UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Rare is the team that grows this much during a season. Rare is the team that comes together at the right time, exactly the way the most starry-eyed optimist would have envisioned.
Rare, too, is the team that loses its best player for most of the season and doesn’t need to ask the impossible of her when she returns.
This UConn women’s basketball team is a rare one. It’s not yet time to compare the Huskies to their 11 championship predecessors; that’s not the point. But this team, the way it has evolved into a formidable collection of talent that is even better than the sum of its parts, is a unique chapter in the program’s history. The 70-40 victory over Villanova in the Big East Tournament final Monday night at Mohegan Sun Arena isn’t the end but another beginning.
“I just know that wherever [the analysts] had us three weeks ago, I don’t think they’d have us there anymore,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said during this Big East Tournament. “I don’t know where they’re changing us to, but I don’t think we’re where they thought we were going to be three weeks ago or a month ago.”
Maybe Seton Hall coach Anthony Bozzella said it better: “If you think UConn is the eighth or ninth best team in the country, you’re a fool.”
Nine is where the last NCAA bracket reveal, based largely on the Net Rankings, had the Huskies seeded for the field of 68. They’ll be better than that on Selection Sunday. Bozzella was talking about the eye-ball test, and he was right.
What a feast for the eyes this team has been throughout the tournament.
Villanova caught UConn at its most vulnerable on Feb. 9, with just six players available, none named Paige Bueckers, Caroline Ducharme or Olivia Nelson-Ododa. The Wildcats couldn’t miss that night in Hartford, hitting 29-of-56 shots and going 10-for-22 on 3s. Still, UConn’s short-handed cast nearly came back to win. That ended the Huskies’ conference winning streak at 169.
So, Monday was the worst possible night to play UConn. On top of everything else, the Huskies, after beating Georgetown and Marquette, were hungry. In the rematch, Villanova, a tournament-worthy team, had no chance. UConn opened a 9-0 lead, and Villanova made only five of its first 22 shots, UConn forcing them to launch from well beyond 3-point line. By the middle of the second quarter, it was only a matter of how close the Wildcats could stay.
This time they hit 16-of-50 shots and went 7-for-23 on 3s.
With nine healthy players in rotation, UConn just had too many weapons. It is hard to imagine a team, let alone eight or nine teams, being able to match the Huskies. The competition will get tougher in the weeks ahead, but UConn has barely employed Bueckers, the reigning national player of the year, since she returned from her knee surgery. She still doesn’t look like she’s got her game legs, but she’s bound to be cut loose if the Huskies are in trouble.
A team that was thought to be all about Bueckers is now all about everyone. The Huskies are not only playing for one another but willing to sit for one another.
“There was this perception early on at one point that without Paige we’re not very good, you know?” Auriemma said. “An ex-coach [Muffet McGraw] who doesn’t know [much] about anything said that recently. And I think we proved her wrong.”
Ducharme was huge in mid-season, preventing a couple of additional losses. She hasn’t been as big a factor lately, but there she was in the second quarter Monday with UConn leading 17-10 but scoreless for more than five minutes. Ducharme infused the game with her energy, her knack for getting to the right spot and scored three quick baskets.
“To be able to adjust and sacrifice things for your team, especially this team is kind of easy because we all love each other. It’s kind of easy in that aspect,” said UConn senior Evina Westbrook, who embraced her bench role in January. “I think it’s pretty special. And honestly, it’s kind of fun to play like that, when you have whatever five are out there, and then subs are coming in. They can’t relax on who we’ve got coming in because everyone is really dangerous.”
Aaliyah Edwards, who seemed to be in a funk earlier in the season, is playing monster defense and effective offense. She scored 12, Westbrook 13, Nelson-Ododa 11, and so it went. Ducharme had nine, Azzi Fudd eight. How about this? UConn had 39 rebounds, but more assigned to “team” (seven) than any individual collected.
Forget the metrics and open your eyes — there is something going on here, something unique. After the Huskies beat Marquette in the Big East Tournament semifinals, Auriemma talked in terms of the “UConn teams of old,” something that has been missing the last few years. Remember, UConn has been to the Final Four 13 years in a row but hasn’t won since 2016. If something has been missing, that rare quality that turns excellent talent into a championship team, these Huskies just may have found it.
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