It just wasn’t a happy Thursday night for Auriemma

Live and learn. Doesn’t matter how long you live or how much you learn.

Now this hasn’t been a normal 2020-2021 sports season, and it has taken a lot out of Geno (the genus) Auriemma. Last year, he spent four days being hospitalized for hip surgery. This year, he returned to the sidelines in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The first four scheduled games for his University of Connecticut women’s basketball team were postponed because of COPID-19 issues.

Practices were limited. His young team, in quest of a 12th record national championship after last season was shut down before the NCAA tournament even begun. This time, it’s been hectic, never knowing whether your next game or the game after will be played. Some games have been called with little notice.

But Auriemma’s concern is being able to hold practices and play, and when his team had spent five days without a game, he consented to a last-minute arrangement with non-conference opponent Arkansas at the Razorbacks’ Nolan Richardson court. It was a game and served the purpose for Auriemma, whose program returned to the Big East that his Huskies previous dominated, after dominating the American Athletic Conference.

He admitted he didn’t know much about the Southeastern Conference Arkansas team, that it was ranked, had lost a pair of last-second thrillers, that it was aggressive, and by Mike Neighbors, who had previously coached Washington women’s  program, and had Kelsey Plum, a sharpshooting guard who became the nation’s all-time leading scorer, and after she graduated into the WNBA, Neighbors signed on to coach at Arkansas.

So Auriemma figured he needed a game, and it became a done dealt this past Thursday night on the road. But he lived and learned that he might have been better off staying home.

I watched the game, a 90-87 setback suffered by UConn. The Razorbacks weren’t just happy to welcome the 3rd-ranked, undefeated Huskies, they put 4,400 fans in the stands, the largest to attend a women’s game in this pandemic campaign. Like other teams did, they added cardboard supporters, but it was the live turnout they were counting on.

And it was far from being one of Auriemma’s finest nights. His team shot 51 percent, from the field, 52 percent from the 3, but somewhere here, the dedicated head coach who passed legendary UCLA men’s coach John Wodden in national titles, was now the 2nd-winningest women’s coach in history, was the fastest to win his first 1,000 games, but was obviously not in step with this season, one in which he had a roster with no seniors, but had won its first 10 starts and was 7-0 on top the Big East.

But it was unexplainable to watch him on the sidelines, first he sat his 6-foot-5 starter Oliva Nelson-Ododa, one of the best post players in the land when she picked up her second foul early in the opening quarter. She left with but one field goal and two rebounds and Auriemma left her there until the final hectic minutes. She raced in and made three-straight shot blocks. There were no signs of any injuries, so it was puzzling why Auriemma kept her seated.

His high school Player of the Year, freshman Paige Buekers showed no signs of the recent ankle sprain that sidelined her for the previous contest at home versus conference foe Georgetown. But Auriemma started her and then removed her after half of the quarter was played. She sat on the sidelines leaning, cheering on her team and obviously eager to return.

He sent her back in for the second quarter, but Arkansas (12-6) and ranked 18th, had already set the tone. It was nip-and-tuck as Razorback 5-11 senior guard Chelsea Dungee already had a game-high 18 points, but when Tennessee transfer, 6-1 junior guard Evina Westbrook, who became eligible this season, threw in a buzzer-beating 3 from the corner, the Huskies had a 43-41 halftime lead.

That was a good sign, but not after the fired-up Razorbacks began the third quarter on a 13-0 run behind the sharpshooting of team captain Dungee, it was a different scene on the UConn sideline. Auriemma obviously felt that calls were going the way of the home side, and he showed it, several times jumping up from his seat and moving in front of the courtside press table to let the officials know it.

To be truthful, if it wasn’t Auriemma, he would have been whistled for two quick technicals and ejected. Each time he reacted in this unprecedented manner, long-time assistant Chris Davis was trying to calm him down, to get him back to where he officially belonged.

There was the time that Arkansas strolled to the foul line six-straight times, three times when Dungee flung her left arm into the face of a Husky defender and drove in for an untouched layup. Once, teammate Destiny Slocum threw the ball out of bounds and Auriemma exploded when the officials decided it was still Arkansas’ ball. These calls and the explosive Razorbacks start following the intermission, brought the home team a 72-62 advantage after three quarters.

If not for Buekers, it would be worse. She took over as she has done each time on the court. She began hitting from outside, made a pair of 3s, found her teammates for quality assists, and added five steals. She was helped along by 6-3 Canadian freshman Aaliyah Edwards, who with Nelson-Ododa still on the sidelines, was scrubbing the boards, blocking shots, and making some clutch inside baskets.

The lead shrunk to three, but back came Arkansas, and Edwards already had four personal fouls as Nelson-Ododa sat. Then came yet another Auriemma puzzling decision. He left Edwards in, and with time running down in the third quarter, she picked up number five while guarding Slocum as the Razorbacks cheered. Why was she still on the court? Who knows, for it just wasn’t something that Auriemma or Davis would have done.

With both Edwards and Nelson-Ododa sidelined and 6-5 freshman Piath Gabriel not used at all, Arkansas now had the height advantage and the lead became 12.

But Bueckers was doing her part, scoring, finding teammates, swiping the ball and the gap was only five points. She also converted 4-of-4 free throws and made good on 4-of-5 3s, and had 28 points when 5-11 junior guard, Christian Williams, national Player of the Year in 1997, tossed in a 3 from the far corner and was fouled, her team was down 90-87 when she unexpectedly missed her third-straight freebie with 18 seconds left.

But then came the play that probably decided the income. The Razorbacks held the ball until the time clock showed 0:4.8 left and when’s Arkansas’ Taylyn Thomas obviously let the ball go after the red above the basket sounded. But no call was made, the officials let them play, and when Williams looked for the call that never came, called a time out with 0:3 on the clock.

Auriemma was no doubt fuming now, and as the three officials headed to the table to check the call they didn’t make, he was instead in a time out, trying to figure out how to get off a 3 that were have sent the game into overtime. No luck, it remained 0:3 and Williams threw the ball to nearby Nelson-Ododa in the corner, the shot hit the front rim as the buzzer sounded and Arkansas celebrated a big win over a program like Connecticut.

Question, needing a 3, why did the ball not go to Bueckers, who is adept at quickly getting the ball away?  Another Auriemma blunder? A miserable flight back to Storrs, and now he had to prepare his defeated team for Sunday morning‘s game at 17th-ranked DePaul in Big East play. In a previous match-up, the Huskies won handily, and DePaul is now 9-3.

Then comes Wednesday’s conference home game against visiting St. John’s. From there, it’s a trip to Marquette, a visit from 6th-ranked South Carolina in a non-conference tussle, and of these 11 games, seven are on the road.

Westbrook did her part. She scored 19 points, took down six rebounds, and had seven assists in 40 minutes. Williams, usually a capable foul shooter, wound up with 17 points and was 3-for-7 from the charity stripe. Bueckers was 10-for-15 from the floor, 4-for-4 in 3s, and played 36 minutes.

Dungee, with her career-high 37 points, made 13-of-21 from the floor and converted 7-of-11 from the foul line in 39 minutes.  Amber Ramirez added 22 points. The Razorbacks were 33-for-64 from the field and made 13-of-23 3s. They had lost at 13th-ranked Kentucky, at 6th-ranked South Carolina, and at 19th-ranked Tennessee. They lost, 75-73, at 23rd-ranked Georgia on a buzzer shot, and 74-73 to visiting, 8th-ranked Texas A & M, also on a basket at the buzzer.

The Huskies were 33-for-60 in field goals and 12-for-23 from long range, and had a 25-19 rebounding edge. In turnovers, the visitors had 15, the home team nine.

But the big difference was at the foul line. While UConn made 11-of-18, Arkansas was 18-for-26. One other Husky had four fouls and the Razorbacks had three with the same number of fouls.

Live and learn. You live to play instead of staying home and practicing. You learn that hitting the road wasn’t what you expected, as UConn was welcomed by the home team, its fans, and the officials.