Looking to battle back
Huskies focused on mental toughness ahead of Big East opener
It’s been over a week and a half since UConn suffered its first loss of the season after falling to top-ranked South Carolina in the Battle 4 Atlantis Championship.
The loss wasn’t pretty — far from it, after UConn scored just three points in the fourth quarter — and it broke the Huskies’ 61-game win streak in regular season tournaments.
But after some time off and a week back to practice, Geno Auriemma feels confident his team has turned things around and addressed what went wrong against the Gamecocks. On Friday, the Huskies will get their first chance to show they’ve grown and improved when they open Big East play at Seton Hall.
“We got a lot done. We made a tremendous amount of progress since we got back. It’s been really really good,” Auriemma said Thursday. “There were issues that we needed to address and I think we addressed every one of them. Did we solve all of them? No, that’s going to take a while.
“But our team, generally speaking, early in the season with a lot of young guys, doesn’t always really look good because we have a lot of guys that handle the ball. … We’re in it for the long game so we have to take the good with the bad at this point.”
While Friday marks the beginning of conference play and a fresh slate for UConn, it will also be the first time this year the Huskies play without highlytouted freshman Azzi Fudd. The guard will be sidelined for at least the
next two weeks due to an ongoing foot injury.
Auriemma said Fudd tried to play through the injury but it not improve. So she will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
“Best to be cautious,” he said “It’s a long season and even more importantly, it’s a long career for her.”
Backup guards Nika Muhl and Caroline Ducharme will be responsible with replacing Fudd in the rotation. Ducharme is freshman — also highly regarded — while Muhl earned significant playing time last year.
“It’s not like we’re bringing experienced veteran players off the bench so that’s going to take some time to sort all that out,” Auriemma said. “Three things can happen when you go to your second group. They can add a lot. They can keep it the same or they can kill you. First two are acceptable. Three, I don’t like that.”
UConn’s frontcourt was expected to get a shakeup with the addition of junior Aubrey Griffin, who has been out with an ankle injury. Auriemma said Wednesday that Griffin would likely make her season debut this weekend, but he said on the Coach’s Show Thursday night that the forward is not ready.
Griffin (6-foot-1) would be a welcome addition to the frontcourt. Instead, UConn will have the same rotation.
Outside of personnel changes, the Huskies have focused the past week of practice on being mentally tough to prevent late-game fatigue and mistakes. Intensity in drills, workouts and scrimmages has risen with the team practicing last-second, buzzer-beater plays to maintain energy.
“Practice has been the most intense that is has been before when we started back in September, October officially,” senior Evina Westbrook said. “That also comes from us wanting that, wanting (Auriemma) to push us, to make it intense for us and all the coaches, and I think we’ve gotten to a point where we like it. We’ve been able to embrace it and now we just have to do that consistently.”
UConn had no response for South Carolina’s fourthquarter attack. Starters who averaged 33 minutes were worn out and UConn’s bench was depleted with Fudd sidelined. South Carolina scored 16 points in the final 10 minutes to win 73-57 while UConn’s only points came on a 3-pointer from Westbrook.
“Are you mentally tired then your body gives out a little bit or physically, do you get tired and then your mind wanders? I always think it’s mental first,” Auriemma said. “I think we got to get mentally tougher. These last five, six, seven days, I think that’s been a big point of emphasis for us.”
The Huskies will take their newfound mental strength and reconfigured lineup to the test in their first of two games this weekend when they travel to South Orange, N.J. Friday.
UConn will then host longtime rival Notre Dame in Storrs on Sunday.
UConn was undefeated last year in its return to the Big East. With the loss to South Carolina behind them, the Huskies will begin laying the groundwork in preparing to fix their mental lapses with an eye on preparing for March.
“I think people are just starting to understand not only what’s at stake but what we need to do in order to achieve all of our goals,” Westbrook said. “Obviously, the end goal is winning a national championship, so we have to be willing to give up a lot. We have to be willing to work 10 times harder than everyone does.”
NOTABLE VISITORS
UConn will honor Olympic athletes with a connection to the school on Sunday at 11 a.m. before its noon game against Notre Dame with a ceremony and unveiling of a new monument on Hillside Road. Former Olympic athletes expected to be in attendance include Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Stefanie Dolson . ... The Huskies swept Seton Hall (2-0) last season and are 53-10 all-time against the Pirates. Last February, Seton Hall held UConn to 26-points at the half – a then-season low for the Huskies —before falling, 70-49.