Guru’s March Madness - III: Luck Be a Paige As UConn Ends Baylor’s NCAA Rule With 13th Straight Trip to the Final Four

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The onset of the coronavirus a year ago and cancellation of the NCAA men’s and women’s tournaments allowed Baylor a free bonus perk of 12 extra months to allow the Lady Bears to be called “defending national champs.”

That same COVID-19 making the conclusion of the 2020 season a wash, allowed UConn to escape the threat of snapping the string of consecutive trips to the Final Four, enabling the Huskies to confront the danger by turning the page better armed.

At some point, though, push was going to come to shove in a jarring, physical showdown, a matchup so tantalizing the selection committee couldn’t wait for the Final Four this weekend here at the Alamodome to cap the nearly month-long marathon of hosting the entire 64-team affair in this area of Texas.

So, with the power invested unto them to toss some powers around, the committee came up with a way to move up the process to Monday night in the River Walk Region by placing the top-seeded Huskies and Lady Bears on the same path, hitting Baylor with an under seed of two and the deed got done, though it nearly got derailed in the round of Sweet 16 on Saturday when Michigan took Hall of Fame coach Kim Mulkey’s shock troops into overtime.

But if Baylor had dodged the Cinderella Wolverines who previously dispatched once mighty Tennessee, the Bears at the finish ran into a hail of shattering glass combined from the “Paige-turning” experience UConn displayed all season,  a gut-wrenching injury to one of Baylor’s own,  and a seemingly blown foul call at the finish that potentially deprived Mulkey’s shot at maintaining the defending champs claim into the national semifinals.

When it all cleared, UConn, ranked No. 1 in the final poll, was standing with a 69-67 victory, celebrated frosh Paige Bueckers had written another incredible court chapter with a 28-point performance and River Run Region Most Valuable Player honors, and the Huskies (28-1) are headed to their 13th straight Final Four appearance Friday night where their national semifinals opponent will be third-seeded Arizona making its Women’s Final Four debut.

The Wildcats (20-5) out of the Mercado Region upset second-seeded Texas A&M in the Sweet 16 and then ruined fourth-seeded Indiana’s bid to be the Final Four rookie, filling the air with threes and riding Aari McDonald’s 33 points to a 66-53 victory Monday night following the UConn-Baylor tussle.

On Tuesday night, the slots on the other side will be filled with Mercado Region top-seed South Carolina meeting upstart and sixth-seeded Texas at 7 p.m. on ESPN, followed at nine on the same network with top-seed Stanford in the Alamo region meeting second seeded Louisville.

Though the 39th NCAA women’s tournament has become the greatest of them all in terms of numbers of quality teams deeper beyond past Final Four level showdowns, until Monday night, it had become the greatest few have seen.

But the geographical proximity of Baylor (28-3) from the north halfway between here and Dallas in Waco allowed the Alamodome to be penetrated closer to its government-limited 17 percent capacity, enabling local fans and the Baylor crowd to watch the another fight for the ages between the two powers who were set to meet in early January until Mulkey tested positive and the game was cancelled.

Ironically, despite tests all winter and recent vaccinations, Auriemma came up positive before the trip to Texas, quarantined through the first two rounds while Associated Head Coach Chris Dailey guided the Huskies to a pair of wins, and then arrived in time last weekend to lead UConn over Iowa in the matchup of the two national newcomer sensations in Bueckers and Iowa’s Caitlyn Clark.

So the stage was set for the grueling 40 minutes that was Monday’s confrontation.

“This was harder than winning some of the national championship games that we’ve won,” Auriemma said. “Without question. Without question. This game was tougher than a handful of National Championship games or any Final Four games that you want to mention.

“So winning this game, given how it played out, you know, getting down 10, that’s an amazing accomplishment by these young kids.”

Asked to compare the Monday win to the other 12 straight Elite Eight triumphs, Auriemma responded, “It’s a lot to digest, but right now you can only think about this particular one. You don’t necessarily are thinking the other 12. We have 10 kids on our team that have not been to one Final Four. And so that to me is what the excitement is all about. Those 10 kids have never been to one and they’re getting an opportunity to go to their very first.

“What I try to tell everyone, when they say which one, how does this one feel compared to all the rest,” continued Auriemma, who turned 67 earlier this month. “They all feel amazing. There’s never been one that felt bad. It’s like Christmas. People say, how was your Christmas? I never had a bad one. They’re all amazing.”

But for a long time, this one looked like it was going to be parked along side the two eliminating buzzer-beaters in the national semifinals of 2017, ending the record 119-game win streak, and 2018, losing to eventual champion Notre Dame.

UConn drew first blood with an early 12-point lead before the Bears asserted themselves with a 10-0 run and by the third had commanding position with a 10-point lead in the third with 2:09 left in the period.

However, soon therefore, point guard Didi Richards went down with a hamstring injury on Baylor.

Bueckers, like she had done many times during the season, began leading the way and just like that the Huskies took off on a 19-0 run for a nine-point lead.

The Bears were leaderless, though Dijonai Carrington, who was doing her best to keep the ship together, finished with 22 points.

Now, as the clock wound down, so, too, was UConn’s ability to seal the outcome, the Huskies advantage being narrowed possession by possession.

“I was proud of our team,” Mulkey said. “They kept fighting. And all you can do is ask for the opportunity to win it at the end. And I thought — what else can I do? All I can do is put it in the hands of two kids (the other NaLyssa Smith with 14 points and 13 rebounds) we think can get fouled or score the ball. And, guys, you all can write the rest of the story.”

As it turned, the rest of the story became its own spinoff.

UConn missed clinching foul shots.

It was a one-point lead, 17.2 seconds remained with Baylor in possession and about to come out of a time out.

Carrington, a grad transfer, got the ball at the top of the key with six seconds left.

She drove down, put the shot up over the outstretched arms of Olivia Nelson-Ododa and freshman Aaliyah Edwards, who was helping to defend on the play.

The shot fell short as bodies collided, but nothing was called, and the Huskies got possession, Christyn Williams grabbing a rebound as initial reaction ranged from to the rough-and-rumble let it go management of the game or where’s the foul.

Connecticut then went to the line and got the game’s final point and the Huskies were on their way to extending the Final Four appearance streak to 13 while Baylor’s championship rule for 2019-20 2020-March 29, 2021 was over, the Bears left to grumble.

They were soon joined by a large amount of social media reaction from the celebrity level of NBA great LeBron James to the casual basketball fan.

And of course, there was a difference of opinion from the coaches at both press conferences.

Asked what Mulkey saw, the coach turned the question back on the writer on the zoom call, which is how all interviews are being conducted with the protocols continuing.

The writer expressed surprise at the no call and Mulkey said, “Then write it like that. You don’t need a quote from me. I’ve got still shots and video from two angles. One kid hits her in the face, one kid hits her on the elbow. And she was one of the options. One option was for NaLyssa, and the second was for her.”

Auriemma, on the other hand: “A call’s a call and you got to live with it. And the officials are going to make the call they think they need to make.”

On LeBron, he laughed, saying, “I probably doubt that in his career he’s ever won a game (on a bad call) and decided to give it back because he looked at it and went, `That was a foul.’”

On ESPN’s SportsCenter, former coach Carolyn Peck, who has been part of the halftime studio crew, showed the play but then showed a bunch of no-calls that could have been fouls helping the Huskies. She also noted, Baylor contributed to its own situation with 12 turnovers and eight missed foul shots while the Huskies missed seven.

After what became the game’s final point, the Huskies foul shot, Baylor on the rebound threw the ball long down court and Bueckers, appropriately, was there to intercept the pass and the celebration/agonizing began.

On the comeback, she said, “Once we got that ball movement better and we started pushing in transition, getting easier buckets against their tough defense in half court. I think that we opened the game for us. I was just trying to so and our whole team was just trying to perform enough in order to win.

“I think it spoke for our mentality the whole season of us just facing adversity and taking it with our chin and just fighting back,” Bueckers said. “They hit us, they went on their runs. Basketball is a game of runs. We just tried to stay confident. 

“And we didn’t want to go home and we wanted to keep competing and make it to the Final Four. And I think we just really stuck together. We still have a killer mentality.

“As a little kid (in Minneapolis), I would be outside at the park shooting hoops, envisioning these moments but you never really know if you’re going to get those chances and opportunities.”

Of his star, Auriemma said, “What Paige can do is sense the moment. Like all great players, she can sense the moment, when it’s time, what’s needed in that time, what’s necessary.”

Moon Ursin added 13 points to Baylor’s total, while Williams added 21 for UConn and Evina Westbrook scored 11.

Bueckers, Carrington, Smith, Williams, and Iowa freshman Caitlyn Clark were on the River Walk All Region Team, where Paige earned Most Outstanding Player.

Off the other game, Arizona’s McDonald, also the MVP, was joined on the Mercado All Region team by Indiana’s Grace Berger, North Carolina State’s Jada Boyd, Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes, and Texas A&M’s Jordan Nixon.

And that’s the report for the moment.