STORRS, Conn. — Players filed in and out of the Werth Family Center on Tuesday for exit interviews with Geno Auriemma and his staff, the traditional post mortem to the basketball season. Frank conversations about the future were certainly on the agenda.
The ritual came early in 2023, earlier than it has in 15 years. More typically, the unpacking of a basketball season before the expiration of March would be happening on the other side of the building, but there, this year, it was the men’s basketball team preparing for its Final Four appearance. Auriemma, who predicted the men could be in this position way back in November, before the Phil Knight event, will be in Houston to cheer them on.
The women’s season is over, with the Huskies losing to Ohio State in the Sweet 16 in Seattle last Saturday, their earliest exit from March Madness since 2005, and with this abrupt end has come the question, “is this the end of the UConn dynasty?”
Right. OK. Yeah, not so fast. Rumors of UConn’s demise as a dominant program in women’s basketball are, as Mark Twain used to say, greatly exaggerated.
“UConn is going to continue to be UConn,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said, before her unbeaten team left Seattle for the Final Four in Dallas. “They’re going to reload. If you see their roster that’s coming in and who they’re bringing back next year, they’ll reload. They’ll start a new streak.”
A word about dynasties: It’s the most misused term in sports. By definition, a dynasty is a family that rules a nation, passing the power from one generation to the next. If this term applies to sports, in spirit, it would suggest a team that has dominated its sport for multiple generations, with several waves of leaders.
The Yankees of 1921-64 are the ultimate sports dynasty. If there is such a thing as a dynasty, the UConn women, given their hegemony over their sport since 1995, obviously qualify.
But semantics aside, a sports dynasty could be more accurately and less dramatically called an era of excellence. And make no mistake, UConn’s era of excellence did not end with the loss to Ohio State, no matter how crushing or shocking.
One need look no further than the UConn bench, where Paige Bueckers, the player of the year as a freshman two years ago, was sitting, her year-long recovery from knee surgery in the home stretch. Much depends on Bueckers making a full recovery from her torn ACL and being herself again, but history shows that’s a strong possibility.
She would be joined by Azzi Fudd, who missed most of this season with knee injuries, and Aaliyah Edwards. That raises the possibility that Auriemma could run three All-Americans out there every game next season, assuming the program’s injury luck can only improve.
Nika Muhl, Aubrey Griffin and Carolina Ducharme figure to be back, with Ice Brady, a top recruit who also missed the entire season, back in action, and more. And the incoming freshman class has the usual UConn level of talent.
All this returning to a team that, despite all the well-documented hardships, finished 31-6 and won the Big East regular season and tournament titles and reached the Sweet 16 for the 29th season in a row.
Does this sound like a dynasty in decline to you? Me, neither.
“(Something) you take from it is how incredibly difficult it is to win in March in the NCAA tournament,” Auriemma said last weekend, “and because we made it look so routine and so easy, we gave the impression that it’s very easy to do. It’s a reminder that, no, it’s not. It’s very difficult to do. So you appreciate what we had, what we did, and, you know, you have to start another one next year.”
The idea that the UConn dynasty is dead is rooted in the theory that women’s basketball is more competitive, and less predictable than in years past. This much is true.
There are more good players, spread out among more teams and the days of steamrolling through a season, winning every game by double digits, may be disappearing.
This is, indeed, good for the sport, as is the sight of new uniforms playing for the title, like Virginia Tech, Iowa, LSU, the last of those coached by a very familiar figure in Kim Mulkey.
“I think you’re going to continue to see different names,” Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said. “Not that I think UConn has gone away or Tennessee has gone away. They definitely have their opportunities, as well, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the years to come if there’s a newcomer all the time.”
But let’s not get carried away. As South Carolina is in the process of proving, it is still possible to run the table in women’s basketball, and possible to string titles together. It’s a question of whether UConn, which last won it all in 2016, could do it again.
Just think it through, rather than knee-jerk react to what just happened, and ask yourself if you would bet against it.
No, dynasties, if there are such things, die hard, and even if they fade, they still tend to occupy space in opponents’ heads. If UConn’s dynasty were really dead, folks would stop asking, stop talking about the Huskies, now that a Final Four is proceeding without them.
Not happening. Won’t happen any time soon. A year from now, the fashionable narrative may well be “UConn is back.” That’s how these things work.
“I don’t think any of us that’s outside of UConn,” Staley said. “We’re not panicking. They’re going to be who they are. They’re going to always — you get a chance to beat UConn, it’s always going to be a big win for you and your program.”
