Repeat Prevention
UConn looks to avoid flashback of 2023 upset at Marquette
The UConn women’s basketball team last faced Marquette three weeks ago in Hartford on New Years’ Eve.
It was a top-20 matchup and one of the most anticipated early Big East games of the conference season.
But a lot can change in three weeks. The Huskies are now back ranked inside the top-10 despite losing Aubrey Griffin to an ACL injury for the remainder of the year. The Golden Eagles have fallen out of the AP Top 25 Poll after losing to two unranked conference foes.
On Tuesday (7 p.m. on SNY), the teams meet again for a rematch in Milwaukee at the Al McGuire Center. While UConn will look to continues its dominant hold atop the conference, Marquette will be hoping to spoil the Huskies’ current win streak and repeat last year’s historic upset over the Huskies.
“We’ve got to come out the same way we’ve been starting, aggressive and setting the tone because it’s not easy to play a team twice and let alone beat a team twice, especially if it’s an away game,” senior forward Aaliyah Edwards said Saturday. “But I think that as long as we keep fixing the little, minor mistakes that we had in today’s game and go watch film and practice and work on our strengths and play more to our strengths, I think we’ll be successful.”
The Huskies simply couldn’t keep up last year in Milwaukee. The fatigue of playing so many minutes because of the lack of available bodies finally caught up to them.
UConn had just eight healthy players when it faced the Golden Eagles on the road last February. No Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd,
Caroline Ducharme, or Ice Brady.
It didn’t help that the Huskies were coming off a close loss to South Caroline just three days before.
Marquette led for 33 minutes and by as many as 13 points in the 59-52 upset. The Huskies’ final attempt to claw back in the fourth allowed them to briefly tie the game, but it wasn’t enough to take over. The loss marked the first time 30 years UConn lost back-to-back games.
“I’m surprised that it’s taken this long for us to have that kind of mental checkout,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma told SNY after the game last year. “That’s the first time all year in 20something games that has happened. And tonight, happened to be that night playing against the wrong
team.”
After allowing UConn to avenge the loss in the semifinals of Big East Tournament about a month later and getting blown out by the Huskies, 95-64, on New Years’ Eve in Hartford, the Golden Eagles are looking to repeat history now that they’re back on their home floor.
As stunning as it was, Edwards said last year’s loss doesn’t hang over the Huskies.
“I think really our focus has just been what’s been going well for us this season,” she said. “Right now, we’re like (8-0) in the conference, so I think we’re just going off that and going after things that have been making us successful and playing to our strengths.”
The Huskies have won 12 straight and have a threegame lead atop the Big East. But they are now working with just nine healthy bodies after losing Griffin for the rest of the year due to an
ACL injury. Against Marquette on Dec. 31, Griffin had nine rebounds along with nine points in 19 minutes off the bench.
Bueckers, though, has stepped up over the past three weeks too. The redshirt junior leads UConn with 19.8 points per game and is averaging a 56.5 field goal percentage.
She has scored 20 points or more in four of the past six games, including 32 at Seton Hall last Wednesday, while shooting 63.2 percent.
“I just try to make the right play all the time and just take what the defense gives me,” Bueckers said. “Take open shots, shoot within the flow of offense. And never, I mean sometimes you do force things, but try really (not) to force things. Just let the game come to me. It’s just like how my teammates get me open, the plays that coaches call just set me up to that.”
“I think the way I think
the game, like my instincts and sort of like how I think a few steps ahead of every play. I think it helps me on offense and defense just to sort of see different things, sort of see how the defense is playing me or my teammates and proceed from there. But I think just how I think about how I approach the games and my IQ, I would say that I take the most pride in.”
Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles have failed to prove they belong ranked in the top 25 and are tied for fifth in the conference at 4-3.
Marquette has gone 3-2 since last facing the Huskies. It lost by one point at unranked St. John’s four days after meeting UConn and by three at Villanova most recently on Wednesday.
Tuesday’s game will also be a good warmup for the Huskies before facing longtime foe Notre Dame Saturday night in front of a soldout Gampel Pavilion.