Raegan Beers dashed UConn’s hopes of solidifying its superteam status for next season by choosing Oklahoma over the Huskies in the transfer portal this week.

Head coach Geno Auriemma felt another experienced post player was crucial for his 2024-25 roster, according to CT Insider, and made the ex-Oregon State star a transfer priority. Now, UConn is forced to make a difficult decision: push for a different big in the portal despite many of the top options committed elsewhere, or roll with an in-house option. The viability of the latter possibility will be a test of Auriemma’s trust in his current roster.

Auriemma’s level of faith in Ice Brady might be at the core of what he does next. Brady’s standing in Storrs ran hot-and-cold last campaign, as her head coach grew frustrated by her disposition for much of the season before he was pleasantly surprised with how well she played in fill-in duty for injured Aaliyah Edwards at the Big East Tournament.

Before the Big East Tournament semi-finals, Brady hadn’t played more than 27 minutes in any game and averaged 16 per contest. Then, after Edwards suffered a broken nose, Brady stepped up to play all 40 minutes in blowout wins over Marquette and Georgetown. Those were arguably the two best performances of her first NCAA season.

According to Auriemma, Brady has sometimes dealt with low self-confidence and a lack of a killer mentality. He hoped her Big East Tournament efforts would serve as the foundation for a substantial role in the future. If UConn doesn’t add a post player in the portal after missing out on Beers, it could set Brady up to start in 2024-25.

“I always want to see whether Ice is going to compete,” Auriemma said of Brady after the Big East Tournament final, which Mirror Sports U.S. attended. “She doesn’t have to do everything right. She doesn’t have to be perfect. But I want to see what her competitive spirit is out there. Like Nika’s is or like Paige or KK or Ash. I want to see how your competitive spirit can impact our team.”

Ice Brady finished the season strong after enduring a rough stretch under Geno Auriemma.© Getty Images

He continued: “The skill level, that’ll take care of itself down the road. I just thought she didn’t compete [earlier in the season]. She was non-competitive, and that really bothered me.

“I realized that I needed to be much harder on her. I needed to demand more from her. There were trying times leading up to this weekend over the last two months. There were times in practice where she reverted back to her old self, and she paid the price for it. But those didn’t last very long like they used to, and she put the work in. She put the work in before practice, after practice, and it’s paid off.”

Brady will have the benefit of a full summer to review her game tape from the past season and hit workouts hard. But it might be the mental aspect of the game that’s most important.

“Like I tell these kids, there’s a reason why we recruited you,” Auriemma said. “So I hope I’m not wrong. I always believed that she had it in her. But at some point, you have to believe in yourself, and I think that’s evident that that’s a lot more than it used to be.”

Aside from Brady, prized recruit Sarah Strong, Ayanna Patterson and Jana El Alfy are in the mix to play significant frontcourt minutes, though the latter two players are coming back from season-ending injuries.

Guard Paige Bueckers, returning for a final season, will again lead the squad after her immense production helped UConn reach the Final Four in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.