Geno Auriemma wasn’t sure why, but he chose Sunday to ditch the athletic swag and get back to business casual with a dark suit and open collar.
Symbolism? Was it a sign that things were finally getting back to normal after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic? Maybe a signal it’s time for the UConn women’s basketball team to get down to business?
“I don’t know,” he said, laughing. “Maybe that’s it. Yeah. The fun and games are over. All business now.”
It came on a day when the UConn women stole the ball 21 times and beat Georgetown 90-49, a day in which the Huskies moved within one win of clinching another regular-season conference title, and a time when UConn is really beginning to look like UConn again. Another day at the office, back at the office.
“We said we were going to play like this all year,” Auriemma said. “This was the intent when the season started. We were going to play like what you saw today. That was the plan in October. Then the plans went awry. Maybe we can still get some semblance of it, because when it’s clicking, it’s pretty good. There was a lot of good stuff.”
Just when Auriemma will be able to drop last year’s national player of the year, Paige Bueckers, back into this equation is still unclear. It won’t be this week, he said, which means not during the regular season. Maybe the Big East Tournament, maybe the NCAA Tournament. She’s doing more, not wearing the knee brace all the time, but there are good days and bad.
But the Huskies have most everyone else back, and it has been clicking. Auriemma used 10 players against Georgetown, all 10 scored. Only Christyn Williams played for more than 30 minutes.
“It’s so refreshing. It’s like a breath of fresh air just being able to be subbed,” Williams said. “It’s the end of the season, a long stretch of games coming up. It helps our bodies recover.”
Nika Muhl added, “being able to be subbed in practice really helps a lot.”
There was something to harp on, 21 turnovers, but Georgetown only scored 12 points off them. The Huskies had balance, rebounding, passing, shot selection; the 56.9 percentage indicative of the number of layups. Pressuring the ball, they scored 30 points off turnovers and had 22 assists on 33 baskets.
“It’s fun. I know it’s fun to watch, and its definitely fun playing that way,” Williams said. “We are our best when we’re getting out in transition, and everything just flows from there.”
The picture starts to come into focus now. The Huskies no longer looked gassed in the fourth quarter, no longer beaten down or easily trapped. They no longer have to try to find a way with what they’ve got. They have enough to dictate how games go.
As Auriemma told his team after the win at Xavier, the Huskies are no longer building for something. They hung on through the tough times, and better times are here.
“It’s a further validation that when we’re good, we’re really good,” Auriemma said. “We can be explosive in transition. We can be really good defensively, really good in the half court. Now it’s just getting 40 minutes out of it.”
This one started another grueling week, with games Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to finish the regular season. UConn (19-5, 13-1 Big East) lost its long AAC/Big East winning streak, but can nail down the regular-season conference title with a win over Marquette on Wednesday.
“Every year, the goal has been to win your conference championship,” Auriemma said. “That’s job No. 1. That still holds true and always will. I like when we have a chance because that means that over five months, we’re the best team.”
It took nearly all of five months for the Huskies to get enough players healthy together to play according to script. Bueckers, the last piece of this puzzle, continues to work toward her entrance.
“For most of this year, we only had one way to play,” Auriemma said. “And we hoped that it worked against every team. But you like to go in saying, ‘This team can’t handle this. Let’s do that.’”
But as the last week of the regular season gets underway, Auriemma and the Huskies are once again dressed for success.
“We’re just going to stay in the moment,” Williams said.
