The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Staying in the moment
UConn not letting earlier win over South Carolina provide false sense of security
ALBANY, N.Y. — Not even a year has passed since that unforgettable night when the mighty UConn women’s basketball program was on the wrong end of one of the most talked about women’s collegiate basketball games in recent memory.
Some might have been ready to give the Huskies a free pass into the 2017 NCAA Division I women’s basketball national championship game since it was playing a Mississippi State team that had lost by 60 points to UConn in the 2015 tournament. However, the fired up Bulldogs had other ideas en route to a stunning Final Four upset.
It is a script that defending national champion South Carolina would love to follow in Monday’s Albany regional title game (7 p.m., ESPN) since the Gamecocks were trailing by 34 points at home on their way to a humbling 83-58 defeat to UConn earlier this season.
“It was the same with us when we played Mississippi State at the Hump (Humphrey Coliseum). It was tough for us, the crowd was in it, they were in it and it seemed like they didn’t miss a shot,” South Carolina senior forward A’ja Wilson said. “We watched film, we went back to the drawing board and we won the SEC championship, so it shows that is the game of basketball. Basketball is a game of runs and anything can happen, especially during this time of March.”
The UConn game went so poorly that Wilson apologized to her teammates after going 4 for 18 from the floor.
“I felt awful. That wasn’t me. It is not how I operate
at all,” Wilson said. “It was tough. I didn’t want my teammates to feel like it was their fault. I really wanted them to understand that it was on me and that is one thing about myself, I am going to hold myself accountable for everything, probably too accountable for some things. But I want them to understand that we are good; that is something that can be pushed behind us.”
The UConn players, especially the four returnUConn
ing starters, believe the loss to Mississippi State served as a chilling reminder that there are no sure things at this time of the year. The Huskies vow to be treating South Carolina as a team with every capability to ending their season and snapping the NCAA Division I women’s basketball record for consecutive Final Four appearances at 10.
“It (the Feb. 1 win over South Carolina) means nothing with what happens during the NCAA tournament. Everyone comes out wanting to play their best and wanting to win as much as the other team,”
junior guard/forward Katie Lou Samuelson said. “That last game is going to fuel them more so than it will technically fuel us.
“The understanding that in the NCAA tournament it is a different type of play from everyone. Just knowing that it is not going to be the same game is the key for us. There is no way that we should get caught up in what happened before. You saw the way they played Mississippi State after they lost to them and beat them, so there are no guarantees.”
It is a rare showdown of national champions. It is the first time since 1997 that the last two national championship teams have met in the tournament and just the fourth time it has taken place in the NCAA Division I women’s tournament.
South Carolina actually has more players who have taken part in a national championship game than UConn, which is a bit of a rarity considering the fact that UConn has won 11 of the last 23 national titles.