Huskies Report

UConn Gets Tina Charles Coaching Boost Before Michigan Clash

A legendary former player gives the UConn Huskies a timely edge as they brace for a surging Michigan Wolverines squad.
Shivani Menon|
Aug 25, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles (31) warms up before a game against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images
Aug 25, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Connecticut Sun center Tina Charles (31) warms up before a game against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images | John Jones-Imagn Images

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UConn Huskies

The Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase is supposed to be a mid-November measuring stick. However, this year, it feels more like a collision course. The No. 1 UConn Huskies and No. 6 Michigan enter their matchup undefeated.

For the Huskies, this is their top-10 matchup of the year, a chance to protect their 45–1 record at Mohegan Sun Arena. Meanwhile, for the Wolverines, this is their second-highest ranking in program history, and it presents an opportunity to take down a No. 1 team for the first time.

And knowing Kim Barnes Arico, it is an entirely possible dream. It was only 13 years ago that Arico was coaching St. John’s and had a matchup against Geno Auriemma. The match ended with Arico breaking UConn’s 99-game home winning streak. To make things more interesting, the Wolverines arrive averaging 99.3 points per game on 55.8 percent shooting from the field.

Perhaps those numbers are one of the reasons that a UConn legend and Hall of Famer stepped onto the practice floor this week. Tina Charles was in Storrs helping her former team ahead of the clash.

":Tina Charles was at practice today, and she killed our shooting, our three-point shooting numbers. It goes to show you, she comes in, she’s really good. She’s working with our post players and doing a great job. Just watching her, she still has the feel for the game, the excitement for the game. And those guys have to guard her, and their eyes are like, ‘I’m guarding a Hall of Famer.’ You get a bucket against her, and it’s worth ten points instead of two," head coach Geno Auriemma said.

Charles also couldn’t resist jumping into UConn’s shooting drills, with unintended consequences.

“When we did our shooting, all the three-point shooters are down on this end, all the non-three-point shooters are down on that end, and she jumps in line with the three-point shooters. I’m like, ‘Where the hell are you going?’ And that’s what she does now, she shoots threes. But she killed our numbers. She killed our percentage. So we’re not going to count that,” added Aurtiemma.

Let’s not forget Charles is one of the pillars the program was built on. She is a two-time undefeated national champion in 2009 and 2010, the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, and the program’s all-time leading scorer by the time she graduated.

In fact, she broke Rebecca Lobo’s 15-year rebounding record of 1268, climbed past Kerry Bascom and Nykesha Sales on the scoring list, and became only the second active player ever inducted into the Huskies of Honor. Soon after, she was the No.1 pick in the 2010 WNBA draft.

Soon after, Charles went on to become the second all-time scorer in WNBA history and headline the Class of 2024 in the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame, making her the first woman and active player to do the same. Considering the legend she is, the three-point chaos is not all that surprising. Auriemma was also asked about Charles in a coaching position.

“I think she just tries to show them, ‘This is how I play. This is what I do.’ She has a class tonight, so she just came in to get a workout, really. But she’s really good at the little things; she gets a rebound over somebody because they didn’t box out or didn’t go after it, and I get pissed and say something. And she’s like, ‘It’s all right. Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t mean it. Don’t worry about it.’ So yeah, she does a lot of that,” said Auriemma, talking about Charles in a coaching role of sorts.

Now, the big question is, did anyone actually beat her? Auriemma grinned and said, “Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tina can still go, just not as often as she could before. So you’ve got to get her when she’s worn down a little.”

While the coaching is one side, on the other, Auriemma texted his SEC Rival coach to talk about Michigan and the season they are having.

Geno Auriemma Texts SEC Coach, Admits Michigan Matchup Won’t Be Easy

Soon after, Michigan faced Notre Dame, and Auriemma went on to text LSU coach Kim Mulkey.

“I texted Kim this morning, and I said, ‘Wow, I was shocked by the score against Notre Dame that they played.’ Not that they won, but I just didn’t expect that score. And she said, ‘Yeah, I'm not looking forward to Friday.’ And I said, ‘I’m not either. Maybe we ought to just have a couple of drinks, go gamble a little bit, and call it a day.’ They’re not going to be an easy team to play against at all,” said Auriemma in an earlier press conference.

And Auriemma isn’t wrong. Michigan beat Notre Dame 93–54. They dominated the glass 50–28 and looked like a team more dangerous than a No. 6 next to their name. Soon after defeating the Fighting Irish, the Wolverines also won against Binghamton, with a score of 120-50.

And that production is what the Huskies are up against. Somehow, the match feels a little bigger than it should in November.

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Shivani Menon
SHIVANI MENON

Shivani Menon is a sports journalist with a background in Mass Communication and a passion for storytelling. She has written for EssentiallySports, College Sports Network, and PFSN, covering Olympic sports like track and field, gymnastics, and alpine skiing, as well as college football, basketball, March Madness, and the NBL Draft. When she's not reporting, she's either on the road chasing sunsets or getting lost in the rhythms of electronic soundscapes.

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