Women selected to win AAC; Samuelson named top player

PHILADELPHIA — In a perfect world, Geno Auriemma will not have to worry when his three returning starters come off the floor. He’ll be able to take out Katie Lou Samuelson, Napheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield without a noticeable dip in production from their replacements.

Unfortunately, the job doesn’t work that way — even when you’re a Hall of Famer.

“One thing we don’t have is we don’t have anybody who can guard anybody,” Auriemma, now in his 34th season as the UConn women’s coach, said Monday at American Athletic Conference media day. “Our team’s going to look like a college football team. We might have to win games 100 to 95. We can’t stop anybody. The only two guys who can guard anybody graduated.

“I don’t think any of these guys this summer went to the court and said, ‘I’ve got to work on my stance. I’ve got to practice guarding people.’ I don’t think that happened.”

Auriemma is confident in UConn’s ability to score. The Huskies — tabbed as the heavy favorite to win the AAC in a preseason coaches’ poll, garnering 10 of a possible 11 first-place votes — will put up plenty of points. But defensively? Who will guard the opposing team’s top offensive threat now that Gabby Williams and reigning AAC Defensive Player of the Year Kia Nurse are gone?

“We’re going to be creative defensively, let’s put it that way,” Auriemma said.

With that in mind, Auriemma had assistant coaches Chris Dailey and Shea Ralph attend a Boston Celtics practice during the summer. He also invited Mark Fox, the former head coach of Georgia’s men’s team, to a recent practice. He likes certain elements of both teams — particularly Celtics head coach Brad

Stevens’ ties to the college game.

“The interesting thing is how close to a college program (they are) because Brad was a college coach (at Butler) all those years. You see the similarities — and because of how young they are, it has that feel,” Auriemma said. “They don’t necessarily have that big guy in the middle, so a lot of their stuff is wide-open stuff. That’s kind of where we are this year and where we were last year, too.

“It’s like not we’re going up there and watching stuff that doesn’t fit.”

The Huskies are devoid of height this season. Azura Stevens’ early departure for the WNBA has left them noticeably thin in the frontcourt. Freshman Olivia Nelson-Ododa is 6-foot-4. Samuelson, the AAC Preseason Player of the Year, is 6-3. Two others are 6-2.

Samuelson who has been limited by offseason ankle surgery, likes the grit UConn has displayed in practice. She said the Huskies “have some fight,” and have worked tirelessly these last few weeks to improve their defensive abilities.

“We don’t have two defensive players of the year on this team anymore where we can be like, ‘Ok, you guys shut those guys down and we’ll go pick up the scraps,’ ” Samuelson said. “We all have to be able to hold our own.”

Dangerfield, a junior, described how Auriemma has gone about teaching defense differently this year than he had in the past. This year, he delivered the test before the lesson, so to speak.

“Last year, he kind of taught defense before we actually went out and practiced it,” Dangerfield said. “This year, he kind of just threw us out there to see what would happen. The first play down, he was like, ‘Nobody open their mouths.’ That’s the biggest thing that we’re going to have work on this year, is talking to each other. Not everybody has the same level of experience playing at this level. There’s going to be a few more practices of it.”

There will be a quick learning curve accompanied by lofty expectations. AAC opponents are 0-101 over the last five seasons against UConn. The Huskies, with 121 points, finished comfortably ahead of South Florida (111 points, one first-place vote), Houston (95), Central Florida (92) and Cincinnati (74) in the preseason coaches’ poll. UConn got all 10 available first place votes, as coaches cannot vote for their own team as No. 1. Auriemma’s first-place vote went to USF.

The Huskies also placed three players — Samuelson, Collier and Dangerfield — on the All-Conference team.

Fortunately, as Auriemma will tell you, his players have dealt with championship-level expectations before.