UConn WBB’s American Athletic Conference Mastery Continues

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Every time an ongoing and most times historic win streak of sorts by the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team gets snapped, another one is still rolling merrily along.

Eventually, the most followed one at 111 got taken down in the Women’s Final Four semifinals two years ago at the buzzer in overtime by Mississippi State.

Later, the regular season run ended with a loss. 

But the streak of perfection born of the demise of the old and powerful pre-reconfigured Big East remains very much alive and Monday night here in the Mohegan Sun Arena its numbers were updated after the second-ranked Huskies defeated UCF 66-45 to add another American Athletic Conference piece of hardware.

Some athletic departments create an impressive trophy case to display the success of a multitude of sports or perhaps just one that has achieved excellence.

At some point, the UConn combined brood of campus, donors, etc., might need to construct a trophy building because the program that Geno Auriemma built  has certainly claimed enough items over the last several decades to easily provide the furnishing.

The Huskies (31-2) now own all six AAC titles in the collection and have handled everything it has taken to get there at what is now a 120-0 record of defeating foes bearing intra-rival conference identifying patches— whether they were temporarily a member until they could escape to their new destinations, those who have come aboard along the way, and those who have had from the outset to face the UConn women most times twice a year on the way to getting to this impressive venue for either shortened stays at the hands of others or making it across the four days until the Huskies blockade ended the weekend.

UCF has been around from the outset though Knights coach Katie Abramson-Henderson, a former Iowa star, has only been with the program for three seasons since having left the University of Albany, winning America East championships, to building the central Florida school into a conference contender which has set a program record for wins (26-7).

Meanwhile, back here to keep things from becoming boring for the array of media crowd who follow the Huskies, the storyline for this annual weekend in the sunmer home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun has changed from time to time.

In the recent past there was the three-point shooting performance of now-senior Katie Lou Samuelson.

But this weekend as events got under way, Auriemma announced Samuelson, a two-time all-American on most national player of the year watch lists, was being shut for the inmediate proccedings due to a back injury suffered a week ago playing Houston.

She then gets an extra two weeks more to recover until the NCAA tournament gets under way.

That allowed senior Napheesa Collier to go from shared spotlight to individual spotlight as shown by her 20th double double performance of the year against the Knights, scoring a game-high 25 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. She now has 44 double doubles in her career.

Though the national player of the year semifinal list of eight is more plentiful then ever, it is safe to say a threesome is starting to separate into a consensus  among Big Ten champion Iowa’s Megan Gustafson, Pac-12 regular season champion Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, and Collier.

Unlike South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson a year ago, there is no outright favorite, but it’s possible that the flow could go Collier’s way if the Huskies outdistance the teams the other contenders play with. 

Balloting deadline will be a factor since some are due next week and other decisions won’t be made until just before the Women’s Final Four, which is in Tampa Bay, Fla., next month.

Collier, who set a tournament record for scoring with 85 points across three games, certainly has the vote of Ambranson-Henderson.

“I think she’s the best player in the country,” the UCF coach said. “She’s really strong, and she’s hard to guard because she can play multiple positions. She’s a perfect four and she can handle the ball, stretch out and she can do a lot of things. She’s a special player.”

Auriemma feels likewise, though he’s willing to have someone convince him otherwise.

“She’s like a great defenseman in hockey,” Auriemma said. “She picks up the ball and takes off. The one thing we didn’t well in the third quarter is, we didn’t get her enough touches.

“Believe it or not when (freshman) Olivia (Nelson-Ododa) gets better, when she’s in the game, Napheesa will become even more versatile. I’m anxious to see all the things Napheesa will do in the tournament. I’m amazed by the things she does. There is nobody like Napheesa.”

The absence of Samuelson gave more players a chance to be relied upon and do things, experience Auriemma thinks will make the Huskies perhaps the best they’ve been this season when the senior star returns, which he says is virtually certain for the NCAA tournament.

Nelson-Ododa had 11 rebounds on Monday and for the tournament 34 points, 32 rebounds and seven blocked shots. All 12 of junior Crystal Dangerfield’s points Monday came off four three-pointers, while sophomore Megan Walker, who struggled last season, had nine points, while freshman Christyn Williams scored 12.

UCF had just one player in double figures, Lawriell Wilson scored 12 points.

Abrahamson-Henderson, whose team is likely to earn an NCAA at-large bid, knew the odds of an upset were steep and just wanted her team to relax, a statement she repeated to them at the half, which afterwards is why she felt the Knights played better, especially in the third period when they outscored UConn 14-9.

“They’re number two in the country,” she said. “Obviously, they’re one of the best teams in the country and it’s going to be hard to come in and win in this environment.” 

The attendance in the mostly-filled arena was about 2000 short of a sellout at 6,000.

“I told my team that they needed to have fun, so they finally loosened up and started playing UCF basketball.” 

She said at some point AAC teams may begin beating the virtual home team here, but it will be a while, saying recruiting is the key.

The win certainly wasn’t boring for Auriemma, whose team lost a rare two non-conference games this season, falling to No. 1 Baylor, which won another Big 12 title Monday night, and to No. 5 Louisville, which fell to defending NCAA champion Notre Dame in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game Sunday.

“We don’t have quite the team we had the last five years in this league,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “First five years in this league, nobody in the country could beat us. Now, we don’t have quite the same team, and our teams have gotten better, they have improved, and they will continue to improve, and we have to make sure we keep getting better.

“I don’t know that the goal was to go 120-0 when this thing started, I think the goal was to win games, and win championships. Anyone can have a bad night, I don’t care what anybody says, 120-0, that’s a lot of wins,” Auriemma continued.

“Our team certainly earned this one. We have a lot of young guys and this is their first time they’ll be in this situation so I’m really proud of the way they responded. Napheesa and Crystal were great this weekend and they really stepped up and covered for Lou. This was one of the more satisfying championships that I have been a part of recently.”

The 64-team NCAA field will be announced next Monday night at 7 on ESPN.

 Soon thereafter, the WNIT will announce its 64-team field composed of the highest team in each conference who didn’t make the NCAA field and then the rest of that bracket filled by acceptances of at-large invitations.