If it is getting harder and harder to return to the Final Four, like Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma claimed Tuesday morning, then the veteran coach has found a way to make difficult things look easy.
On Monday, four-time reigning national champion UConn took its next step toward its record 12 NCAA Division I title with a 90-52 victory against Oregon in the championship game of the Bridgeport Regional in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Napheesa Collier scored 28 points and Gabby Williams added 25 to help UConn (36-0) advance to the national semifinals for the 10th-straight year. UConn will take on Mississippi State (33-4) at 9 p.m. Friday (ESPN2) in the evening’s second game. South Carolina and Stanford will play in the first game at 6:30 p.m. The winners will meet at 5 p.m. Sunday for the national title.
“It just seems like it gets harder and harder to believe because it is getting harder and harder to accomplish this,” Auriemma said Tuesday in a teleconference. “The teams you have to beat year in and year out are getting better and better, and this year that certainly was the case with Albany, Syracuse, UCLA, and Oregon, so we’re very fortunate to make another trip to the Final Four. It doesn’t get any easier from here. The teams that are going to be in Dallas are going to be very, very great teams and we’re anxious to get down there.”
UConn and MSU left Tuesday to be in Dallas today to begin two days of preparations for the biggest stage of the season. UConn is coming off a victory that pushed Auriemma past former Tennessee coach Pat Summitt for most NCAA tournament wins (113). The win also was the Huskies’ 111th in a row.
The run to another title comes after UConn, which beat MSU 98-38 in the Sweet 16 last season in Bridgeport, lost Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, and Morgan Tuck to graduation. Those three players were the first three selected in the 2016 WNBA draft. It marked the first time in WNBA or NBA draft history one school had the top three picks in the same draft. Only twice in WNBA draft history had two players from the same school been selected at 1-2. Stewart, Jefferson, and Tuck also were the first college players to win four consecutive NCAA championships.
Auriemma reiterated Tuesday he wasn’t sure what identity the 2016-17 team would have with sophomores Katie Lou Samuelson and Napheesa Collier and junior Gabby Williams stepping into bigger roles. A gauntlet of non-conference tests that included victories against Florida State, Baylor, LSU, Dayton, Chattanooga, DePaul, Texas, Notre Dame, Kansas State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Maryland, and South Carolina set the stage for another run at perfection.
On Monday, The Associated Press recognized the contributions of Samuleson, Collier, and Williams when it announced its All-America teams. Samuelson (21 points per game) and Collier (20.2, 8.9 rebounds) were named first-team All-Americans, while Williams (13.2 points, 8.4 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.7 steals) was named to second-team All-American.
Next season, UConn will bolster that trio with reinforcements with what it is regarded as the nation’s top recruiting class. The class includes Megan Walker, the Naismith and Gatorade National Player of the Year and consensus No. 1 recruit, Mikayla Coombs, the No. 14 recruit according to ESPN, Lexi Gordon, the No. 29 recruit, and Andra Espinoza-Hunter, the No. 37 recruit.
UConn also will welcome Duke transfer Azura Stevens back to the court. Stevens is sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules. As a sophomore at Duke in 2015-16, Stevens earned honorable mention All-America honors from The AP after averaging 18.9 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
Auriemma repeatedly has been asked how his program has gotten to this point and maintained its stranglehold on the sport. He has answered it many ways, but the constant thread has been finding the right players. If that sounds simple, it isn’t.
“You hope you have the right kind of kids and the right kind of people, and certainly they are very good players or obviously we wouldn’t be where we are if they were not good players,” Auriemma said. “You have to have a certain maturity about you and have to approach things in a way where you do take full responsibility. We don’t have the luxury that we had last year that if I play great we win by a lot and if I don’t play great we win by almost a lot. Now we’re asking (players like Samuelson, Collier, and Williams) to go out immediately and if they don’t play great we’re going to lose.”
Auriemma admitted teams “generally suffer a little bit” and lose games as players make that adjustment. He said that didn’t happen this season because the Huskies gained confidence with each victory and showed a maturity they might not have known they had.
“They looked around and made a quick decision early on and they all took responsibility,” Auriemma said. “That is why we have had the success we have had.”
UConn’s success has helped the Huskies rank third in the nation in scoring (87.7 points per game), first in field goal percentage (52.9 percent; one of only two teams shooting 50 percent or better), first in assists (852), and first in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.99). MSU is 20th in scoring (76.8), 19th in field goal percentage (45 percent), 33rd in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.17), and 24th in assists (555).
Auriemma has long said he doesn’t have any secrets to success. He said the Huskies “try to stress some things that we think are important.” He said the four coaches at the Final Four might give four different answers as to what those important things are. For Auriemma, the key is finding the right players to fit his style of play.
“We try to recruit kids who loved being coached,” Auriemma said. “Doesn’t everybody? No. A lot of coaches will recruit kids who are really good players, but that doesn’t mean they love being coached. We try to recruit kids we think want to be held accountable and want the responsibility that comes with playing at Connecticut and (want) to live up to a certain expectations. They want to share. They don’t want to be the man, so to speak, on the team. They want to share. They don’t need to be the center of attention.”
MSU coach Vic Schaefer, who is appearing in his third Final Four as a coach, agrees. He has credited former player Savannah Carter and senior Dominique Dillingham for instilling toughness in the program. He also has said the class that included Dillingham, Ketara Chapel, Chinwe Okorie, and Breanna Richardson helped transform the culture of the program and built the foundation for a program that has won 22, 27, 28, and 33 games the last four seasons.
“They’re accountable,” Schaefer said of his seniors. “They came here with an idea that they were going to be a part of something special and that they were going to be the pioneers to come in here and do something that has never been done. They will go down in history as the all-time winningest class to date in the history of the program and four of the greatest player to play here.”
Schaefer and his coaching staff have continued that success on the recruiting trail. The addition of a junior class that includes Victoria Vivians, Morgan William, Blair Schaefer, and transfer Roshunda Johnson from Oklahoma State, a sophomore class with Jazzmun Holmes and Teaira McCowan, and a freshman class with Ameshya Williams and Jacaira “Iggy” Allen has strengthened the foundation and set the Bulldogs up to remain in the conversation with the nation’s elite programs.
On Friday, MSU will get another chance to test itself against the sport’s gold standard. He said his players understand they are a year older and wiser, but he also said they know will have to be focused and prepared for an opponent that many try to emulate but even fewer have defeated.
“Our kids believe we’re different,” Schaefer said. “The fact of the matter is UConn does not have the same personnel, but they’re still dominating. They’re a well-oiled machine. They have tremendous chemistry. Even though the numbers and the names may change, the program keeps rolling. I think our kids understand that. We can’t get caught up in the whole UConn thing. We have to be more concerned about Mississippi State more than anything.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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