The Guru NCAAW Report: Iowa Falls to Tennessee Rally Despite 21 From Lucy Olsen; UConn Routs Louisville; Penn State Drops Big Ten Home Opener to Indiana

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — There are those in the rooms of compliments and critics that will say that all things end with Geno.

When it comes to Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who grew up in Norristown, many things begin with him also.

Such was the uniter that got it all together for the inaugural Shark Beauty Women’s Championship Classic here Saturday night featuring a legacy doubleheader of No. 17 Iowa vs. Tennessee before his No. 2 Huskies took on No. 22 Louisville in the Barclays Center, home of the NBA Nets and WNBA New York Liberty Saturday night in front of a robust crowd of 9,114 (half sellout capacity but sprinkled evenly to give the full effect) and aired on the FOX Network.

It was an event with a little of everything, including two mea culpea’s from the non-winning sides of the Hawkeyes in a 78-68 loss to the Lady Vols in a game that was close until Tennessee’s pressure finally broke the opposition in the last two minutes of regulation.

As for the second game that was over so quick in terms of the ultimate Connecticut 85-52 triumph that even with a half-hour later than scheduled tipoff, those commuting down need not worry about missing the last Metro North or Amtrak.

The first game also had an interesting contrast in both programs using new coaches this season.

In the case of Iowa (8-1), which suffered its first loss, longtime assistant coach Jan Jensen was promoted soon after Caitlin Clark had set sail as the No. 1 overall draft pick by the Indiana Fever and Lisa Bluder retired.

Thus, she said, her job was a bit easier “knowing everyone in the building” in terms of retooling the program. “I’m glad they gave me a chance.”

Tennessee (7-0), the brand created by the legendary late Hall of Famer Pat Summitt and followed by two former players on the sidelines in Holly Warlick and Kellie Harper, the decision was made to break the trend and re-invent the wheel by hiring Sunbelt champion Marshall coach Kim Caldwell, who is doing just that in creating ones that are built to run on high speed express tracks.

The Lady Vols’ schedule to date has been a set of steppingstones to be in maximum readiness for the Southeastern Conference not far down the road.

The early victims list following some cupcakes to feast upon and test the equipment, included Conference-USA favorite Middle Tennessee.

This week with Caldwell insisting some things still need fixing, like rebounding in which Iowa owned the boards 48-33, though the counter was being forced into 30 turnovers, the competition ramped up with a last-second win in Knoxville over Florida State as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge and the first road game here.

Jensen spent most of the first part of her postgame press conference apologizing for not having the team ready for the ferocious press Caldwell is throwing against everyone.

Besides the famed arch-rival being one of the teams Auriemma sought to appear here, his healthy and powerful Huskies likely did the Lady Vols another favor in his game, so handling the Cardinals (5-4) that they’ll likely be drummed out of the next Associated Press poll on Monday, despite all the losses to ranked teams.

That’s one vacancy to allow Tennessee back into the rankings, ending a 22-week drought, longest in program history, that began with week five of last season.

 There were other sizable stretches of being unranked in the immediate prior seasons.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz after praising the execution of the event then offered a long apology for his team’s performance quickly cutting to the chase saying “We played like s——.”

He noted that it would have been worse had not Auriemma pulled his starters for stretches and running mercy offenses.

On the other hand, Paige Bueckers, the likely successor to Clark as the next WNBA overall No. 1, owned by Maddy Siegrist’s Dallas squad, was 0-6 from the field in the first half.

Paraphrasing Walz differently on her performance, scoring eight points, well below her 20.4 average, when asked which was her favorite WNBA Arena, UConn having played in several, she quipped, “Well, not Barclays.”

“Yeah, we had some success with Paige,” Walz said. “But she had six assists and 10 rebounds, so she impacted the game in other ways.

The Huskies were plus 18 after one, dropped to 12 in the second but by the half were up 49-24, giving some fans having seen enough time to grab a late nite capuccino on the way home.

Freshman Sarah Strong scored 21 points, Azzi Fudd added 18, and Connecticut also had a dominate rebounding night 52-28.

This was the Huskies first step into deeper waters playing four games of the next five against ranked opponents continuing to No. 10 Notre Dame on Thursday, though the Irish ranking number will be higher after the upset of No. 4 Texas.

“We got a lead on North Carolina and then it got away from us,” Auriemma said. “We got a lead on Ole Miss and we let it get away. We were determined not to let that happen here.”

No. 20 Iowa State and No. 6 Southern Cal are also on the schedule this month.

With the squad healthy for the first time in several seasons, the question put to Auriemma, whose NCAA collegiate win record improves to 1,221, is team a threat to increase the record of national championship trophies to 12.

“You get to that level, and we had Tina, Maya, and Renee. We had the absolute best point guard, we had the absolute best center, we had the absolute player in the country … we won’t know till later, but we have something like that going right now.”

He wasn’t ready to declare his group the favorite but said, “as long as we’re in the mix, we’re where we want to be.”

As for details on the first game, former Villanovan Lucy Olsen, in her first game back after missing two from a knee injury suffered in practice in the tropics preparing for a tournament, she continued where she left off, scoring 23 points on 7-14 from the field with five assists.

Addison O’Grady scored 17, but the day belonged to Tennessee, riding the play of Talaysia Cooper, who scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half.

Her shot with 3:04 left in the final period set off a 12-1 run closing the game out after the Hawkeyes collapsed under the pressure.

Before moving forward with the heart of her remarks Jensen thanked Auriemma.

This event, originally destined for Madison Square Garden until response was not do-able and the management here stepped right to the plate, according to Auriemma, is not a one shot deal.

‘We’re going to bring in champions but not always do-able,” according Auriemma, but would seek the best out there.

It’s also not in stone that it will always be at Barclays. 

And if Wells Fargo wanted to hold a premier MTE Event in two years as a preview of the NCAA eight-team regional, with a Philly guy deeply involved with all the parts to help make it happen, step one find open dates, step two pick up the phone.

And even if this event gets locked in here the opportunity exists to have another one.

“People are looking now, they want to invest in women’s sports,” he said Saturday night.

Prior to this, when the concept of a similar event was tossed around, Auriemma of a UConn participannnntion, said, “Anything logical would be looked at.”

Notre Dame would be very interested in bringing a homecoming for Merchantville’s Hanna Hidalgo.

The right situation, it wouldn’t take much arm twisting to bring Dawn Staley and South Carolina to town.

P.S., according to local media who live in the area, there was heavy promotion thru radio during the week. 

The Local Scene

There were just two games on the local card, Penn State at home in the Bryce Jordan Center dropped its Big Ten opener to Indiana 75-60 in the Bryce Jordan Center in State College.

Karoline Striplin off the bench had 27 for the Hoosiers (7-3, 1-0 Big Ten), while Yarden Garzon scored 22, shooting 6-for-10 three-pointers. Lilly Meiester had 10 points.

Penn State (8-2) got 19 points from Jayla Oden, while Gracie Merkle scored 16 points, shooting 6-for-8 from the field, and Gabby Elliott scored 13.

Deleware, in an in-state game home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, the Blue Hens (3-5) rolled on Delaware State 73-26 as Rebecca Demeke off the bench scored 21 points.

Andea’A Cherisher added 18 points and 7 rebounds, and Chloe Wilson scored 13.

No one scored in double digits for the Hornets (3-6), the best result showed Kiarra Mcelrath scoring seven points.

The National Scene

Beyond here across the nation in two other Big Ten openers, No. 7 Maryland (10-0) overcame a slow 18-6 start at Purdue (5-4) rallied for a 78-69 victory.

Saylor Poffenbargar had 17 points and 13 rebounds, while Rutger transfer Kylene Smikle scored 13, Shyanne Sellers scored 12, and Villanova transfer Christine Dalce had 10 points and 11 boards.

The Boilermakers got 17 points from Rashunda Jones, Reagan Bass scored 16, and Destini Lombard 15.

The Terrapins are off until Dec. 19 when hosting William & Mary in the XFINITY Center in College Park.

Out west, between two former Pac-12 rivals, No. 6 Southern Cal (8-1) won 66-53 at Oregon (7-3) in Eugene as JuJu Watkins scored 21 points, shooting 6-for-15 from the field, though it was all in 18 minutes before fouling out.

Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen scored 17 with 12 boards.

Deja Kelly had 16 for the Ducks (7-3), while Peyton Scott scored 13.

The Trojans host Fresno State in non-conference action on Tuesday night.

Harvard (10-1) at home beat Rhode Island 60-48) as Harmony Turner scored 26 points.

Sophie Phillips scored 17 for the Rams (4-7).

The Crimson next host Boston U. on Dec. 21.

South Dakota State (7-2) topped host Montana 78-70 as Brooklyn Meyer scored 32 winning for the Summit in the second part this week of the challenge series with the Big Sky. Dani Bartsch scored 19 for the Grizzlies (4-5).

Looking Ahead

The local scene becomes plentiful today, Villanova 48 hours after getting routed at home to Temple in the Big 5 Classic championship is at MAAC champion Fairfield in Connecticut at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.

Princeton on its Western swing tries to bounce back from losing at Portland when the Tigers visit Utah in Salt Lake City at 4 p.m. (ESPN+).

Rider hosts FDU at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) in Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

Lehigh at 1 p.m. (ESPN+) is at Cornell in Hamilton, N.Y., while Lafayette hosts Wagner at 2 p.m. (ESPN+) at the Kirby Sports Center in Easton, Pa.

Rutgers opens Big Ten play at Wisconsin at 3 p.m. (B1G+).

Nationally, No. 10 Notre Dame opens ACC play at Syracuse at noon on the ACCN.

No. 3 South Carolina in a major clash is at No. 9 TCU at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.

No. 25 Nebraska at 2 p.m. hosts 10-0 Minnesota in another Big Ten opener, which also in the conference at 4 p.m. No. 21 Illinois at No. 12 Ohio State (BTN), while out West, in another meeting of former Pac-12 rivals, No. 1 UCLA is at Washington at 5 p.m. in Seattle.

And that’s the report.