UConn women ready for ‘business trip’
STORRS — The weather’s forecasted to be relatively pleasant Sunday in Tulsa, Okla., with sun and temperatures expected in the high 50s.
Yet, the Huskies aren’t treating their upcoming two-game road trip as a vacation.
“It’s pretty (much) a business trip,” guard Katie Lou Samuelson said Friday following practice at the Werth Center. “So, we know we have to go play these two games, execute each one to the best of our abilities, and get out.”
The 11-time national champions visit Tulsa on Sunday, before making their first trip to Wichita State on Tuesday — teams they’re a combined 9-0 against all-time.
The Huskies have plenty they would like to accomplish in their time away from home. First and foremost, a victory over Tulsa will give Geno Auriemma & Co. at least a share of the American Athletic Conference regular-season title for the sixth time in six years.
Given their dominance in AAC play (113-0 all-time), that accomplishment might’ve seemed like a formality when the season tipped off in November. Nevertheless, it’s an accomplish that they can savor.
“We like to focus on the bigger picture and stuff, but these little accolades is what helps us get to the tournament and stuff,” sophomore guard Mikayla Coombs said. “(Assistant coach Chris Dailey) likes to tell us not to take everything with a grain of salt.”
This season, like most others during Auriemma’s
the UConn program. Those guys were incredible winners.”
When Calhoun and several other members of that 1999 title team are honored at halftime of UConn’s bout with Cincinnati on on Sunday at the XL Center (2 p.m., ESPN), Hurley can only wish his team plays with half the intensity of that championship group.
“Man,” the first-year UConn coach said after practice on Saturday, “I hope that we represent that uniform better than we did in front of Charlie (Villanueva).”
Hurley is referring to the Huskies’ disheartening, 77-59 loss to SMU on Thursday night in Dallas — a game Villanueva attended.
Hurley ripped into his team after the game, calling the loss “embarrassing” and “shameful,” among numerous other unflattering adjectives. It didn’t get much better the past couple of days.
“A lot of postgame frustration for me,” Hurley said, “which carried over to (Friday’s) scathing video session, which then carried over to (Friday’s) practice. We’re just trying to make a point that we’re in the situation we’re in as a team, as we’re trying to build a championship program. There are acceptable ways for us to depart the court after a loss this year. But it’s got to be in a way where we’re playing with honor and represent the uniform the right way.”
One “acceptable way” would be how the Huskies walked off the court at Cincinnati six weeks earlier, after a 74-72 loss in overtime. UConn (13-13, 4-9 AAC) battled back from an 11-point second-half deficit against one of the toughest teams in the country, at a venue the Huskies haven’t won at in seven years, before succumbing in OT.
“We looked almost unrecognizable,” the coach continued. “We looked like a team that was on the rise there. Watching the SMU game and then the Cincinnati game, we almost looked like two different teams.”
Of course, in a sense, they were. UConn’s top two scorers that night were Jalen Adams and Alterique Gilbert. Adams is out for at least a couple more weeks with a sprained MCL, while Gilbert returned to the lineup for the first time in five games on Thursday night after a shoulder injury and looked rusty.
Hurley ended Saturday’s practice on a positive note, reminding his team of how well it had played Cincinnati (22-4, 11-2 AAC) on the road six weeks earlier.
“We didn’t lose that game at Cincinnati because they out-toughed us,” Hurley noted. “We lost because we couldn’t make an extra bucket. But we were just as tough as them.”
With a bunch of former Huskies sporting national championship rings looking on, Hurley can only hope for a similar effort on Sunday afternoon.
“We’ve got to have that UConn pride.”
RIM RATTLINGS
Players and coaches from the ‘99 title team expected to be honored in a 10-minute halftime ceremony on Sunday include Calhoun, Richard Hamilton, Khalid ElAmin, Jake Voskuhl, Kevin Freeman, Souleymane Wane, Edmund Saunders, Rahamel Jones, E.J. Harrison, Beau Archibald and Richard Moore. Current assistant coach Tom Moore will be there, as well.