The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Auriemma: Jackson State a ‘complicated’ matchup
STORRS — UConn women’s basketball has won 29 straight first round games in the NCAA Tournament. The Huskies last loss in the opening game was in 1993.
The Huskies have been a No. 1 seed in 22 of those first round games, each time facing a No. 16 seeded team for an often easy and smooth blowout win.
But that may not be the case this year.
UConn is a No. 3 seed for the first time since 2005 and because of that it’s paired up against No. 14 seed Jackson State — a team that not only is the best its own league but has also shown it can just as well hang with Power Five programs.
“This is the reason you want to be a No. 1 seed, so you don’t get this matchup in the first round,” Geno Auriemma said Friday. “I always say later in the season, I don’t care what seed we are. We just want to get in. Well, that’s a bunch of crap because you’re trying to avoid this game in the first round because they’re good.”
The Huskies (29-5, 18-0 Big East) host the Tigers (26-6, 18-0 SWAC) at 1 p.m. (ABC) in Saturday’s first round. The game is already sold out, the first time since 2002 that a first round game at Gampel Pavilion is a sell out. The winner of Saturday’s game will face the winner of No. 6 Syracuse-No. 11 Arizona in Monday’s second round (time TBD) in Storrs.
And despite this being the firstever meeting between UConn and Jackson State, Auriemma knows better to doubt an underdog — especially a team that not only plays nearly double amount of the players, but also boasts a strong defense.
“There’s this misconception that because you never hear of them and you never see them, ‘Well how can they be any good?’ ” he said. “Obviously we’ve never subscribed to that. Watching them play, you can see why they’ve dominated that league and why they’re so wellcoached and how hard they play. The things that they do are the
things that make it difficult to play against. … This is complicated tomorrow. This is complicated.”
Jackson State went undefeated in SWAC play and won the conference tournament for the third time in the last four years. The Tigers played 13 players in its tournament championship game, defeating Alcorn State 68-44.
They’re led by two-time SWAC Defensive Player of the Year Angel Jackson. The 6-foot-6 forward is No. 3 in the nation with 95 total blocks on the season. She averages 9.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.
The Tigers’ tough defense starts with Jackson and runs team wide. Jackson State is No. 2 in the nation in field goal percent defense, limiting opponents to 33.6% from the floor.
While UConn’s defense holds opponents to an average of 56.3 points per
game, the Tigers limit their opposition to an average of 56.6 points. They beat Big East member St. John’s 6056 in November and held tight against UCF, Oregon State, Mississippi State and Miami. Jackson State’s only blowout losses this year were to Texas (97-52) and Kansas State (79-37).
Jackson State brings a 21game win streak to Saturday’s meeting.
“One of the things that I like to ask (the team) when we’re getting ready to play in the NCAA Tournament and we’re playing somebody we’ve never seen before, I always ask, ‘So how do they win?’” Auriemma said. “And then when they tell you how they win, it makes it sound like they’re the favorite to win a National Championship. Then a lot of times when you say, ‘How do they lose? And then they list 15 things why a team loses. I asked our guys, so why do they (Jackson State) lose? And they said, ‘Well, they don’t lose in their tournament, and every game they did lose early on, it was a really tough game.’ You can tell a lot about a team’s losses almost
more than you can tell about their wins.”
UConn’s No. 1 priority on Saturday, and for its entire run in the tournament, will be staying out of foul trouble. With just eight available players, including just two forwards, the Huskies can’t afford for one to be forced to sit out early due to fouls.
And it doesn’t make things easier, that half of the Huskies’ roster will be making their NCAA Tournament debuts. Paige Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl are the only upperclassmen available. All three played in the national championship game two years ago in Minneapolis. The only other player with NCAA Tournament experience is sophomore Inês Bettencourt, who played in 11 total minutes across the Huskies’ first and second rounds last season.
“Our seniors, they’ve got to play a role that is both within the control of who they are — they’ve just got to be who they are — and then they’ve also got to play the role of putting up a front that if they’re
struggling with something, they can’t let the younger guys know that we’re struggling.” Auriemma said. “They’ve got to keep a certain level.”
Added Edwards: “I think we’ve made it this far with the same team, and there’s no difference. So I think as a leader, we’re just trying to emphasize that it’s the same standard that we hold ourselves to. It’s just more is at stake. But that shouldn’t change our game. We’re still in control of what we can control. Just keep playing how they’ve been playing. I think they’re built for this, and they’ve been playing fearless.”
For Edwards and Mühl, this will be their final March Madness as both announced they will be leaving Storrs this spring and beginning their professional careers. Edwards is expected to be a top-five draft pick in April’s 2024 WNBA Draft.
Bueckers, who missed all last season with an ACL injury, will return to UConn next year and has an additional year of eligibility remaining after that if she chooses. This is her first fully healthy March Maddess since leading UConn to the 2021 Final Four. In 2022, she missed 19 games due to a separate knee injury. While she returned in time for the postseason and helped the Huskies reach the national championship, she wasn’t fully herself.
This year, she’s back and playing the best basketball of her career.
“The one thing about Paige that I love is just I think she doesn’t let anything steer her off,” Edwards said. “She’s just always locked in. She always knows what she wants to do, how she’s going to get it and who she’s going to bring along the way to help her do it. I think she’s built for March.”
The Huskies will be looking to win on Saturday and make their 30thstraight appearance in the Second Round of the Big Dance.
“Look, we have one way to win. If that way doesn’t work, we’re screwed, and early vacation,” Auriemma said.