Guru’s WBB March Madness IV: First-Round Business As Usual for UConn in Unusual Circumstances

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

No coach. No problem. 

Hall of Famer Geno Auriemma may have been absent Sunday night, taking COVID-19 safety precautions back in New England for two rounds while his top-ranked Connecticut squad launched another bid to add to the national championship trophy collection of 11, the 102-59 result over High Point in an NCAA women’s tournament opener at the Alamodome South Court in San Antonio, Texas was more of the same.

The victory sets up a dual reunion in a second-round date Tuesday night at 9 on ESPN on the venue’s North Court facing eighth-seeded Syracuse, which advanced over ninth-seeded South Dakota State.

Prior to their move to the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Orange (15-8) were a rival in the old Big East and the two teams met in 2016 in the national championship last won by UConn.

Meanwhile, the Huskies (25-1), the No. 1 seed in the River Walk Region, have been running a string doing this for so long that theoretically a baby born at the start of it would have potentially made it through college and would be well under way with a family of his or her own.

On Sunday, though High Point, making its NCAA debut as the Big South champion, may have been the name of the opponent, enough high points could be found among the victors.

Celebrated freshman Paige Bueckers continued to to rework the UConn program history books.

The native of Minnesota scored 24 points, making the total the most by a Huskies player in her first NCAA action, remarkable when one considers the stars before her who went on to WNBA and international acclaim.

Skyler Curran, the Big South Player of the Year, scored 14 for the Panthers (22-7), whose high points from High Point included a 3-2 lead on an early Curran basket from deep and as a team connecting from beyond the arc to produce nine treys on 34 attempts.

Bueckers, the third freshman to make the AP All-America Team earlier this week, besides her 24 points on 9-for-13 from the field, also had nine rebounds, six assists, four steals and two blocked shots.

“Paige absolutely has another gear,” said associate head coach Chris Dailey, a former Rutgers player who has a perfect 11-0 record filling in for Auriemma. “The more physical the game, and if she think’s she’s getting fouled, the next gear comes a lot faster.”

Buecker was also named one of four finalists this week for the Naismith player of the year, and that’s just the beginning of the awards brigade that will come down virtually with no live events being planned because of COVID.

“We don’t really care that we’re freshmen,” Bueckers said of the youthful roster. “There’s seven of us so we have to step up and play well for our upperclassmen and our team to win.

“It’s a whole lot of fun. I know it isn’t a normal experience of a March Madness ands a whole NCAA Tournament so we’re just trying to enjoy it as much as we can,” she continued at the postgame press conference held over zoom as all have been this season everywhere throughout the NCAA. “We’re just blessed to have the tournament.”

Junior Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 22 points, and freshman Aaliyah Edwards double doubled with 17 points and 12 rebounds.

“I think as freshman we did well at keeping the tempo and playing off our upperclassmen because they’re experienced; they’ve been through this two years ago,” said Edwards. “So just feeding off their energy and competing at the same level they are.”

The Huskies’ size compared to the Panthers was dominant enough to outscore them 62-18 in the paint.

The off court drama began March 14 after UConn claimed the Big East tournament a week earlier in the Huskies’ first season having returned to the conference from the American Athletic Conference.

Auriemma tested positive, though he has felt ok, and has had to be in quarantine for 10 days, preventing him from joining the team on Wednesday, assuming a win over Syracuse.

Several days later, Shea Ralph, a former UConn star and on the staff, returned home after a family member came up positive.

That left Dailey in charge with Jamelle Elliot and video coordinator Ben Kantor left to help keep things in shape.

“”Coach and CD have been doing this for 36 years, so they obviously have a really high IQ for basketball and when ‘Coach steps out, CD steps up,” Bueckers said.

“It feels obviously really different not having Geno and Shea here, but we’re a program that, `Hey, next guy’s up’ and we don’t worry about who’s not here,” Dailey said. “We have to worry about who we have, and that goes the same with injuries. We just don’t focus on that ... so far, so good.”

Well, it wasn’t picture perfect totally good.

Christyn Williams, who has been playing like her old self after a brief midseason slump, got into early foul trouble, but that was manageable.

Then freshman Nika Muhl four minutes into the second quarter was sidelined with a sprained right ankle just two weeks after a similar occurrence happened on her left during the Big East tournament, though she was back in action the next day.

Dailey said the team would know more in the morning.

Chasing Stanford’s VanDerveer

Meanwhile, Auriemma, who watched the game at home and turns 67 on Tuesday, picked up his 1,116th career win, second in Division I women’s history.

He did not gain on the leader, however, Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer, who in the final event of the 16-game marathon on Sunday that covered the first half of the opening round, gained her 1,120th as the Cardinal, the overall No. 1 team among the four top seeds just ahead of the Huskies, easily put away No. 16 Utah Valley 87-44.

When the late Pat Summitt retired because of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2012 from her Hall of Fame career at Tennessee, she had the record at 1,098.

VanDerveer passed her in early December and then Auriemma moved into second in mid-January.

Being in the Alamo Region, despite the blowout of the Western Athletic Conference designated representative by Stanford, there was still something to remember.

Kiana Williams, playing in her hometown on the Alamodome North Court, had 20 points for Stanford (26-2) and six from deep, the first two of which in the opening quarter enabled her to tie and pass Candice Wiggins as the Cardinal’s all-time three-point shooter. She finished the night with a career total 300.

Though 17 percent attendance will be allowed at the Sweet 16 and Final Four levels, when everything will be played in the Alamodome, only a limited number of friends and family of competing teams are allowed through the first two rounds.

“”It’s great, she had like 52 people here, she really got us going,” VanDerveer said of Williams. “Our whole team shot the ball well, especially in the first half. I think the best thing was we were able to rest people and no one got hurt. I thought we did a really good job.”

Chalk Night

Anyone betting in the opening round of the women’s tournament, unless someone is crazy for upsets, no one took a bath in the entire complement of eight games played in the River Walk Region, nor any in the other three. 

All 16 game winners, unlike the wildness with the men in Indianapolis, were upper seeds.

There were some close calls, however.

The closest was the overtime game in which fifth-seeded Georgia Tech in the Hemisfair Region rallied and edged 12th-seeded Stephen F. Austin, the Southland champion, 54-52, which is the same group, No. 4 West Virginia ousted No. 13 Lehigh, 77-53.

The Ladyjacks did have among the crowd a distinct advantage to the Yellowjackets (16-8) in that the five-and-a-half hour drive from Nacogdoches, Texas, to Bill Greehey Arena on the campus of St. Mary’s University (Texas).

Stephen F. Austin rode the home-crowd atmosphere to a 17-point lead.

“They were really loud and they were like the home team,” said Georgia Tech’s Lorela Cubaj. “It played a factor.”

She finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Yellowjackets got their first NCAA tournament win in nine seasons, dating to 2012.

It was also the first tourney win for former Texas star Nell Fortner since coaching Auburn in 2009.

“We did as a really good job of fighting and believing,” Fortner said of the team going to a press and gaining the comeback.

“We were taken aback at how physical the game was. They took it at us. We faced a deep hole to dig ourselves out of.

“We had to do what was necessary to survive and advance.”

It’s Off to the Races for Technical Defending Champs

Since no tournament was held last year, technically, Baylor (26-2), the second seed in the River Walk Region, is the defending champions, having edged the then-defending champions Notre Dame in 2019.

After a short break after winning another Big 12 title, the Lady Bears were anxious to get started and rolled to an easy 101-52 win over 15th-seeded Jackson State, the SWAC champion.

Baylor on Tuesday will meet seventh-seeded Virginia Tech (15-9), a 70-63 winner over 10th-seeded Marquette (19-7), the Big East tournament runnersup.

Moon Ursin scored 24 points while NaLyssa Smith had 18 points and 10 rebounds.

“I’m not a person who follows (horse racing) much,” said Hall of Fame Baylor coach Kim Mulkey, who starred as a player at Louisiana Tech. “But it’s like when you put those horses in the Kentucky Derby and they’re in those gates and they’re chomping at the bit to get out of it. I think having been here since Tuesday night, our kids were just ready to play. I was ready to be on that sideline. It’s been a long time.”

Ursin said the team’s play shows Baylor’s ready to keep the national trophy streak alive.

“At the end of the day, we have hoopers, we have ballers, and we’ve got Kim Mulkey.”

Defending American Honor

Now that Connecticut has departed, eighth-seeded South Florida is defending the honor of the American Athletic Conference as the automatic qualifier, though UCF is also in the field, playing on Monday.

The Bulls (19-3) had the second toughest win after Georgia Gech, playing in the Mercado Region and edging ninth-seeded Washington State 57-53.

USF on Tuesday gets to play top-seeded North Carolina State, which advanced 79-58 over 16th-seeded North Carolina A&T (14-2).

Washington State (12-12), in the tournament for just the second time and first in 30 seasons, rallied from a nine-point hole at halftime to tie the Bulls 45-45 going into the final 10 minutes.

New Zealander Charlisse Leger-Walker, the PAC-12 freshman of the year, pout the Cougars in front 53-52 with 1:47 left in regulation.

But that became the last hurrah on a glorified season as the Bulls limited Washington State to just a point the rest of the way ending the Cougars’ first NCAA appearance in 10,966 days, according to the school’s postgame email.

Leger-Walker finished with 18 points while Johanna Teder scored 16 points.

Cougars coach Kamie Ethridge got to coach in Texas- Erwin Center where she starred with the Longhorns in the mid-1980s.

“Jose (Fernandez) did a fantastic job and I thought USF had a special second quarter and we couldn’t get a handle on them,” “Ethridge said. “I loved our fight and loved our spirit, it’s just what we have been all year.

“They made a couple of more game-winning plays than us and we didn’t make enough shots to get us a win, but I’m very proud of our team.”

Elena Tsineke scored 18 points for the Bulls, Elisa Pinzan scored 12, and Sydni Harvey scored 10, while Bethy Mununga grabbed 11 rebounds.

And that’s the report.