Dorka Juhász doesn't want to think about senior night

The senior reflected on her journey since arriving at UConn ahead of her final regular season game in Storrs on Monday.

Ian Bethune

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Dorka Juhász is happy to talk about a lot. She’ll discuss her up-and-down first season at UConn and the fractured wrist that ended it in the Elite Eight. She’ll reflect on her time at Ohio State, and explain what drove her to Storrs afterwards. She’s even willing to look ahead at her future — both the end of this year and beyond.

Just don’t make her think about senior night on Monday.

“I think the best way is to just not think about it,” Juhász said on Friday. “Obviously, I know it's coming up and I think it's good that we also have another game to focus on. So I'm putting all my focus in that and just as long as I can just not think about it, the emotions are gonna be hidden.”

Juhász knows it’ll be an emotional moment because she’s already been through one ceremony at UConn. She participated last season because, at the time, she didn’t know if she’d be back with the Huskies for a second year. Juhász was set to graduate with a masters in Sports Management, so she didn’t need to stay to finish up school. Even if the WNBA didn’t come calling, she would’ve found plenty of opportunities to play professionally either back in her native Hungary or somewhere else in Europe.

With that uncertainty, Juhász wanted to participate in senior day to get the proper closure on her time in Storrs in case she did leave.

“It was definitely more like ‘I'm not sure yet.’ It was definitely kinda it could go both ways, seeing how the season goes, if we can win the national championship,” she explained.

Juhász might’ve already subconsciously known that she’d be back for another season, though. Her parents couldn’t make it for the ceremony, so a handful of her teammates walked her out to center court. All of them were bawling, but Juhász kept it together.

This year, there’s no uncertainty about what’s next. Juhász will exhaust her eligibility, so she has not choice but to leave UConn once the season ends. On top of that, her parents are coming in for senior night, so she’ll have them by her side. Juhász might have more trouble keeping her eyes dry on Monday.

“I'm just trying to focus on next game and just as long as I don't think about it then [I] can’t get sad about it,” she said. “It's definitely gonna be a lot of emotions again, and knowing that this is definitely the last time. But just having my family and obviously my teammates there, it's gonna be very, very special.

“But I still don't want to think about it yet because it's obviously overwhelming.”

So instead of dwelling on senior night, let’s go back to the spring of 2021. Juhász had just completed her third season at Ohio State and graduated with a degree in psychology. As much as she loved the school, she wanted more out of her career.

“I just felt like I needed some more challenge in my life, on the basketball court,” Juhász said. “It could have been easier just to say, ‘Hey, after three years, I'm going home to play professionally’ but I was like, ‘Might as well take a chance on something bigger.’”

That led her to UConn. She arrived in the summer of 2021 as a graduate transfer and the missing piece needed to put the Huskies over the top in order to capture their 12th national championship, according to Geno Auriemma.

Juhász didn’t have the chance to prove him right last season. She had an inconsistent campaign and then fractured her wrist in the Elite Eight, which meant she could only watch from the sidelines as UConn struggled grab a rebound and fell to South Carolina in the national championship.

This year, Juhász has turned a corner. She missed seven games with a broken thumb early in the season but is still averaging 14.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game with 10 double-doubles. A national championship remains the ultimate goal, but regardless of the how the Huskies fare in March, Juhász got what she came for in Storrs.

“I'm really happy that I did that because, I mean, I've been challenged this past two years, like I've never been before — physically, mentally,” Juhász said. “I grew a lot and I think I'm still growing. I'm still getting better player as a player, as a person, but it's definitely just been tremendous growth these past two years.”

She’s done enough to at least get a look from a WNBA team. ESPN projected Juhász to go to Minnesota with the last pick of the first round but even if she gets picked lower than that, Auriemma believes she has all the tools to succeed at the next level.

“She's more confident. She probably did need to be here a little bit longer because I don't think there's anything more important than confidence in a kid that has expectations to play at a higher level,” the coach said. “So I think she's getting that and she's more comfortable shooting the ball than she was last year. She was averaging a double-double, I think, in the conference…I just think [coming back] gave her an opportunity to start and play a lot more minutes and she just taken advantage of it.”

Juhász will have plenty of time — and a big stage — to improve that draft stock, though. UConn will begin the postseason on Saturday with the Big East Tournament followed by the NCAA Tournament a couple weeks later. Juhász will worry about the future at a later date, though.

She might’ve already accomplished her goal of finding a new challenge at UConn, but that doesn’t mean she’s already done everything she can. Juhász wants to play in her first Final Four and help raise banner No. 12, too.

“The national championship… winning that would be just, I don't know, like a life milestone,” she said. “Something that I always was dreaming of.”