The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UConn faces ‘tremendous challenge’ in Stanford
Short-handed Huskies face red-hot defending champs
MINNEAPOLIS — This is it.
Everything the UConn women’s basketball team has worked for this season and every up and down of its roller coaster journey comes down to this game. The Huskies have made it to their 14th straight Final Four, but in order to keep their season alive and advance to Sunday’s National Championship, they need to win Friday’s matchup against Stanford.
It won’t come easy. The Huskies will be without back-up forward Dorka Juhász against what UConn coach Geno Auriemma has called the longest team in the country. It will be Auriemma, the fastest coach in the sport’s history to reach 1,100 career wins, against the sport’s winningest coach, Tara VanDerveer. The Cardinal are playing their best basketball of the season, riding a 24-game win streak and looking to repeat as national champions.
“You just feel appreciative that you’re still playing, and you feel fortunate to be in this position, and you also know that there’s three other teams here that are better than any teams you’ve played up to this point, and you’re going to have to play better than you’ve ever played the entire season in order to win this thing,” Auriemma said. “Tremendous challenge for us, but we wouldn’t be here if we couldn’t handle it.”
It was a chilling moment inside Total Mortgage Arena Monday night when Juhász went down in the opening minutes of the second quarter. As she attempted to catch herself falling, the 6-foot-5 forward cleanly fractured and dislocated her left wrist. Her cries echoed throughout the arena as teammates stood near the bench in tears. It was the eighth injury to occur to UConn’s roster this
season as eight of its 12 players have missed at least two games or more due to injury or illness.
“Par for the course, right, that we lose probably our longest — her and Liv, Dorka, but it’s okay. We only play the longest team in the country in four days. So, it’s just the way the season has gone,” Auriemma said. “I expected them (the team) to be broken up about it and emotional about it. It’s not something that you see every day. But the way they responded is exactly the way we responded throughout the season.”
While the school announced Juhász’ decision to return to Storrs next season for her final year of eligibility and will attempt to fly her out to Minneapolis for Friday’s game, her unavailability creates a huge hole in UConn’s lineup.
Juhász’ injury depletes UConn’s depth up front. The Huskies will start Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Aaliyah Edwards per usual, but the two will need to avoid foul trouble, an Achilles’ heel for both players. Nelson-Ododa, playing her final week of collegiate basketball, has had four or more fouls in nine games, including fouling out of three. Edwards, one of two Huskies to play in every single game this season, has had six games with four or more fouls, including fouling out three times — most recently in the second overtime of Monday’s Elite Eight win over N.C. State.
“Staying out of foul trouble will be key for tomorrow,” Nelson-Ododa said. “I think that’s something Aaliyah and I have struggled with this tournament, and we’re aggressive on the defensive end, but just knowing when to be smart about it is going to be key.
“But otherwise just losing Dorka, she’s a critical part of our team, and just like any of the other injuries that happened this season, it’s just unfortunate, unfortunate timing. But that just makes it even more crucial for us to step up and rally together and really just come together as a team for tomorrow.”
The Huskies do have forwards Piath Gabriel and Amari DeBerry available on the bench to spell Nelson-Ododa and Edwards, but they don’t have as much tournament experience. Gabriel played four minutes in last year’s NCAA Tournament (two against High Point and two against Syracuse). A freshman, this is DeBerry’s first run through March Madness.
But it will take more than UConn’s frontcourt to slow down the defending national champions — which has a roster with five players over 6-foot-3, including leading scorer and rebounder Cameron Brink (6-4).
“They’re disciplined, and not every team is. They play exceptionally hard, and not every team does. They shoot the ball better than most teams in the country. When you put all those things together, you know you have a real difficult task ahead,” Auriemma said.
Playing in front of her hometown crowd, UConn’s Paige Bueckers will need to rise to the occasion just as she did Monday against N.C. State. Azzi Fudd and Christyn Williams will need to be consistent scorers while Evina Westbrook and Nika Mühl’s will be relied on to bring energy and defense off the bench.
“You’re not going to get here without having a balanced team. So, they have everything that you need: Paige; Azzi Fudd is a great shooter; Christyn Williams, No. 1 player in the country coming out of high school; three of their perimeter players are the No. 1 players in the country,” VanDerveer said. “They’re skilled. They’re talented. They play well together. Inside they’ve got Ododa, they’ve got Edwards, they’re physical, they rebound. It’s always a total package at this point. It’s not one player.”
The Huskies have met the Cardinal four times in the national semifinals, owning a 3-1 all-time edge. UConn won the first Final Four meeting in 1995 on its way to its first national championship, and its most recent Final Four meeting on its way to winning the 2014 title. The only time Stanford has beaten UConn in the semifinals was in 2008 in Tampa, Fla.
“I think that UConnStanford kind of bi-coastal rivalry is a longstanding tradition,” said Stanford’s Haley Jones, last year’s Most Outstanding Player of the Fina Four. “I’ve watched big games between the two of them so to be part of that is really special. But I think each program you have Hall of Fame coaches, the two winningest coaches of all times; all these All-Americans, Olympians, WNBA players come from both these programs. So, to be a part of that is huge.”