A test of mind and body
Geno Auriemma predicts COVID-19 influenced postseason will be a mental and physical challenge
STORRS — The NCAA Tournament, to some extent, is always a grind. Few know better than UConn coach Geno Auriemma. But this year’s will feel especially so because of COVID-19.
“This isn’t going to be an NCAA Tournament that you can make any kind of predictions or any kind of assumptions about how it’s going to be,” Auriemma said. “You know, you just cross your fingers, hope everything goes right, go through warmups, and after warmups let’s hope the game starts.
“And then when it starts, try to do the best you can, win, and try to do it again. But by no stretch of the imagination is this going to be easy.”
In some respects, the tournament, staged entirely in the San Antonio area, will be a battle of the mind as much as skills and stamina. But Auriemma and Co. have other business to tend to first, starting with the Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun. Assuming it goes to plan, the Huskies will play three games in three days, beginning with the quarterfinals Saturday at noon. The Huskies, topseeded and heavily favored, will play either St. John’s or Xavier, tipping off a trip that figures to be more monotonous than anything.
The Huskies finished the regular season 21-1, including 18-0 in Big East play, with a 65-55 victory over Marquette on Monday.
“Some teams are going to go to Mohegan and spend one or two days (there),” Auriemma said. “They’re going to be quarantining more than they’re going to be playing, then they’re going home. And then other teams are going to be there for four or five days.”
The Huskies, of course, plan to stay there for five days, much of which will be spent holed up in hotel rooms due to COVID-19 protocols.
Again, mind over matter. “Once you go there, you’ve got to cut your brain out of your head and put it
in a jar, put it in mush, and then sit in a room and stare at the walls,” Auriemma said. “Whichever group of kids can put their brain back in their head out of the jar, and then go out and play for two hours when they’re released into the yard, making sure they get their sunlight … you get to go to Texas and do it again.”
The NCAA Tournament will be held in three Texas cities, beginning March 21: San Antonio; Austin and San Marcos. All subsequent games will be in San Antonio, with the Final Four scheduled for April 2 and 4 at the Alamodome.
The 11-time national champion Huskies, seeded No. 1 in both top-16 reveals, will likely be the top overall seed if they take care of business this weekend at Mohegan Sun.
“Normally you would say, ‘Can’t wait to go to the NCAA Tournament, man, we’ve got all these plans. Can’t wait to go to the Big East Tournament, we’ve got all these plans.’ Now you’re just going there hoping to survive day to day,” Auriemma said.
Auriemma figures the teams best able to handle that grind will last the longest.
“To be honest with you, some teams are not going to handle it well,” Auriemma said. “Some kids are not going to handle it well. Some coaches are not going to handle it well.
“It’s unfortunate, but that’s where it is.” NOTES: UConn’s Paige Bueckers is one of 11 semifinalists for the Naismith Trophy. She is one of two freshmen on the list, along with Iowa’s Caitlin Clark . ... Freshman Aaliyah Edwards was named Big East Player of the Week. She averaged 16.3 points and 9.3 rebounds in three wins.