The Guru Report: UConn Routs Cincy for a 139-0 Final Record in The American

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – The moment of anticipation on the women’s hoops side of things that began in early July with the news that the University of Connecticut is heading out of the American Athletic Conference and back to the currently configured Big East arrived here at the Mohegan Sun Arena a little before 9 p.m. Monday when the No. 5 Huskies put a perfect 139-0 wrap on their seven years of competition with an 87-53 victory over Cincinnati to conclude a gaudy era of monopolizing the organization’s championship hardware.

But don’t be fooled.

Like the song goes, this was adios but not goodbye as far as the effect in these parts on the general population by the women’s empire built by Philly’s own Geno Auriemma.

Administratively, UConn is headed to the Big East but in reality the Big East is headed to UConn.

Barring a bunch of things that could always happen, 12 months from now the gang will still be standing here on a podium with smiles on their faces and pieces of confetti clinging to their outfits holding their punched tickets stamped “automatic bid” to the NCAA tournament.

But the American will be gone with even the conference headquarters moved from up in Providence, R.I., to down in Dixie, somewhere in the Dallas area.

In here, the signage will bear the name of the Big East, which Monday night, like the American, staged the last of the two women’s tournaments under current contractual agreements, allowing a smooth transfer.

At the Big East affair in Chicago, DePaul for the fourth straight year played Marquette in the title round, which was held in the Blue Demons’ Wintrust Arena with the hosts winning 88-74. 

They could meet a fifth time 12 months from now, but if they do, the best place will be on a line on the bracket one level down in the 2-3 game in a semifinal if not in some other designation.

Meanwhile, back here, with the enrollment ahead of Paige Bueckers, the nation’s top high school prospect out of Minnesota, UConn will head into the Big Dance as the overwhelming favorite.

Once upon a time, Auriemma, as he may be able with Bueckers, could boast “We got Diana Taurasi and nobody else does” as a reason for the Huskies being the top dogs in the women’s game.

This year, not so much. But decent enough. 

So Monday night, he chose to explain afterwards this season’s committee approach: “We win because we have really, really good players.

“I always tell the truth,” he smiled. “When I think we’re going to win the (NCAA) championship, I tell you. And when I don’t think we are, I tell you that, too. This year, we’re not as good as those other three.”

The trio being No. 1 South Carolina, No. 2 Oregon, and No. 3 Oregon, via Monday’s vote in the next-to-last AP women’s poll of the season, all consensus to get No. 1 seeds when the NCAA pairings and 64-team field is revealed Monday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN. 

All of whom delivered a UConn a  thrashing, 

Baylor down the road in Hartford, Oregon by historic accomplishment less than an hour from here over on campus in Storrs in Gampel Pavilion, and the other down in Columbia, where Olympic coach Dawn Staley, who is Auriemma’s successor guiding the Olympians this summer, could turn her place into the Roman Coliseum, with this time for a change, Auriemma’s players assumed the role of the Christians.

“We’re not as good as them,” Auriemma said. “We’re not. They beat our ass, so until we beat them, we’re not as good as them. You can say whatever you want, but the results are on the scoreboard, and that’s that.

“It’s a horrible year with us going 29-3, winning a conference tournament again, ranked No. 5 in the country, and being made a two seed,” he smiled. “We are where we are. And I like it.”

That’s the projection.

“The nice, thing, though, is we don’t have to play all of them, just one, that’s all.”

Monday night, for the first quarter, Cincinnati (22-10) challenged and stayed close at 19-15 before Connecticut quickly turned the game into a vintage Huskies blast the opponent championship to celebrate Auld Lange Syne night.

Megan Walker, named tournament Most Outstanding Player, led UConn with 26 points, while Christyn Williams scored 22, Crystal Dangerfield scored 14, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 11 points, 11 rebounds, and blocked four shots.

Cincinnati’s Angel Rizor had 16 points and nine rebounds, while Antoinette Miller scored 15, and Llmarl’l Thomas scored 14.

Walker, Williams, UConn’s Crystal Dangerfield, Huskies freshman Aubrey Griffin, and Cincy’s Thomas and Rizor made the all-tournament team.

Auriemma cited the turnaround on his team’s play began six games ago and noted around then the return to the staff of former star player Jamelle Elliott who ironically had improved Cincinnati as head coach and  then was let go two seasons ago following the Bearcats’ bid to the WNIT.

He was not happy with Cincinnati’s decision but was also magnanimous Monday night on Elliott’s successor.

“They got it right,” he said. “(Michelle) Clark-Heard has done a hell of a job. That team is really, really good. She’s coached the hell out of them, and it’s funny the way it played out.”

Six games ago, prior to the one on the road with the Bearcats, Auriemma had said a practice had not gone so good but surprisingly the team played well.

 “I don’t know. Maybe they got scared,” he said of his bunch, citing not wanting to be the first to fail following a long string of successes, including 12 straight Final Four appearances. He also said the ball movement is better.

As for the being a No. 2 seed, which they were last year but advanced beating No. 1  seed Louisville, “This is the first time that we don’t have a single player on my team who has won a national championship,” Auriemma said.

“It’s my job to get them ready because I’ve been there, and they haven’t. This is a huge challenge for us,” he continued.

“We haven’t given them a chance to believe in us, we had our chance in the regular season, and we didn’t do it. This is the second season, and now everybody starts 0-0, and we’ll see where it ends.”

Rider Storybook Finish

On Saturday, the Broncs arrived in Monmouth to play a not-so-good Hawks team near the Atlantic Ocean in central New Jersey just 40 minutes away from clinching a first-ever Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season co-championship and the No. 1 seed for this week’s tourney at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

For the most part the game at the OceanFirst Bank Center in West Long Branch went as expected and the Broncs built a 16-point lead only to have it start to shrivel until Akilah Jennings drove with 0.5 seconds left in regulation and Monmouth had a seeming shocking upset at 49-48.

An eyelash of time was put back on the clock and Rider advanced the ball with a timeout.

Then on the sidelines, Lexi Stover threw a pass to the far side of the basket underneath where Amari Johnson caught it in mid-air converted on a layup just as time expired, giving the Broncs a 50-49 win,  a tie at the top of the standings with the preseason favorite Marist and the Number 1 seed in the MAAC tourney.

Stella Johnson, the nation’s leading scorer, had 23 points and four steals, while Amari Johnson had eight points and nine rebounds, and Lea Favre and Amanda Mobley each scored six points for Rider ( 25-4, 19-2 MAAC).

Sierra Green had 16 points and Jennings had 14 points for the Hawks (8-21, 5-15), while Taylor Nason grabbed 12 rebounds.

“We ran it in July and maybe 1 or twice since,” veteran coach Lynn Milligan, who recently became the winningest coach in the program, texted the Guru, who was at Columbia at the time in New York with Penn. “It was a great day and that play was a culmination of this whole year and this team belief.

“It was amazing.”

Earlier, talking to Rider’s website operators, Milligan said, “I know this sounds corny but we have a dream jar and if you take out Amari’s piece of paper in that dream jar, it says `win a game for my team at the buzzer.’ And she just literally lived her dream.

“(Monmouth) did really good job on us today. They sped us up on offense. We executed one play perfectly today. And that’s what it came down to.”

After beating Monmouth, Amari Johnson said, “We’ve been working so hard for this moment, so just to see that go in and just see that we are conference champions and what we’ve been working for all came true in that one moment. It was a surreal moment.”

On Monday, Stella Johnson, the only one from a mid-major, was named one of five finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Nancy Lieberman Award in addition to Baylor’s Te’a Cooper, Connecticut’s Crystal Dangerfield, Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu, and South Carolina’s Tyasha Harris.

The MAAC also announced some of its awards and Stella Johnson was named to the All-MAAC first team, unanimously, along with second-teamers Amari Johnson and Lea Favre. Stella Johnson was also named MAAC player of the week for a record 10^th time.

MAAC Tourney – Rider as the top seed gets a bye and will meet the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 8 Niagara and No. 9 St. Peter’s on Wednesday in a quarterfinal game at 1 p.m. in Atlantic City.

 The Broncs and St. Peter’s split with Rider losing on the road, the only other setback besides the split with Marist on each other’s courts.

If Rider wins, the Broncs are off Thursday as the other part of the quarterfinals get completed, and then in a semifinal would meet No. 4 Manhattan or No. 5 Quinnipiac, which had been the long-ruling champ, Friday morning at 11. The championship is Saturday at 11 a.m.

Ivy League – Princeton and Penn Finish 1-2 After Road Sweep in New York

On Saturday, Princeton, which had already clinched first, finished a perfect regular season in the Ivy League with a 69-50 win at Cornell in Newman Arena in upstate New York.

The No. 22 Tigers (26-1, 14-0 Ivy) have won 22 straight games, the one loss by two points in overtime at Iowa.

The streak is second longest behind top-ranked South Carolina.

 Baylor was tied with Princeton but got upset Sunday at the end of the Big 12 regular season by Iowa State.

Princeton has gone perfect four times, three previously under former coach Courtney Banghart, and once this year under new coach Carla Berube, a former UConn star.

Two-time Ivy reigning player of the year Bella Alarie had 17 points for the Tigers, along with eight rebounds, five blocked shots, and three assists, while Carlie Littlefield and Julia Cunningham each scored 11, and Abby Meyers scored 10.

Laura Bagwell-Katalinich had 14 points for the Big Red (10-16, 3-11), while Samantha Widmann scored 13.

Meanwhile, after being at Columbia with Princeton Friday night, the Guru returned to Levien Gym off Broadway on New York’s Upper West Side Saturday as Penn came in from its Cornell game to play the Lions.

The Quakers needed a win to finish second and they controlled all the way in a 51-36 triumph as freshman Kayla Padilla had 12 points, and Phoebe Sterba, Eleah Parker, and Mia Lakstigala each scored nine points. Defensively, Parker grabbed a career-high 19 rebounds and matched a career-high with seven blocks.

Penn (20-7, 10-4 Ivy) held Columbia to 15 points in the second half. Janiya Clemmons had 12 points and Kaitlyn Davis scored 20 for the Lions (17-10, 8-6), who had already clinched a debut in this weekend’s Ivy tourney debut at Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion, but the loss dropped them to the fourth seed.  

Yale (19-8, 9-5) will be the third seed.

“I couldn’t ask any more from this group,” said Penn coach Mike McLaughlin. “To win ten league games in this league and 20 games overall, I’m just amazed at what they have done, I really am.

“We had to reshuffle the deck a little bit, an injury here, an injury there, they’ve really grown. It’s just awesome. I couldn’t be anymore proud of the way they played today.

“To be the second seed in this conference. No doubt, it’s the toughest field of the four tourneys. (Columbia coach) Megan (Griffith) is battling some injuries, herself, but in this conference, we have a seven really good teams. 

“Princeton’s super and someone’s going to have to be really, really good, to beat them. But that’s why you have a tournament, and I’m just stoked for our players to play again.”

On Monday, Parker was named Ivy player of the week, and Padilla picked up the freshman award, her sixth of the season.

Ivy Tourney: After being the last conference to send only its regular season champion to the NCAA as the automatic bid winner for finishing first, in 2017, the Ancient Eight launched a four-teams, each, combined postseason tourney to compete for NCAA access.

Penn and Princeton have played in each title game with Penn winning the first while Princeton has won the last two. 

The initial two events were played at the Quakers’ Palestra before the league voted to go to a rotating each school deal that started at Yale’s Lee Amphitheater a year ago and moves to Jadwin Gym next year in Princeton.

On Friday, Princeton and Columbia will tip off at 4:30 p.m. followed by Penn and Yale at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s championship will be at 5 after the men’s semifinals at 11 a.m. (Penn vs.  Yale) and 2 p.m. (Harvard vs. Princeton).

It’s the first year Harvard isn’t in the women’s field after the Crimson lost five straight down the stretch and then six of the last seven counting the first mention.

Drexel Takes No. 1 Seed in CAA Beating Charleston

On Saturday, Drexel bid farewell to some seniors, got revenge at home in the Daskalakis Athletic Center against Charleston 72-60, which then led to a co-championship with James Madison in the regular season of the Colonial Athletic Association and the No. 1 seed in this year’s field at Elon in North Carolina.

The Dragons (23-7, 16-2 CAA), who had a 13-game win streak within the CAA after dropping the opener the first weekend in January, had a split with James Madison each winning on each other’s court. 

The Dukes also lost to Towson, which became the tiebreak giving Drexel the top seed.

Bailey Greenberg, one of the key seniors, had 17 points, three rebounds, while Keishana Washington had 18 points, while Hannah Nihill had 10 points, eight assists, five rebounds, and four steals. Mariah Leonard scored10 against the Cougars (13-16, 6-12).

Greenberg was joined by Niki Metzel, Aubree Brown, Anna Ferariu, and managers Carter Caplan and Winston Tam in the pre-game senior farewell ceremony.

The 23 seasonal wins are the second most in the program’s history, which has two shared regular season titles with JMU, and an outright in 2009.

Delaware, meanwhile, at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, won its final CAA game of the season, beating UNCW 61-57 as Nicole Enabosi had 21 points for the Blue Hens (12-17, 8-10 CAA) to finish second to the legendary Elena Delle Donne on the all-time scoring list with 1,676 career points.

Samone DeFrese had 14 points and six rebounds for the home team, while Jasmine Dickey scored 10.

Enabosi, DeFrese, Abby Gonzales, Bailey Kargo, and Rebecca Lawrence were honored as outgoing seniors.

Lacey Suggs had 24 points and GiGi Smith scored 18 with 10 rebounds for the Seahawks (9-20, 6-12).

CAA Tournament: At Elon’s Schar Center in North Carolina, Drexel gets a bye on the first round and then in Thursday’s quarterfinals, the Dragons will meet the winner of No. 8 Charleston and No. 9 UNCW, the two teams they just finished with, at 12 noon.

Should they win, they advance to Friday’s semifinals against the winner between No. 4 Towson and No. 5 Northeastern at 2 p.m.

Delaware as the sixth seed the quarterfinals meets No. 3 William & Mary, Thursday, at 7:30 p.m. Should the Blue Hens advance, their semi is against whoever advances from the early rounds of No.10 Hofstra, No. 7 Elon – that winner facing No. 2 James Madison in the quarters and then on to the semifinals.

The championship is Saturday at 2 p.m.

Postseason Picture: Rutgers, which was knocked out in the Big Ten quarterfinals, is the only team in the Guru’s D-1 group still with postseason life that is likely to get an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament this week. Technically, Princeton is the other, should the Tigers not win the Ivy League.

Drexel, Penn, and Rider must win their conference tourneys to become part of the NCAA field, but all three are minimum guaranteed WNIT berths.

Temple is a long-shot for WNIT but maybe one of those others will call. 

Villanova fell in the quarterfinals of the Big East to Marquette, the eventual runnersup. The Wildcats will likely get a WNIT bid and odds are favoring it will be home to give retiring coach Harry Perretta an encore appearance at the Finneran Center and then we will see from there depending if they are still in play.

Speaking of Perretta, soon after Villanova was eliminated by Marquette, the veteran of 42 seasons on the Main Line spent a half on the broadcast of the next game as analyst, per se.

On Monday night, that was noted to UConn’s Auriemma after his formal press conference here with the Guru rumor report, Perretta will likely turn up on the air at all UConn Big East games, to which Auriemma quickly responded – “That ain’t happening.”

The Small College scene will be discussed after the Division II NCAA bracket is revealed, which it may have been.

And that’s the report.