WALK-OFF WINNERS
As Big East dissipates, UConn can take solace in another title
Connecticut, looking every inch the repolished crown jewel of women’s basketball, cut down the nets. Again. The Huskies program lives on that ladder. So then what was left?
Turn out the lights on the traditional Big East, the party’s over.
The final wrap came Tuesday night, not with Rick Pitino’s Louisville men — he sat in the third row behind the Cardinals bench, by the way — but an all-Big East women’s national championship game that turned into one team’s statement of its return to greatness.
How appropriate for the champions to be there at the end, blowing away Louisville 93-60. They are probably the biggest victims of all in this breakup, and isn’t that awkward? The Connecticut women.
Consider that as the Geno Auriemma empire celebrates its eighth national title to pull even with Tennessee. Or while surveying a wondrous Tuesday box score that had the Huskies shooting 53%, hit- ting 13 of 26 three-point attempts, and breaking the record for the largest margin in a final by 10 points.
The Catholic 7 have their own new land. Notre Dame will do fine moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference. Syracuse and Pittsburgh will do fine. Louisville will do more than fine. Imagine Pitino’s lads at Cameron Indoor Stadium to meet Duke. It’ll take about 30 seconds for that to become a rivalry.
But rather odd, isn’t it? Nobody asked the Connecticut women to come along anywhere. Except, pretty soon, the White House. Again.
UConn is currently one of the most renowned programs in the nation, any game, any gender. Connecticut is to the women’s Final Four what turkey is to Thanksgiving tables. The Huskies were led in Tuesday’s rout by freshman Breanna Stewart’s 23 points and sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis’ 18. And they ain’t leaving early for the NBA.
“Everyone was on the same page,” Stewart said. “That’s what we were working toward all season, playing a game like this.”
Auriemma is now 8-0 in national title games, and it is unlikely this was the last one. He is even with Pat Summitt, whom he honored by saying he had joined the greatest coach in the history of women’s basketball. Now John Wooden’s 10 is out there.
“We’ve come a long way in 20 years,” Auriemma said afterward. “We’ve done an awful lot for women’s basketball at the University of Connecticut. Someday when they write the history of women’s basketball, we’ll be prominently mentioned, and I’m pretty proud of that.”
But unless something else happens, look what conference showdowns they have to look forward to. Connecticut vs. SMU and Tulane, in a league whose new name doesn’t quite yet ring a bell. As Jim Boeheim called it, “The American whatever.”
Oh well, nothing beats getting deserted like needing an annex soon for all the trophies. And Auriemma can continue his custom of booking ranked non-conference opponents in the way Las Vegas books comedians. So Tuesday night was Auld Lang Syne. Meanwhile, UConn might be ready for another title binge. And nobody stacks up the titles anywhere like Auriemma.
“When I wake up tomorrow morning, my life is not going to be that much different,” he said. “But we’ve got eight players on our team that their lives have changed forever now, because this is their first national championship.”
Lots of things have changed. But not Connecticut alone at the top. The Huskies have been left behind, and still are ahead of everyone.