Down to the wire
UConn braces for final stretch of league play
The UConn women’s basketball team has seven games left in the regular season.
Seven games to correct any mistakes and master set plays out on the court.
Seven games to get their starters rest while also weaving injured players Azzi Fudd (knee) and Caroline Ducharme (concussion) back into the fold.
And, of course, seven games to prove itself and secure a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament next month.
That countdown begins Wednesday as the Huskies play in their final stretch of back-to-back road games this week, starting at Marquette in Milwaukee (8 p.m./SNY).
“This team has tremendous belief in themselves and even under the circumstances that they’re in that hasn’t wavered, maybe it’s gotten even stronger,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Sunday.
On Sunday, the Huskies proved themselves against No. 1-ranked South Carolina.
Unlike, last April’s National Championship game (the last time these two teams met), the Huskies not only stayed within reach of the Gamecocks the whole game but tied the score five times.
UConn led 25-14 after the first quarter at the XL Center, compared to trailing South Carolina 22-8 in last year’s title game in Minneapolis.
Sunday was UConn’s biggest test of the season and they passed impressively. Despite losing 81-77, the Huskies showed they’re strong enough to hang with the defending champs despite still being shorthanded.
The Gamecocks had 14 available players, yet only played nine with three players playing 36 minutes or more against the Huskies.
UConn had just eight available players and played only six up until the last 20 seconds when two of its starters fouled out. Only redshirt junior Aubrey Griffin played all 40 minutes, while the Huskies were without Fudd, Ducharme, Paige Bueckers (ACL) and Ice Brady (patella).
While the goal is always to win, Auriemma said he was encouraged by his team.
“We didn’t just go hide and let it become (a deficit of) 15-20 and, you know, feel sorry for ourselves. So, in that respect, they have a lot to feel good about,” Auriemma said. “… I knew we would play hard because we’ve been playing hard all year long. I knew we would compete like hell. … I know more now than I did at noon, and I feel better about my team. Not that I didn’t feel bad about them before, I felt great about my team before, but I feel really good about them right now and where we are.”
After being ranked at No. 5 in the AP Poll Top 25 for the past three weeks,
the Huskies moved up a spot to No. 4 in Monday’s latest poll because of how they played on Sunday.
On Feb. 3, ESPN’s latest bracketology had the Huskies as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in the Seattle Regional with LSU as the No. 2 seed and Maryland the No. 3.
On Thursday, the NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee will announce the first of two top 16 reveals of the top teams expected to compete in the NCAA Tournament. While a lot can change between this Thursday and when the committee makes its official selections on March 12, if UConn finds itself in the top of the top 16 it will bode well for March.
The Huskies already boast a 5-3 record against Top 25 teams this season, which continues to help their case for the tournament seeding selections.
“(We) try to get as many (top-25 matchups) in there as you can for that particular reason,” Auriemma said. “… If you don’t put yourself in the situation to play these guys, then you’re always pretending like you’re ready when you’re not really ready.”
The Huskies will need to win out the rest of the regular season in order to keep their spot in the top four of the AP poll and secure a No. 1 seed. Their last big test will be a Feb. 18 matchup at No. 15 Villanova.
While there’s never a
rush to bring back injured players, the next seven games will allow both Fudd and Ducharme to recover, return to the court and for the Huskies to integrate them back into their lineup and offense.
Fudd remains without a return timeline after reinjuring her right knee on Jan. 15. The star sophomore spent two weeks walking around with crutches but has now just wearing a brace on her knee. Fudd played in the first six games of the year before initially injuring her knee at Notre Dame on Dec. 4 (UConn never released the specifics of her injury). She sat out eight games and returned on Jan. 11 before re-injuring the knee four days later.
Ducharme, on the other hand, could be back as early as this week.
The sophomore guard has sat out the last 11 games after suffering a concussion in practice on Jan. 2. She participated in last Friday’s practice designated as “light contact” and in the team’s pregame warms up on Sunday. Auriemma said Ducharme’s skills have gotten better than ever, however, her return will continue to be based on how she responds to repetitive, complete practices.
If she returns this week, she’ll not only give UConn nine available players for the first time since Dec. 21 but give them another outside threat to help lessen the burden off Lou Lopez Sénéchal.
“During the workouts,
it goes pretty good and then afterward sometimes it’s not so good and sometimes it is good,” Auriemma said. “So, we’re trying to monitor that, and it’s really frustrating because you watch her out there and her range is even better than it’s ever been, her release is even quicker than it’s ever been.”
Wednesday’s game at Marquette, whether with or without Ducharme available, will be the first step in preparing for the postseason in March. And as the Huskies found out last year following their first-ever loss in the national championship game, it only gets harder and harder every year to be the last team standing.
“Sometimes you come home from the NCAA Tournament and when you’re young, you know, you think, ‘I have unlimited amounts of these. A Final Four every year and we’re gonna win a national championship,’ “Auriemma said. “So, when you come home from the Final Four and you lost, the older you get the more it really really forces you to take a hard look at what’s going on here.
“And I think this team, you know, the older guys, especially Nika (Mühl), Aaliyah (Edwards) those two and Aubrey (Griffin) to a certain extent, I think they know we don’t have a lot of time left as a team together and they believe in each other.”