Huskies

CONNECTICUT

70 NCAA.com

By Todd Krise

To most, two games are an afterthought.A minor blip on the radar. But toConnecticut and head coach Geno

Auriemma two particular regular-season contestshelped fuel yet another deep postseason run.

On February 18 and 27, the Huskies women’sbasketball team lost back-to-back home gamesfor the first time in 19 years. Shortly after, ques-tions about Connecticut’s mental and physicaltoughness began to arise.

“Our team has no fight,” Auriemma said fol-lowing his team’s 13-point loss to Notre Damethat was preceded by a one-point defeat to St.John’s (New York) nine days earlier. “We’re thekind of fighters that throw punches, and if youkeep backing up, we’ll keep punching you. But ifyou punch us back, we’re going to run and hide.”

That whimpering, Auriemma described, wasquickly silenced by three straight wins in the Big

East tournament, which helped claim the pro-gram’s fifth straight conference crown.

Add four more NCAA tournament wins tothat streak, and the Huskies have gone frominternal doubt to challenging for their eighthnational championship.

“They’re a little bit more grown up now,”Auriemma said. “They’ve come a long way. Itseems like they’ve come a long way in a shorttime, but they’ve been building on this sinceSeptember. I’m thrilled for them.”

Minor questions surrounded the Huskiesheading into the 2011-12 season, and the team’shead coach was addressing some of the most pru-dent ones. Auriemma said it would take threeplayers to replace the Big East’s all-time leadingscorer, Maya Moore, who graduated in 2011.

On top of that, Connecticut was not selectedto finish first in the Big East preseason coachespoll for the first time in six seasons. As it turnedout, the coaches were correct when Notre Dameclaimed the regular-season title before theHuskies defeated the Fighting Irish in the tour-nament championship game.

Auriemma, however, helped offset any doubtsin his locker room by bringing in the second-ranked recruiting class in the country to comple-ment four returning starters in sophomore guardBria Hartley, senior guard Tiffany Hayes andsophomore center Stefanie Dolson.

In typical Connecticut women’s basketball style,the Huskies began the season on a nine-game win-ning streak before being stopped at Baylor, 66-61,on December 18 in a battle between the top-ranked teams in the country. The No. 1 Bears gaveAuriemma exactly what he was looking for in anearly season evaluation of his team.

“I think in a lot of other ways we leave herewith a pretty good understanding of where weneed to be as a team,” Auriemma said, whosesquad could see Baylor in a possible national titlematchup. “I think both teams come out of it feel-ing pretty good. I don’t see any downside to theway this game was played.”

Following that loss, the only two teams thatdefeated the Huskies the rest of the season wereNotre Dame (twice) and St. John’s (New York).

Connecticut began the Big East tournamentwith a shaky 49-34 victory against Rutgers. TheHuskies then exacted revenge against St. John’s(New York), 74-43, in the semifinals and fol-lowed that with a pivotal 63-54 victory againstNotre Dame in the title game.

The championship win gave Auriemma his800th career victory, making him the fastestwomen’s Division I coach to reach the mark.

Connecticut opened the NCAA tournamentagainst Prairie View A&M. It was then able tomove past Kansas State, Penn State andKentucky to claim the Kingston Regional title.

The Huskies’ fifth straight Final Four appear-ance gives them another crack at rival NotreDame, which defeated them in the nationalsemifinals last season.

Connecticut learns from late regular-season defeats to reach its fifth straight Women’s Final Four

Head coach Geno Auriemma is the fastestDivision I women’s coach to 800 wins.

Connecticut is undefeated when sophomoreStefanie Dolson scores in double figures.

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OF NOTE

Not only is this Connecticut’s fifth straightFinal Four, but also its eighth straight 30-winseason. If the Huskies win their next twogames, it will be their eighth national title.

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