her mother would drive her down for a game or she would take the bus.
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UConn players watch game highlights on a monitor during the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
“I just love watching them play, and sometimes getting to interact with the players is something special,” she said. “They always have such good energy that UConn is my happy place. I just love it.”
She said she waited in the rain for about an hour with Makayla Allard, a friend from East Lyme that she met at UConn games, because they wanted to let the Huskies know they are loved.
“We want to give a huge shout out to the UConn women’s basketball team,” Ducasse said. “We are so proud of you. A big shout out to Morgan Cheli, also. Morgan I am your biggest friend. Thank you for everything. We love you guys. Congrats!”
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Ten-year-old Kayleigh Lewis from Middletown was at Gampel with her 9-year-old brother Ryan, their parents and their grandmother. She said she went to maybe five games this season and wanted to be in Gampel to cheer them on.
She wore her Bueckers jersey to the event.
“She is my favorite,” Lewis said. “She is my idol. She is a role model, and she is really good.”
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A “12” has been added to the championship banner as seen during the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball National Champion UConn Huskies Championship Welcome Home Rally at Gampel Pavilion on the University of Connecticut campus in Storrs, Conn., Monday, April 7, 2025.
Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media
Allard was wearing a Bueckers hoodie, but she said it wasn’t just for the championship rally.
“I wear this hoodie 24/7,” Allard said. “I wear it every single day. If I don’t have my Paige Bueckers hoodie on, something is wrong. My mom always gets mad at me, because I never want to take it off. She is like, ‘Makayla I really need to wash this hoodie.’ I am fine because I have so many other hoodies that I have a nice rotation going. So, I’m clean.”
