A lesson learned
Turning point of UConn’s season? The lone loss
The UConn women mostly rolled through their first 10 games, charging into the final week of January unbeaten and ranked third in the Associated Press poll.
Then the Huskies played Arkansas.
The No. 18 Razorbacks hit them with a barrage of 3-pointers, exposing flaws in their defense — flaws that, if not corrected, could further derail them. All told, the Huskies allowed 14 3s and Arkansas to shoot 51%.
What could have been seen as a low point for the Huskies — a 90-87 loss on Jan. 28 — instead became a turning point.
“With a young team, I think sometimes they win games and they think they’re invincible without really seeing the bigger picture,” UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said this week by phone. “I think maybe the Arkansas loss helped them see that.”
Paige Bueckers, one of seven freshmen on the now-No. 1 team in the country, said as much last weekend after the Huskies waltzed past Villanova en route to their 19th Big East Tournament title — and first since 2012.
“It was a lesson,” she said.
The Huskies, winners of 14 straight, are hitting their stride as they gear up for the NCAA Tournament in Texas. At 24-1, they’re on the short list of national championship contenders.
Of course, that’s always the goal — to be firing on all cylinders in March. It doesn’t always work that way, but it has more times than not for Geno Auriemma & Co. Look no further than their record 11 national titles.
As dominant as they looked for stretches early on, that Arkansas loss reminded them they still had work to do and room to grow.
“We’ve had teams that have learned without losing in a game, and we’ve had teams that needed losses in order to kind of regroup,” Dailey said.
“Anytime you don’t do enough to win the game — we did a lot on the offensive end, we just didn’t do enough on the defensive end — you can tell kids all you want what you have to do, and if they don’t do this, then this is going to happen, but I think Arkansas, it smacked them right in the face that if you don’t buckle down and defend, we’re going to be in for a tough time down the road.”
Nowhere has their growth been more apparent than on defense. The Huskies were dominant in the Big East Tournament, outscoring St. John’s, Villanova and Marquette by a combined 234-119. They held all three to under 30% shooting, and never trailed.
“From a defensive standpoint,” Dailey said, “I don’t know that we could play any better than we have the last three games.”
Statistically, the Huskies rank near the top of the country in most defensive categories. They’re third in both scoring defense (50.5 PPG allowed) and opponents’ shooting percentage (33.1) and 21st in 3-point defense (26.4).
They allowed an average of 52.9 points over their last 13 games, including four teams to under 40. SEC champion South Carolina, known for its fast-paced, transition attack, didn’t notch a single fastbreak point in a 63-59 overtime loss to the Huskies on Feb. 8.
“Some years you get through the conference tournament and you’re glad for the break because maybe you didn’t play well or maybe you’re banged up and you need some days off, and it’s a good thing,” Dailey said. “Sometimes it happens when you’re playing so well, and you almost wish you could play right away again. I think the break is good for us, but it’d be great to be able to play right away too because we were in such a good rhythm.”
It’s taken a team effort, but nobody’s stepped up more defensively than Christyn Williams, who bottled up the Big East’s top offensive threats on consecutive days. Williams, known primarily as a scorer, held St. John’s Leilani Correa, Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist and Marquette’s Selena Lott to a combined 12 points on 5-of-33 shooting.
“We don’t have just one person that we hang out to dry and say, ‘You have to stop that player,’ ” Dailey noted. “But certainly Christyn has taken on that role of concentrating and taking that assignment seriously. She’s taken it to heart, she’s taken greater leadership. She’s understanding our game plan to another level, paying attention more closely to the scouting report, paying attention more closely when we go through the things in our game plan.
“I think everyone has done that. I think Christyn in particular has really focused on trying to figure out another way to help the team.”