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SPOKANE – Ashlynn Shade was at the top of the key and saw the ball bounce off the rim and started going for the rebound in the lane in the third quarter of UConn’s NCAA Tournament regional semifinal game Saturday. She didn’t care that 6-foot-4 Oklahoma center Raegan Beers was right there, boxing out, ready to grab the ball. Shade leapt in front of her and grabbed it. Beers was already going for it, and they collided, with Shade falling hard on her back.
“She doesn’t care, she’ll put her body on the line like you saw yesterday,” her UConn teammate KK Arnold said. “Thank God she’s OK.”
She was. After UConn’s 82-59 victory over Oklahoma, Shade came into the locker room and wrapped some ice onto her back. She was fine, she said.
Shade, in her sophomore year, has emerged as a key player down the stretch for the Huskies, who will face top-seeded USC Monday at 9 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament Spokane Region 4 final with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
When UConn was struggling offensively in the second quarter against Oklahoma, Shade kept the Huskies in the game, hitting her biggest 3 with 3:01 left that cut the Sooners’ lead to three, 31-28.
Shade, who was named the Big East’s Sixth Player of the Year, started 33 games last year as a freshman after injuries decimated the team. She started 12 this season but mainly comes off the bench.
‘It was incredible’: How Paige Bueckers exploded for career high, rallied UConn in comeback Sweet 16 win
But when she’s in the game, she does a lot, even though some of it may go unnoticed. Saturday, she played 28 minutes, went 5-for-8 from the field, 2-for-5 from 3, had 12 points, two rebounds, an assist and three steals – overshadowed by Paige Bueckers’ 40-point performance.
“I know that I am guilty of taking Ashlynn Shade for granted,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Sunday. “Probably the thing I appreciate the most about her is that she’s my target for everything that goes wrong on the team, and I appreciate that she doesn’t hold it against me personally.
“Last year, she made a comment, ‘Every day Coach tells me how bad I am, how unaware I am defensively, how I get everything wrong every time, and that he thinks I’m terrible, but I know that’s just his way of saying he loves me.’ I mean, who wouldn’t want a player like that? I wish I had 12 of them.”
Shade, from Indiana, is Midwestern nice. “She’s our favorite cowgirl,” Arnold said. “A little country girl from Indiana. She has a little bit of energy too; she can match my energy sometimes.”
Last season, Shade famously wore a shirt with a picture of a younger Auriemma yelling on it when the UConn players all wore shirts for his 70th birthday in the locker room after a first-round NCAA Tournament game. She said it summed up their relationship.
“Like most of the time,” she said that day. “But when he yells at me, I’m starting to translate it into ‘I love you’ instead of ‘You suck.’”
Now she’s a year older and wiser, and has a bit of a different perspective, as well as a different role on the team.
“Last year, because I was a freshman, there was so much going on, just figuring out my role, who I am – it was definitely a lot,” Shade said Sunday. “This year, I’m a lot more comfortable and used to that kind of coaching style.
“I think we understand each other very well. I’m not super talkative or outgoing or stuff. There’s a mutual respect and bond. It’s something that’s felt. I don’t know anything different, so you just roll with the punches. This year, knowing more about myself as a player in this program under his coaching, it doesn’t really faze me anymore. It does get on me a little bit because it should. I mean, that’s what he’s trying to do. He knows what I’m capable of, he wants me to be the best version of myself.”
Auriemma said if Shade is playing well – or even if she’s not – he has a hard time taking her out of the game. And maybe because she accepts criticism so well, he admitted he finds it easy to vent his frustrations sometimes on Shade, even if whatever went wrong is not completely her fault.
“Whether she’s scoring or not scoring, there’s just something about having her in the game that makes me feel better – until it doesn’t,” Auriemma said Sunday. “But I don’t take her out anyway. She just gives me an opportunity to vent.
“But I know she’s never going to back down, I know she’s never going to give in to anybody, she’s never going to stop competing, never going to stop trying to make a play. And it can go unnoticed until that first half yesterday when you realize she’s the only one that is able to get something going.
“I respect her so much because last year she was playing 30-some minutes a game and starting in last night’s game. And yesterday she had as big an impact as she did last year in a different role. She loves the game of basketball. She’s a hell of a competitor, and I have confidence in her. I would never tell her that, but I do.”
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“She doesn’t care, she’ll put her body on the line like you saw yesterday,” her UConn teammate KK Arnold said. “Thank God she’s OK.”
She was. After UConn’s 82-59 victory over Oklahoma, Shade came into the locker room and wrapped some ice onto her back. She was fine, she said.
Shade, in her sophomore year, has emerged as a key player down the stretch for the Huskies, who will face top-seeded USC Monday at 9 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament Spokane Region 4 final with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
When UConn was struggling offensively in the second quarter against Oklahoma, Shade kept the Huskies in the game, hitting her biggest 3 with 3:01 left that cut the Sooners’ lead to three, 31-28.
Shade, who was named the Big East’s Sixth Player of the Year, started 33 games last year as a freshman after injuries decimated the team. She started 12 this season but mainly comes off the bench.
‘It was incredible’: How Paige Bueckers exploded for career high, rallied UConn in comeback Sweet 16 win
But when she’s in the game, she does a lot, even though some of it may go unnoticed. Saturday, she played 28 minutes, went 5-for-8 from the field, 2-for-5 from 3, had 12 points, two rebounds, an assist and three steals – overshadowed by Paige Bueckers’ 40-point performance.
“I know that I am guilty of taking Ashlynn Shade for granted,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Sunday. “Probably the thing I appreciate the most about her is that she’s my target for everything that goes wrong on the team, and I appreciate that she doesn’t hold it against me personally.
“Last year, she made a comment, ‘Every day Coach tells me how bad I am, how unaware I am defensively, how I get everything wrong every time, and that he thinks I’m terrible, but I know that’s just his way of saying he loves me.’ I mean, who wouldn’t want a player like that? I wish I had 12 of them.”
Shade, from Indiana, is Midwestern nice. “She’s our favorite cowgirl,” Arnold said. “A little country girl from Indiana. She has a little bit of energy too; she can match my energy sometimes.”
Last season, Shade famously wore a shirt with a picture of a younger Auriemma yelling on it when the UConn players all wore shirts for his 70th birthday in the locker room after a first-round NCAA Tournament game. She said it summed up their relationship.
“Like most of the time,” she said that day. “But when he yells at me, I’m starting to translate it into ‘I love you’ instead of ‘You suck.’”
Now she’s a year older and wiser, and has a bit of a different perspective, as well as a different role on the team.
“Last year, because I was a freshman, there was so much going on, just figuring out my role, who I am – it was definitely a lot,” Shade said Sunday. “This year, I’m a lot more comfortable and used to that kind of coaching style.
“I think we understand each other very well. I’m not super talkative or outgoing or stuff. There’s a mutual respect and bond. It’s something that’s felt. I don’t know anything different, so you just roll with the punches. This year, knowing more about myself as a player in this program under his coaching, it doesn’t really faze me anymore. It does get on me a little bit because it should. I mean, that’s what he’s trying to do. He knows what I’m capable of, he wants me to be the best version of myself.”
Auriemma said if Shade is playing well – or even if she’s not – he has a hard time taking her out of the game. And maybe because she accepts criticism so well, he admitted he finds it easy to vent his frustrations sometimes on Shade, even if whatever went wrong is not completely her fault.
“Whether she’s scoring or not scoring, there’s just something about having her in the game that makes me feel better – until it doesn’t,” Auriemma said Sunday. “But I don’t take her out anyway. She just gives me an opportunity to vent.
“But I know she’s never going to back down, I know she’s never going to give in to anybody, she’s never going to stop competing, never going to stop trying to make a play. And it can go unnoticed until that first half yesterday when you realize she’s the only one that is able to get something going.
“I respect her so much because last year she was playing 30-some minutes a game and starting in last night’s game. And yesterday she had as big an impact as she did last year in a different role. She loves the game of basketball. She’s a hell of a competitor, and I have confidence in her. I would never tell her that, but I do.”
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