Bueckers named to Wooden All-American Team

So much of what depletes UConn opponents of hope and energy happens as quickly as a no-look pass by Paige Bueckers, in a basketball finger snap that takes effect before it’s even felt.

“They’re just really good in transition,” said Syracuse guard Tiana Mangakahia, whose team believed before, and even during, Tuesday’s second-round NCAA Tournament game in its ability to disrupt and overcome the Huskies. “So even when you’re down by 15, you don’t feel down by 15. You feel down by eight. I guess it just got away quick. If we missed, they just pushed it down our throat.”

Syracuse players were in a helpless situation before they realized it.

Mangakahia was asked if UConn broke Syracuse’s spirit.

“I would say yes,” she said. “We believed in each other so much that when this happened it was like, dang, we didn’t think at all we’d be down by 15 at halftime. Even in the locker room, we were saying we’re still in it. But it was just hard.”

It was impossible. UConn’s quarter-century dominance has been a drawn-out trampling that extends back beyond retrievable memory for many. It’s been built, one stop and open-court basket at a time, on knocking the wind out of countless opponents who have a top scorer and, at least in theory, the perfect plan.

Iowa will take a familiar confidence into Saturday’s Sweet 16 game against the Huskies (1 p.m., ABC) at the Alamodome in San Antonio. It is a matchup highlighted by Bueckers and Caitlin Clark sharing the court, one also underscored by the fact that UConn, in these situations, typically has the answers in defensive waves crashing into an opponent’s standout player and a fast break that just … keeps … going.

“We like transition basketball, and that’s what we’re going to try to do,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “Iowa likes transition basketball. That’s what they’re going to try to do. So how do you help yourself against teams like that? You’ve got to make a lot of shots, because if you make a lot of shots, that cuts down on the transition stuff. You’ve got to limit your turnovers, so that cuts down on the transition things. There are things you can do to keep that transition offense that both teams have at a minimum. But it’s easier said than done.”

Each UConn team since that first championship in 1995, even since Auriemma’s first season in 1985-86, has had its own identity traits, but the backbone of the program’s success has really been about superior players doing a couple of things better than anyone — playing defense, and pushing the ball.

The UConn fast break has been, perhaps, basketball’s greatest stranglehold. It’s been run with precision by Sue Bird, Moriah Jefferson, Renee Montgomery, others. It’s been finished with authority by Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier, others.

Bueckers pushes it now, of course. She often finishes it, too. She does both — much like Diana Taurasi once did for the Huskies and still does in the WNBA.

“The first game I watched her play, I watched the first quarter, I told (wife Penny Taylor) and then after the game I texted Coach (Geno) Auriemma and I said, ‘She’s the best player in basketball already,’ ” Taurasi told Togethxr, an outlet co-founded by Bird, Alex Morgan, Chloe Kim and Simone Manuel that explores lifestyle, culture and sport. “For the simple fact that she can pass. She makes really hard passes look really easy and she makes really easy passes look really easy. That alone sets her apart from every other player in college.”

Bueckers leads UConn with averages of 19.9 points (many transition layups) and six assists (facilitating many transition layups). She is a national player of the year candidate. Saturday will be her 27th college game, all starts.

Taurasi started 14 of 33 games as a freshman in 2000-01, averaging 10.9 points and 3.3 assists. She was 1-for-15 from the field in a national semifinal loss to Notre Dame that season. Of course, Taurasi went on to win national championships each of the next three seasons and, with Stewart and Moore, is considered one of the three greatest players in program history.

“Freshman Paige has got way more confidence than I did,” Taurasi told Togethxr. “I was in the doghouse. I was like the water girl. I was doing chores for the seniors. We were in way different boats. I wasn’t even on the team, really, until everyone got hurt and then (Auriemma) was like, ‘You, come over here,’ and I was like, ‘All right, I’ll come in and play.’ But Paige, the level she’s playing at right now as a freshman, it’s incredible. You don’t play that efficiently and with that much confidence as a rookie, as a freshman, at Connecticut.”

Connecticut is seeing something rare in Bueckers, who plays with pluck that belies her inexperience. She is the creative, assertive and calm, distributor on the break for junior guards Christyn Williams and Evina Westbrook. Even junior forward Olivia Nelson-Ododa and freshman Aaliyah Edwards are in a transition groove, the Huskies at times Tuesday looking like a team in a full court layup drill.

Iowa is also seeing something rare in Clark, who leads the nation in scoring at 26.8 points a game. The Hawkeyes are second in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 86.6 points a game, but UConn is second in the nation in scoring defense (50.7). That defense kickstarts the transition offense and round and round the UConn basketball world goes. Something has to give. It’s usually the opponent’s psyche.

Williams, with help, is likely to draw the primary defensive assignment against Clark. If she is remotely successful, UConn will look to overwhelm Iowa on the run. Because UConn has succeeded in this type of situation time and again does not mean it will be easy.

Iowa (20-9) is not High Point or Syracuse. Auriemma, making his tournament debut after isolating with COVID-19 for 10 days, acknowledged the Hawkeyes scoring ability Thursday during a press conference.

“You go into a lot of games, thinking ‘If we do this, if we do that, we can probably keep them 20 points or 25 points under their average,” Auriemma said. “There are some games you go into and just go, ‘We might have to get 90 and hope we win 90-89.’ Sometimes that’s just the way it is.”

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder has talked a lot this week about the fun and joy her team plays with, and the fast pace it will embrace. That’s the Hawkeyes’ style. Other opponents have tried to slow the game against the Huskies. All have entered with a chosen course of action and a certain confidence. Every team in this round since 1993 has been sent packing.

“Personally, I’m not going to be starstruck,” Clark said of playing UConn. “It’s a team you grew up watching. It’s a cool opportunity more than anything . ... We’re going to believe we (can) win. We believe in each other. We believe in this team. When we step on the court, we’re not scared.”