When it seems like UConn women's basketball has run out of accomplishments, the Huskies broke new ground with Monday's win against South Carolina
by Dick Weiss for TheAmerican.org
STORRS, Conn.-- This is what history is like for the University of Connecticut's women's basketball power.
The outcome is expected long before tip off. Thirty minutes before the Huskies' game against South Carolina last night at Gampel Pavilion, the scoreboard video zeroed in on a women holding up a sign that said, “Connecticut has 100 straight wins. And I'm 101.”
A group of enthusiastic undergrads standing in the first row of the baseline each showed up with a letter on their bare chests that read, “100 @ Counting.”
One hundred straight victories.
The Huskies reached that mythical milestone here last night, defeating sixth-ranked South Carolina, 66-55, before a sellout crowd of 10,167 adoring fans and fabled alumnae like Olympians Breanna Stewart and Maya Moore at Gampel Pavilion.
It is almost unfathomable to imagine.
But Geno Auriemma continues to take the top-ranked Huskies, who have been No. 1 in the AP poll for 51 straight weeks, into uncharted waters. Eleven national championships between 1995-2016, 17 Final Fours, six perfect seasons, 11 straight seasons of 30 wins or more, a 980-134 career record.
This is one of the greatest dynasties in the history of Division I college sports.
And as long as Auriemma doesn't mind the New England cold, and he can keep his star players for four years and not lose them early to the WNBA or Russia, there is no reason to think it won't continue. His teams won 70 consecutive games between 2001-03, then 90 straight between 2008-2011.
This was supposed to be a transition year for the Huskies, who lost three All Americans - Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson - the top three picks in the WNBA draft last spring after four consecutive NCAA championships.
It hasn't always been easy. Florida State almost caught the Huskies in the 2016-17 season-opener before falling 78-76 and games against Baylor, Notre Dame and Maryland have been competitive enough to make a five-peat challenging. But the 25-0 Huskies, to their credit, haven't missed a beat to date. UConn was once again the favorite in the American Athletic Conference. But Monday’s win against South Carolina was their sixth non-league victory over a team ranked in the top 8.
“I think if last year's team had done this, it would have been less heroic,” Auriemma said. “We had the three best players in the country. When we started this season, nobody could have projected us to be here, not with what we had coming back and everybody else had coming back.
“Tonight Katie Lou (Samuelson) was struggling and Kia Nurse couldn't, but we figured out a way to do it.”
Don't they always?
This UConn team may only have a seven-player rotation. But anyone can go off on a given night. In a game when the six-foot-three Samuelson, a sophomore star, shot just 2 for 12 and the dependable Nurse couldn't run full speed and only played 12 minutes because of an ankle, it was Gabby Williams’ turn to become the driving force behind this team.
The five-foot-11 junior forward from Sparks, Nevada, ripped through the South Carolina defense for 26 points and 14 rebounds in a full 40 minutes, using her lateral quickness and wingspan to step into passing lanes and prevent the Gamecocks' two physical front court players -- six-foot-five A'ja Wilson and six-foot-four Alaina Coates -- from overwhelming the Huskies inside.
“There's no one like her in college basketball,” Auriemma said of Williams. “If her basketball skill ever catches up with her talent, she's going to be the next wave of great player in the game.”
It wasn't always that way.
Williams came to Storrs as a point guard. “There was only one thing,” Auriemma said. “She couldn't dribble, pass or shoot. So we played her in the post. Now she can do all those things and score in the post. I could never envison her being a Maya Moore when she arrived. But she had a Maya Moore-like performance tonight. You just don't know when it's going to happen. It's not like we have a magic laboratory when we produce a young Frankenstein.
“Unless you've been in our locker room, you can't understand it But she's done it in the biggest games.”
A lot has to do with work habit and persistence.
Trailing 29-28 late in the first half, the Huskies scored seven straight to take a six-point halftime lead. South Carolina cut the deficit to 40-37 midway through the third quarter, but Williams had consecutive layups to start an 11-2 run to close the quarter and take a 51-39 lead while limiting the most talented team the SEC to just 10 points on 4 for 16 shooting.
“We had too many empty possessions and they turned them into easy baskets,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “You can't let your guard down against them, If you do they make you pay every time.”
UConn has the assembly line humming again. “Ninety nine, 100? That's just a number,” Williams said.
This team, like every one of Auriemma's teams in this century, has the same goal -- winning the NCAA tournament.
“This group carried the torch over the finish line,” he said. “But this streak is not all theirs. Now, if they win a national championship, that will be all theirs.”