Geno Auriemma is taking an undefeated UConn team into the women’s Final Four for the ninth time.
This group, while extremely talented like the rest, is a bit different than the previous ones for the coach.
Auriemma recalls those earlier teams with AP Player of the Year winners Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore and Breanna Stewart as having “that kind of swagger, trash-talking kind of mentality” when wondering why people were surprised
that they hadn’t lost any games.
“We don’t walk around with that attitude,” Auriemma said. “That’s why I think, for me, I just keep my fingers crossed because it’s not the kind of team that I’ve had in the past that has gone this far undefeated. It’s not. They don’t have that kind of mentality off the court, on the court.”
The NCAA’s winningest men’s or women’s coach with 1,288 victories and 12 national championships instead calls them “just a bunch of really nice kids that play hard for each other.”
They are an unbeaten bunch with their own AP All-America teammates Azzi Fudd and Sarah Strong going for their second national title, along with Big East Conference top freshman Blanca Quiñonez. They have a 54-game winning streak that began with three-time All-America guard and WNBA top overall pick Paige Bueckers during the Huskies’ championship run last year, and could give Auriemma only his second 40-0 record in 41 seasons.
“What we’ve done the last (38) games was all in preparation for moments like this,” said Fudd, the fifth-year star guard seen all over TV commercials and social media during March Madness. ”So when it comes down to it, we have full confidence in ourselves, in each other. We know the coaches feel the same.”
UConn (38-0) is in its record 25th Final Four since the women's NCAA Tournament debuted 44 years ago. Part of a quartet of all No. 1 seeds in Phoenix, and the same four teams as last year, its semifinal Friday will be against South Carolina (35-3) in a rematch of last year’s national championship game.
These Huskies are winning by an NCAA-best average margin of 37.8 points a game, with a 72-69 win over Sweet 16 team Michigan in November their only game decided by fewer than 13 points. They have set NCAA single-season records with their 890 assists (23.4 per game) and 597 steals (15.7 per game), and also are tops nationally in scoring defense (50.1 ppg) and field goal shooting — both on offense (52%) and defense (33.4%).
Sophomore standout forward Strong averages 18.6 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists. Fudd, the most outstanding player in last year’s Final Four after coming back from a torn ACL that limited her to two games during the 2023-24 season, is at a career-best 17.5 points per game.
Quiñonez, also selected as the Big East’s top sixth player, has at least 15 points in each NCAA Tournament game, the best four-game stretch of her young career while making 27 of 43 (62.7%) of her shots.
This is the 10th season since UConn's sixth and last undefeated national title in 2016, a 38-0 team with a roster of eight future pros that included four-time champions Stewart and Moriah Jefferson in their senior seasons when Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson were freshmen.
“That 2016 team was very, very mature,” Auriemma said. “This is a very young team doing it in a completely different way. ... This isn't that (2016) team, but they find their own way to get the same things done."
That ended an unprecedented run of four championships in a row (2013-16), and a span of six titles in eight seasons for the Huskies, who then didn't win another one until last year.
After Gabby Williams, Collier and Samuelson returned from that 2016 title team, UConn got into the Final Four undefeated again in 2017 and 2018 before losing on last-second overtime shots in back-to-back national semifinal games.
The Huskies' 111-game winning streak and championship run came to a stunning end in 2017 when Morgan William made a game-ending basket in Mississippi State's 66-64 win. The coach then for the Bulldogs was Vic Schaefer, now in his sixth season at Texas and with the Longhorns in their second consecutive Final Four.
UConn was 36-0 again in 2018 before Arike Ogunbowale's jumper with a second left gave Notre Dame a 91-89 semifinal win.
Six of Auriemma's national championship teams finished undefeated. His very first title was a 35-0 team in 1994-95 with Rebecca Lobo and 6-foot-7 center Kara Wolters.
Bird was part of two titles, including the 39-0 championship team in 2002, when Taurasi was a sophomore for the first of three consecutive championships though the last two weren't undefeated.
Four-time All-America forward Moore and Charles were part of back-to-back 39-0 teams that won the 2009 and 2010 national titles. UConn's only 40-0 championship came in 2014, when Stewart was a sophomore and won the first of three consecutive AP Player of the Year Awards — more than any other player.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
