The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Huskies wonder what might have been
Over the last few weeks of the regular season and through the American Athletic Conference tournament, UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma watched his team evolve into a better version of itself, one that was starting to resemble a national championship contender.
“We felt like we put ourselves in a position where we were certainly going to have an opportunity to play our way into it,” Auriemma said Friday on a conference call. “It wasn’t as it was two months ago where we felt like we just don’t have it, we just don’t possess the things you need, we’re not doing the things you have to be doing at this time to consider yourself a true Final Four contender.
“What transpired over the last month and was clear and obvious to everyone is yeah, yeah we are.”
The growth that the Huskies showed down the stretch made the abrupt end to their season all the more difficult to swallow. That harsh reality struck Thursday afternoon when the NCAA made an unprecedented decision to cancel its women’s and men’s basketball tournaments, along with the rest of its winter and spring seasons, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
UConn was expected to host the opening two rounds of the tournament next weekend at Gampel Pavilion, seeking a record 12th national championship and 13th consecutive Final Four appearance. Unfortu
nately, the Huskies — 29-3, one win shy of a 15th straight 30-win season — never got the chance.
The Huskies won their final nine games, culminating with an 87-53 victory over Cincinnati in the AAC final on Monday. They were widely projected to be a No. 2 seed, and Auriemma was confident his team had shed its inconsistencies and was peaking at the right time.
“Look, I’ll be the first to tell you, a month ago or two months ago, I’m sitting there every day at practice and going home and going, ‘Man, we’re in for a load of disappointment at the end of this season because there’s just no way that this team can reach the goals that they have.’ … Then all of a sudden, this last month, it all turned, it all became what we wanted it to be,” he said. “It all started to look like, and we started to act like, and we started to carry ourselves like a team that could compete for a championship.
“I’m really proud of our team, and I’m really proud of the way they were able to turn it around.”
On Thursday, before the door was officially slammed shut on the 2019-20 campaign, Auriemma talked with his team about the
different scenarios that could unfold. That conversation, he said, was difficult, especially for seniors such as point guard Crystal Dangerfield, whose collegiate career is now over.
“Crystal said it’s very difficult for me to sit here and think about there’s no practice, there’s no NCAA tournament; that’s just inconceivable a week ago,” Auriemma said. “Monday night, when we won the tournament, Crystal said, ‘This is not really the trophy that I’m playing for this year.’
“It’s not an easy conversation. Adults are having a hard time figuring this one out, much less young people that are directly affected by this.”
The cancellation comes at a time when popularity in the sport is booming. This season was filled with upsets, parity and an everchanging top 10. South Carolina, Oregon and Baylor had separated themselves as national championship favorites, but not by much.
“This was one of those years where a lot of people thought, ‘We have a chance.’ … Even as far as getting to the Final Four was going to be an incredible journey for a lot of teams,” Auriemma said. “The amount of upsets this year, way different than the past.”
Auriemma plans to spend
these next few days and weeks at home, resting and waiting for the world to return to normalcy. With UConn moving to online classes amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus, many players will travel home. For those who can’t, like Polish native Anna Makurat, accommodations will be made to stay on campus. The team’s facilities will remain open, including the Werth Center.
“When it’s time for them, whoever it is, to say, ‘Hey, I need to start working out again,’ it’ll be available, no question about it,” Auriemma said.
At some point, Auriemma will turn his attention to next season. The Huskies are slated to return to the Big East. A highly touted recruiting class, headlined by Minnesota point guard and National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers, will be on board. On top of that, he expects everyone on the current roster to return, including draft-eligible junior Megan Walker, who averaged a team-high 19.7 points and 8.4 rebounds and was the AAC Player of the Year.
“As I’m talking to you right now, I have no reason to think that anybody that’s able to come back won’t be coming back,” he said.