Guru’s WBB Report: New Wrinkles In Villanova-UConn Series Renewal But Same Result As Visiting Huskies Dominant Second Half

Guru’s apology fior any typoa in the treport in dealing with a small type reading problem off the cataract surgery that should be resolved on the regular eye doctor visit on Wednesday morning.

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

No. 3 UConn’s annual Philadelphia visit returned closer to the homegrown roots of Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma Tuesday night with the Huskies for the first time in eight years  up in the suburbs doing a Big East battle with Villanova instead of playing just outside center city against Temple and his former assistant Tonya Cardoza in the American Athletic Conference.

For 15 minutes before going on to lose their first game of the year, the Wildcats and playmaker Maddy Siegrist traded leads and played on equal footing on the scoreboard.

Then a 10-0 run at the end of the half began  the separation and with the switch to a zone defense, UConn disrupted ‘Nova the rest of the way to a 90-52  victory and remain unbeaten at 5-0 overall and 4-0 in the Big East.

Auriemma noted that he’d love to come back and make two visits in a month back home, though not necessarily the Wildcats, a sentiment retired Notre Dame Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw made on just a single homecoming when the Irish set sail out of the old Big East for the Atlantic Coast Conference.

She was able to find local takers in Penn and her alma mater at Saint Joseph’s to keep the annual appearances alive.

Auriemma could find  another local since Cardoza said as Connecticut departed, the schools have talked about future reunions.

Meanwhile, a lot has happened at Villanova (7-1, 2-1) since Auriemma, coaching near his boyhood era in Norristown, last hooked up with the Wildcats on the hardwood.

The men’s team won two NCAA titles and is a favorite this season. Finneran Pavilion has been renovated besides growth of the overall campus on the Main Line.

And his lifelong friend Harry Perretta for the first time is 43 seasons, being now retired, is no longer the opponent coach on the other bench, though Auriemma has familiarity with Denise Dillon having coached against her when she starred for the Wildcats in the mid-1990s right when the Huskies accelerated into a national force.

Auriemma was able to catch up with Perretta and Villanova men’s coach Jay Wright Tuesday afternoon before the game.

As for the new colleague opponent on the sideline, “She;s not a Harry copycat,” Auriemma said of Dillon, who previously had a successful 17-year run down in West Philadelphia making Drexel one of the pwoers of the Colonial Athletic Association. “She’s not coming tol Villanova trying to be the next Harry. Her personal style of how she wants to coach is very similar, but she has her own take on it.”

He predicted more players of the caliber of Siegrist will be ‘Nova bound in the future “and it’s going to be tougher and tougher to beat them.”

It was tough enough early in Tuesday’s game when Siegrist got 13 of her 15 points before the Huskies found a way to put her in lockdown mode while also containing Brianna Herlihy, who has also been a key contributor.

“Against the man(defense), we were getting natural looks focusing on the inside-out,” Dillon said of the early success in the game. “We were getting looks we were comfortable taking.”

On changing up on stopping the Wildcats , Auriemma said, “Whether you defend them, or not defend them, they’re so good with their cuts, the way they play, they’re going to get open looks. What you have to do is just make it harder for them to get those open looks.”

Still, Auriemma, who has another super talented roster featuring Paige Bueckers, who has succeeded Siegrist as this season’s freshman flavor in the Big East, is impressed with the ‘Nova sophomore.

“She’s really, really, really hard to play against,” said Auriemma, who with his 1,096th victory is three from moving past the late legendary Tennessee coach Pat Summitt into second place on the all-time victory list among Division I women’s basketball coaches.

The current clubhouse leadedr is top-ranked Stanford's Tara VanDerveer, who passed Summitt earlier this month to take first in the category currently at 1,101 after Monday’s PAC-12 win at UCLA.

And eventually, the duo will pass the  torch back and forth until whoever retires first will leave the other with a virtually permanent record if they remain close enough in the victory county.

But back to Siegrist, “She never stops moving. She plays with a certain aggressiveness. I love her attitude, I love her leadership out there\, I’m just really, really impressed with her.”

But he has enough on his plate to not necessarily harbor any jealousy of the the Wildcats’ possession.

Bueckers and Oliva Nelson-Ododa each scored 19 points, while Christyn Willlikams scored 18, and Tennessee transfer Evina Westbrook had 17 with a pair of three-balls, eight rebounds, four steals and five assists.

“I thought she was outstanding,” Auriemma said of Westbrook. “I gthought this was her best game in every category. She sot the ball pretty well, faciliated pretty well, got her hands on some balls, rebounded.”

Anna Makurat was one better on the boards for the Huskies with a team-leading nine rebounds.

For Villanova, which was just 1-for-2 from the line, lving on the outside, compared to an inside opposition attack that produced 15-for-21, Sarah Mortensen, back from concussion protocol, was the actual high scorer with 17 points, while Herlihy scored nine.

Thanks the the necessary safety concerns dealing with the coronavirus, rthe arena ambience was much different than it would have been otherwise.

For one, where a near capacity crowd was potential for this one, when factoring Auriemma’s local mafai, area people wanting to get their annual closeup look at the Huskies that used to fill Temple’s McGonigle Hall and the women’s side of Nova Nation, the place was devoid of fans.

Media row was virtually empty with the UConn contingent not traveling though they’ve been at Gampel games, while your Guru like other locals, remained viewing the game at home and then all of us jumping on the two team posrgame press conferences via zoom software.

While saying ‘Nova got schooled may not be quite the right description, Dillon said, considering the opposition, chalk this one to the learning curve, especially, since there will be another chance to measure growth on the return ttrip to Gampel and potentially a matchup somewhere in the bracket at the Big East tournament in March at the Mohegan Sin, home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun near New London.

“You have to learn from the wins, but  you’re certainly learsning more from the losses,” Dillon said as the team heads into.a brief holiday break. “You have to feel tiis one and see how far we need to go and what needs to be done.”

Looking Ahead: Villanova  is now off until hosting Georgetown on Jan.2, while Connecticut, off a bunch of Big East schedule swaps announced this week, will next host DePaul on Dec. 29 before going oiut of conference on Jan. 7 and traveling to Texas to pkay No. 7 Baylor in Waco, completing two games against ranked teams.

For the first time, Temple doesn’t have to worry about Connecticut showing up on a conference schedule just when momentum was occurring leaving Villanova to have a streak stopped Tuesday night.

So, off their first win in four tries this past Sunday, the Owls on Wednesday ahead of the holiday break will host Tulsa in another AAC game at 11 a.m. in McGonigle Hall.

Rutgers, staying out of conference but with a COVID-19 assembled game will host MAAC-favorite Manhattan at noon on campus in Pistcataway, N.J. On Wednesday, while a third local has 0-8 Rider going out of conference to play NJIT at 2 p.m. in North Jersey.

However, the Big Ten game that was to be Penn State and Michigan is postponed due to COVID-1p precautions on the Michigan side.

And that is the report with an earlier one to hit Wednesday night since the three local games are in the daytime and there is no other game of consequence to be included.