With practice time limited, Huskies turn up the heat
SEATTLE — Geno Auriemma stood on the edge of the court as the UConn women began practice Friday morning.
As his players ran through drills with a look of urgency, Auriemma strolled to midcourt and watched. It’s another March practice for a coach whose program has been to 14 consecutive Final Fours.
What’s left to perfect? “Well, leading up to March you want to practice a lot and you want to spend a lot of time on your team,” Auriemma said. “Unfortunately, this year we couldn’t.”
This indeed has been a different March after a different regular season for Auriemma and his program. As UConn prepares to face Ohio State in the Sweet 16 at Climate Pledge Arena on Saturday, lots of things seem the same as every other March, yet so much is different.
Practice time is always limited in the NCAA Tournament, even more this season as the regionals unfold at two sites. Time on the court is scarce because there are so many other demands — media availability, an open locker room, time at the podium, ESPN hits, more interviews and on and on.
“The biggest games of the year for your team you have the least amount of time on the game court, and you have the least amount of time for practice,” Auriemma said at a news conference after practice.
But Auriemma and Chris Dailey, perhaps more than any coaches in America, understand the tournament dance. Preparation is different, March after March.
Practice and preparation were different in January and February for this team. An onslaught of injuries prevented players from participating or limited availability for others.
Auriemma has talked about the inability to push his players or implement anything new. There were days when much of the game-planning was done off the court in an effort to preserve players.
“We had to just adjust,” Dorka Juhász said. “There were days when we’d go maybe an hour and 10 (minutes), when we used to go 2½ or three hours. Just walking through defensive stuff ... it was kind of up and down. We never had 10 players, so it was a challenge all season.”
Auriemma is famously demanding in practice. Conditioning is a hallmark of the program, and former players often talk about the level of competition in practice exceeding anything they faced in games.
That didn’t happen this year, at least not until the regular season ended. When Azzi Fudd and Caroline Ducharme returned, as Ice Brady’s availability increased, after Jana El Alfy enrolled and settled in, Auriemma had more bodies in practice as the team shifted attention to the postseason.
“Our practices were so light and so unlike the practices we normally have, because we only have seven and we can’t leave our best stuff here,” Auriemma said. “And so mistakes were coming left and right because we couldn’t just keep working on stuff. It was like, ‘OK, let’s go over the scouting report for the next game.’
“But leading up to the (Big East) tournament that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, that was us going back and saying that’s it. we’re back to normal Connecticut practices.”
It was at Nika Mühl’s urging that Auriemma elevated practice.
“You worry too much about what we want. You need to do what we need,” she told coaches.
“So we just went at it like, ‘Hey, I don’t care if it hurts. This is how hard we’re going to go,’ ” Auriemma said.
And so the intensity at practice increased ahead of and after the Big East tournament. It was like October practice leading up to the season — physically and emotionally demanding, the famously caustic coach pushing and prodding.
“They thrived on it; they loved it,” Auriemma said. “They were like, yeah, now we’re back to Connecticut.”
Said Mühl: “We needed it. He pushed us, but we needed it.”