Under big pressure, UConn women keep winning

The world of women's college basketball was turned on its head last month when then-No. 6 Stanford edged then-No. 1 Connecticut 88-86 in overtime.

"Well, that's not supposed to happen." I guarantee that's what most fans and reporters of the sport were thinking upon hearing that news come out of the West Coast.

Connecticut has become so good over the years that there is almost no margin of error for that program.

For most programs, close losses, losses in overtime, losses on the road or losses to a Top 25 team are tolerable or understandable. For Connecticut, not so much.

The Huskies keep raising the bar. On themselves. They've won nine national championships since 1995, including the last two. And last season's national title capped a perfect 40-0 season.

I traveled to southern Connecticut for a game between No. 25 DePaul and the No. 2 Huskies last Friday in Bridgeport, a town more than 90 minutes from campus that eagerly snaps up a couple of UConn games each season.

The 8,000-seat Webster Bank Arena was almost full. And more than 20 reporters crammed into the media room after the game to talk with DePaul coach Doug Bruno and Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma after the Huskies' 34-point win.

At least six of those reporters travel with the Huskies to all road games. Many men's college teams don't get that coverage.

I asked Auriemma how he thinks his players would characterize the experience of playing at a place like Connecticut, a place that is unmatched in all of women's basketball, pros included, in terms of results, expectations, interest and pressure.

"There's so much that goes into what the finished product looks like on the court, and I admire (the players) for what they have to go through to make that happen," he said. "Everywhere they go, they are kind of judged a little differently.

"There's a lot of pressure from the fans. If someone starts playing poorly, it's not quite what it would be on the pro level, but it reaches some of that stuff."

Watch the players at Connecticut, though, and they seem far from flustered or overwhelmed. And you wonder, how is that? These are still just kids, 18 to 22 years old.

"If you have confidence in yourself, you can be a good player at Connecticut," Auriemma said. "You have to have a little bit of talent, obviously. But any kid who's got some talent and tremendous self-confidence will be a good player at Connecticut.

"If there's any doubt, any doubt at all, even this much (putting his fingers together), that you might not be good enough to play here, you're not.

"So the kids that we get are super tough, super confident. They think they're really good, and they can't wait to show it. That's how you get to where we are. We get those kinds of kids. Sometimes when they get here, their confidence is tested and it might get shaken. They have to have a pretty strong backbone to fight back."

Those who show that backbone, and maintain their sanity, are rewarded handsomely. Only one class at Connecticut since 2000 hasn't been a part of at least one national championship.

Scary thing is, 30 years into Auriemma's tenure, there seems to be no letup in this machine.

Breanna Stewart, the Huskies' do-everything 6-foot-4 forward who reminds me of the Chicago Sky's Elena Delle Donne, was the national player of the year last year as a sophomore. She's a leading candidate again this year, and she's not even the leading scorer on her team.

"The national championship is going to have to go through the UConn Huskies," said Bruno, who has coached the Olympic women's basketball team with Auriemma and is a close friend. "They are the best team in the country. There is nobody better."

Fun to see it up close and personal.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com

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