History-making Huskies have everything to prove

ALBANY, N.Y. — With a 29-point rout of the defending national champions, the UConn women return to the Final Four for a record 11th year in a row. By every major college basketball yardstick, this is as remarkable as it is unparalleled.

Katie Lou Samuelson, named first-team AP AllAmerican again on Monday, was an 8-year-old growing up in Southern California, not too far from the UCLA campus, the last time UConn did not make the Final Four.

Second-team All-American Gabby Williams, who, good grief, has to be one of the top five players in the nation, was 9.

Yes, the UConn women return to the NCAA Final Four for the 11th year in a row. The streak includes zero performances from Diana Taurasi or Sue Bird or any of the other UConn legends whot filled the rosters of the first five national champions. Not a game against Tennessee in the bunch.

The UConn women make history on top of history.

They are 406-15 during these past 11 seasons. Stanford, which beat them in the 2008 Final Four, broke their NCAA record winning streak of 90 games in December 2010. Mississippi State would break their subsequent record winning streak of 111 games at the Final Four last spring.

Notre Dame won seven of eight games against the Huskies during one stretch between April 2011 and March 2013, including twice in the Final Four, proving once and for all UConn’s vulnerability. The Irish have lost the next seven in a row, proving UConn is only too willing to extract payback after payback.

That about does it for the L’s since spring of 2007.

With the 94-65 victory over South Carolina at the Times Union Center, the UConn women long ago obliterated the women’s record for successive Finals Fours and now they have surpassed the UCLA men’s record of 10 between 19671976.

They have so trampled opponents that their biggest opponent these days is haters on social media and constipated old guys who can’t stand what those 11 Final Fours in a row mean.

Still, the program with 11 national titles and nothing to prove has a 2018 team with everything to prove. That’s what Mississippi State, one breathtaking shot, one stunning loss, did to the Huskies.

By this point, everyone in Connecticut is aware of another NCAA record: ESPN has set this one by showing the replay of Morgan William’s shot 10 million times.

When Goliath goes down, everyone — everyone — wants to see David’s stone.

“There’s no theme, no rallying cry, I don’t buy any of that stuff,” Auriemma said when asked if this is the Redemption Tour. “These kids are pretty good at understanding when it’s a big, big game. That is what you need more than a slogan. What happened last year, we can’t take that back. Mississippi deserved to win. That’s ancient history now.

“For us, it’s an opportunity to go back to where we felt like we didn’t give our best effort ... We were really anxious to go back and see how much we’ve changed since last year.”

On this night, the Huskies, 36-0, were led by a 5-5 sophomore point guard. Crystal Dangerfield hit 6-of-7 three-pointers in Columbus, Ohio, to open the season against Stanford, extending her range halfway to Akron. She scored a career high 24 points. Dangerfield did everything to cement that trip back to Columbus for the Final Four by hitting all

five threes she took in the first 20 minutes. Her three to beat the buzzer to the end the first quarter gave UConn an 18-point lead. It was over then and there.

Dangerfield, who had 19 of her 21 points before halftime, was 7 when the Huskies last failed to make the Final Four. Williams, the most outstanding performer of the regional, finished with a game-high 23.

“I don’t know if redemption is the word,” Williams said, “I think we definitely have something to prove not only to the rest of the world, but to ourselves, too.”

On Sunday, Auriemma used a larger dose of hyperbole.

“Yeah, two years without winning a national championship, I’ll probably have to move from my house,” Auriemma said. “Too many people know where I live, and we’ll be like 70-2, and

somebody will be out to get me. I’ll have to change where I go to the store, all that stuff.

“If we don’t win (against South Carolina), there’s not even any going back to Connecticut.”

With wines and restaurants and sauces and podcasts and Dunkin’ Donuts commercials and more national title rings than fingers, the man is more entrenched in Connecticut than the Mystic Aquarium and the gold dome on the state capitol. He’s not going anywhere.

Yet Auriemma is right that everyone expects UConn to win a 12th national championship. Tax deadline is every April. And it always arrives a few weeks after a UConn national championship. Right?

Scouting UConn’s Sweet Sixteen rout of Duke on Saturday, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley heard a UConn fan go, “You’re Monday!” and give her a thumbs up. She had a ready answer, “Monday night, you’re going to believe there’s a God.”

God knows the UConn women are going to their 11th Final Four in a row.

“Now all is well in women’s basketball,” Staley said Monday night.

Williams had said the pressure for this Elite Eight game was on UConn, not South Carolina. The Huskies had won four titles in a row with Breanna Stewart. And when Stewie, who was at the game Monday, graduated? They won all the games until they lost in the Final Four. Now this group has its chance to prove something to everyone.

Too many UConn weapons. Too much ball movement, 25 assists on 37 baskets. Too many open 3s and UConn hit 9-of-10 in the first half. Unlike her 4for-18 performance against UConn in February, the brilliant A’ja Wilson got her share on this night. Her 27 points weren’t nearly enough. With three players gone pro after last season, the Gamecocks just weren’t as good this season. This won’t be the best UConn will face in the NCAA Tournament.

“The pressure, it’s there the day you sign your letter of intent,” Auriemma had said Sunday. “It’s there the day you show up on campus. It’s there every day in practice and every game.

And still they dominate, over and over, so many times that the ones who tune in for 30 minutes in March cry UConn is bad for the sport.

“It’s remarkable,” Auriemma said on Sunday. “When you come to Connecticut and you realize there’s nothing that you could do in your four years that hasn’t already been done, I mean, unless you go undefeated all four years.”

Some girl who’s 7 or 8 is out there somewhere working on solving that problem.