AAC Media Day: Despite Changes The Goal Stays the Same for Conference Pick UConn

By Erin Kate Dolan @ekd

PHILADELPHIA - The University of Connecticut women’s basketball is a powerhouse.

 On paper, they have undoubtedly been the toughest team to beat in the NCAA over the last 20 years with 11 NCAA Championships and 11 consecutive Final Four appearances. 

This latest extremely gifted and refined contingent is led by Hall of Fame head coach Geno Auriemma, who is entering his 34th season guiding UConn.

 And while the Huskies may seem to be the only reason to even give thought to the AAC, Auriemma stressed the importance at media day here Monday at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott that the league is competitive despite his Huskies’ continued dominance as the preseason pick of the conference coaches.

“The league is competitive itself,” he said in one of several trips he’ll make back to his home haunts  along with the annual AAC game at Temple.  “ It just doesn't look that way because we are in it, so it makes it look like no one in the league is any good besides Connecticut.

“That's just not true. They are all really good within their own group so if you just took us out of the equation, there is not much difference between three and eight.”  

Despite the Huskies’ consecutive NCAA appearances, Auriemma believes that the AAC as a whole can and will have a stronger presence in the national tournament, which concludes in Tampa next April.  

“If Temple had not suffered all those injuries, we would have had at least three teams (in the NCAA) and with a little bit of luck and people scheduling better and a game here or there to go the other way.”

Auriemma also believes the goal to advancing into the NCAA tournament is to strategically plan on how to beat opponents and focus on the recruitment process. 

“I think every school has somebody that they are trying to beat so if you are Central Florida you are trying to figure out how do I beat South Florida every year. 

“And then that gets you into the Top 20,” he noted. “So every school has one or two schools just above them that if they can out-recruit them then they have a shot to get into the tournament.”

But before teams focus on the end goal, which is to win or even advance into the tournament, teams focus on recruiting the best potential players.

 Many people have attributed UConn’s success to the recruitment process, claiming that they can pull from top candidates throughout the country. 

Auriemma completely disagrees. 

“When they were in high school, they were the best players so people say, ‘Oh Connecticut gets the best players.’ We’ll we get certain of the best players. 

“Because other best players will go somewhere else. We get the right ones so the ones that we got were the best players in high school, then they became the best players in college.”

Despite having some of the best players in the country, the outcome over the last two seasons was an undefeated team ruined by buzzer beaters in the national semifinals.

Auriemma continues to schedule rigid competition out of conference which this season highlights the annual Notre Dame game, which will be on the road Dec. 2 in South Bend. 

It’s the first meeting between the two since Arike Ogunbowale ousted UConn with her winning shot before doing likewise 48 hours later to Mississippi State to give the Irish their first title since 2001.

Other key road trips take the Huskies to Oklahoma, California and Baylor while Ohio State, DePaul and South Carolina will visit either UConn’s Hartford venue or on campus at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.

There’s a game hosting Vanderbilt an hour away at the Mohegan Sun Arena, which also continues to be the site of the AAC tournament, where the Huskies have finished all five seasons unbeaten against the conference since its formation out of the old Big East.

However, for only the second time in a long while, the Huskies are not likely to be atop The Associated Press preseason women’s poll when the rankings are released in a few werks.

Nevertheless, moving forward, Auriemma said he will take nothing from last season into the 2018-19 season, despite the roster transition in which Kia Nurse, Azure Stevens, and Gabby Williams have graduated to the WNBA, but AAC preseason player of the year Katie Lou Samuelson, and other preseason conference first team coaches’ picks Napheesa Collier, and Crystal Dangerfield return.

Sophomore Megan Walker and freshman Christyn Williams (Little Rock, Ark.) have arrived successively the last two seasons as the nation’s top high school prospects and Williams won a gold medal last summer with the USA U18 squad.

“Every year is different and every year we have to find the deal on what we need to get us where we are going ... This year is going to be one of those years that it is different than last year, way different than the year before, and light years different than Stewie's (Brenna Stewart) senior year.

“So the challenge as coaches is how do we accomplish some of the same thing without the same things.” 

And that is the main question, how will Connecticut continue to accomplish undefeated regular season and Final Four appearances? 

We will begin to find out when the Huskie’s open regular season play Sunday, November 4 at home in an exhibition game against Vanguard.