The Guru Report: 10th-Ranked Villanova Falls to 7th-Ranked UConn for the Big East Title

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

 

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – When you’re on the bubble as the NCAA basketball tournament approaches and you play the first weekend in the two-week lead-up of conference playoffs and you don’t win the automatic bid that comes with the championship of your league, you must endure all the speculation from bracketologists and commentators evaluating your worthiness as to whether you should be in the 68-team field or be left to be claimed by one of the several other supplemental national tournaments.

 

That was the Villanova women’s fate a year ago until they ultimately heard their name called on the 8 p.m. Selection Sunday broadcast on ESPN, learning they would be sent to Michigan for the first two rounds where they upset BYU but then lost to the host Wolverines.

 

This time around the now 10^th-ranked Wildcats know they will be dancing but it won’t be as the Big East winner.

 

No. 7 UConn roadblocked that desire here Monday night with a 67-56 victory in the Mohegan Sun Arena as tournament MVP Aaliyah Edwards was the answer the Huskies (29-6) offered to counter Wildcats super star Maddy Siegrist on the inside and help the Huskies shrug off the injury-laden road that put suspense into what might be their outcome when the calendar chimed in the arrival of March Madness.

 

For all the negative records that besieged coach Geno Auriemma’s bunch such as first back-to-back losses in three decades; two conference losses on the season slate, when the time came to show their best, it was business as usual with another Big East title, the top-seeded Huskies’ third straight since returning from the American Athletic Conference where they won every title in that league from its outset.

 

  Caught dancing on the floor with his grandchildren during the confetti strewn celebration, Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma was just thrilled to close the book on all of it and open a new one. 

 

“So many things have happened on and off the court this past season – personally, team-wise, everything – that to get to this point, you just want to close that book and now start a brand new one starting next Sunday,” Auriemma said.

 

“And it ended, that book ended the right way. It had a lot of acts and a lot of tragedies, and a lot of ups and downs, a lot of stuff, but the book ended the right way. And now it’s time for a new one.”

 

Edwards had 19 points, 15 rebounds, while Dorka Juhasz had 16 points, Fairfield transfer Lou Lopez Senechal had 14, and Azzi Fudd, finally back in this tournament after missing most of the season with a knee injury, had 11 points, including three from deep, that helped put separation from the Wildcats after the half.

 

Ultimately, with the cause lost near the end of the game, it was still a bright spot to see Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer, get to 22 points, keeping alive scoring 20 or more points in every game this season, a total of 34 points, one short of the 2017 record of 35 set by Kelsey Plum at the University of Washington.

 

Lucy Olsen scored 14 while Christina Dalce grabbed 11 rebounds for the Wildcats (28-6).

 

Villanova, the second seed, off its devised strategy had a lot going for it early, but the Wildcats’ shot refused to drop. And Siegrist had to contend with a tough defense from the opposition.

 

“Yeah, I thought we came out really, really hard,” Siegrist said. “And we were getting anything we wanted. And we didn’t really take advantage like we should have.

 

“I mean, there’s nobody you can help off of. They’re five top players in the country. So you’ve got to guard everybody, and you’re getting it one-on-one a little bit inside. And then you’re playing with fouls, it’s really tough.” 

 

Earlier in the day in the next-to-the-last Associated Press Poll of the season, Villanova moved up to the Top 10 at 10^th, the highest ranking in the history of the program, and their 14^th appearance since making the first one after pulling an upset at then-ranked Princeton in the middle of November was also a program high.

 

Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, has seen it all at Villanova, first as an assistant at Saint Joseph’s and then from the late 1980s moving forward when UConn hired him.

 

“I’ve always said, no disrespect to our players or any other players in the league, but when you have the best player on the floor, then you have a chance to win every game,” he said.

 

“Well, how do you know?

 

“Trust me, I’ve been there a lot. When you have the best player on the floor, you’re a hard team to beat,” Auriemma continued.

 

“And there have been other good Villanova, outstanding Villanova teams, but maybe since the Shelly Pennefather years, when she was clearly the most dominant player, there hasn’t been somebody who can single-handedly win a game for them. They’ve always had to do it as a team, and they did it exceptionally well.

 

“And I think Denise (Dillon) coaches this team brilliantly. And they play hard, and they play with an edge and there’s a toughness about them. And I think they’re going to be hard as hell to beat in the NCAA Tournament, I don’t care who they play. Because if you haven’t played them and you haven’t seen that, you’re in for a treat.”

 

The good teams have some luck this time of year and the Wildcats had it in the quarterfinals when seventh-seeded DePaul missed free throws late that would have knocked Villanova out early, and then the next night, a missed shot near the finish and Siegrist rebound allowed Dillon’s squad to gain another narrow win and advance to the championship.

 

At that point, off the first two NCAA reveals from the tournament committee on who the top 16 teams would be at that moment and earn hosting sites for the first two rounds, despite regular season losses to Connecticut, the Wildcats were made a No. 4 seed with rankings of 15^th and 14^th.

 

Since then, all the teams on the third and fourth rows suffered upsets, while the Wildcats, who’s Net ranking has been in the 10-12 range for the several weeks, haver only lost to the Huskies since mid-December.

 

A year ago, despite a 70-40 spanking in the Big East championship, UConn made the field, so with a 67-56 much closer setback Monday night as an underdog, thanks to a 17-6 fourth period response to the 27-15 attack suffered in the third should not cause much damage.

 

Earlier in the day, James Madison, which used to be a top rival of Drexel and Delaware in the Colonial Athletic Association, beat Texas State 81-51 to win the Sun Belt title its first season in the league.

 

The Dukes were one of three teams to beat Saint Joseph’s in the Hawks’ first 17 games, winning the hosts tournament at Hagan Arena on Hawk Hill.

 

They joined top-ranked and reigning NCAA champion, as well as unbeaten, South Carolina with the SEC crown; Washington State with a first-ever PAC-12 title and coached by Kammie Ethridge, a former star on the U Texas powerhouses in the mid-1980s; Virginia Tech with a first-ever Atlantic Coast Confeence championship; Chattanooga with the Southern Conference crown; Iowa with the Big Ten title; Gardner-Webb winning the Big South tournament; Saint Louis with the Atlantic Ten title; Tennessee Tech over regular season winner Little Rock in the Ohio Valley with automatic bids.

 

On Tuesday, Green Bay and Cleveland State will meet for the Horizon crown; while No. 16 Gonzaga and Portland will play for the West Coast championship.

 

The remaining power five conference to determine a winner is the Big 12, playing later this week in Kansas City, with No. 14 Oklahoma, No. 15 Texas; and Iowa State, which dropped from the poll; as the major teams of note.

 

Locally Noted: Lehigh Wins; Temple Eliminated

 

The Owls as the eighth seed fell to ninth-seeded Wichita State 71-61 in one of three openers in the American Athletic Conference at Dickeys Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

Aleah Nelson, who made the all-conference team, had 22 points for the Owls (11-18), while Tiarra East scored 15, and Tarriyonna Gary scored 11 against the Shockers (17-13), who will play top-seeded South Florida on Tuesday.

 

In the Patriot League quarterfinals on campus sites of the higher seeded squads, third-seeded Lehigh beat Bucknell 63-55; Army upset Colgate 55-50; second-seeded Holy Cross beat American U. 73-44; and top-seeded Boston U. eliminated Loyola, Md., 66-52.

 

In the win by Lehigh (17-13), Mackenzie Kramer had 30 points and Frannie Hottinger had 25 points and 10 rebounds.

 

The Mountain Hawks will travel to Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., later this week on Thursday for the semifinals, while Army will visit Boston U. in Massachusetts.

 

On Tuesday, Rider, who just beat Marist in overtime; will play the Red Foxes again opening Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play in James Whalen Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

On Monday the league announced a three-year extension hosting the tourney at the Jersey Shore following this season. 

 

Delaware opens CAA play in the second round against Hampton at SECU Arena in Towson, Md., on Thursday, while Drexel, the second seed after a three-way tie for first, has a double-bye into the quarterfinals Friday at 5 p.m.

 

In the Ivy tournament at Princeton, the hosts and top-seeded Tigers play fourth-seeded Penn in Jadwin Gym 4:30 p.m. on Friday; before second-seeded Columbia plays third-seeded Harvard at 7 p.m.

 

The championship is Saturday.

 

And that is the report.