SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
I remember seeing the headline, but don’t recall who wrote the story. As a long-time journalist, no doubt I can read and write, but there’s no way I can pay attention to this nonsense.
The headline said: “UConn women’s basketball dynasty may be fading as other programs rise.” That was it, 11 words deciding that this best-ever women’s program under legendary head coach Geno Auriemma is not going to be hoisting national championship trophies like the record 11 it already has.
This ran in last year’s pre-season after the Huskies gained their 17th straight Final Four. They didn’t win it all, but they were there. And there again now even after Player of the year and Freshman of the Year Paige Bueckers stumbled to the sidelines holding her left knee in the final minutes of the impressive win over Notre Dame. Surgery sidelined the 5-foot-11 guard for 18 games and her role became cheering on her team with a cast on the injured knee. This occurred in game five and resulted in Auriemma piecing together a way to win without Bueckers.
She happily returned in mid February to a lineup that Auriemma had assembled — three freshman, four sophomores, one junior and four seniors, except that the lone junior, 6-1 stating forward Aubrey Griffin, underwent foot surgery and would be lost for the season.
The good news was that Auriemma had again brought this program to the Division I Final Four. And in winning Monday night‘s two overtime thriller over No. 1-seeded North Carolina State in Bridgeport, 80 miles from the Storrs campus, Bueckers captivated the overflown crowd with a dazzling 27-point performance, with 21 coming in the second half and the overtimes. She made good on seven of eight shots in that span, converted 5-of-6 foul shots, brought down eight rebounds, and dished off four assists.
The dynasty is fading? Purlees. The freshmen, 5-11 guard Azzi Fudd, the National Player of the Year, 6-2 All-Massachusetts wing Caroline Ducharme and 6-5 forward Amari Deberry are staying, sophomores Aailyah Edwards, a 6-3 starting forward, 5-10 point guard Nika Muhl, 6-5 forward Piath Gabriel, and of course the superstar Bueckers, and the talented and missed Griffin, are staying, the seniors are guards Evina Westbrookand Christyn Williams, 6-5 post starter Olivia Nelson-Ododa and 6-5 DorkaJuhasz, who injured her left wrist in the first quarter against the Wolfpack and is probably done for the season.
Dynasty fading? Well, no one’s complaining about a 28-6 overall record, another conference title, and being a 2nd-seed in the Final Four with No. 1 seeds South Carolina, Louisville and defending champion Stanford, who Uconn plays Friday night in Bueckers home state of Minnesota at the Target Center in Minneapolis. In fact, it’s an honor that Bueckers, Nelson-Ododa, Williams, Edwards and Fudd were selected to the 2021-22 John Wooden Pre-season Top 50 List, that is before Bueckers suffered the injury.
And Monday night after the women’s Elite Eight doubleheader at different sites, I tuned in on the televised McDonald Girls All-Star Game played in Chicago and got to see highly recruited 6-3 forward Isuneh (Ice) Brady and 6-2 forward Ayanna Patterson, both are ranked in the top 5 of the recruiting, already committed to the University of Connecticut, and spoke of nothing but happy times and championships playing for the Huskies.
“We watched the earlier UConn game together on TV,” Brady said, “and it was a great game as we cheered and cheer.”
Dynasty fading?
There was other nonsense applied and this came from retired Notre Dame head basketball coach Muffet McGraw who said that she absolutely believes there’s “complete bias” toward UConn, and added that ESPN gives it great coverage unlike others. And when Auriemma was asked about these comments, he pulled out an entire arsenal in regard to comparing championship trophies, laughed and made an initial respond to McGraw, who now does TV commentary on women’s hoops after winning a pair of national titles with the Fighting Irish.
Bias, ESPN, the fact that the Huskies also have three home courts in their state, is not to blame for their success just as it’s not, let’s say, not to blame the New England Patriots and other successful franchises for years of multiple beat reporters, nationally aired games, video crews, you name it, everything is name recognition for them deservingly so.
And when Auriemma and his storied program gets big play, it’s because they draw better than any other school home and away.
So when Auriemma, now in his 37th year at Storrs, was prompted by alumni, students, players and other coaches to respond to McGraw again, he texted her with “It’s 11-2 Muffet.”
Case closed, UConn’s dynasty is not fading as the beat just goes on.
