MINNEAPOLIS — UConn women’s basketball has been muscled off the mountaintop. South Carolina, with its second championship in six years, looks down upon the rest of women’s basketball and does not figure to be descending any time soon.
“They have a lot of players coming back,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, his voice raspy from the cold or flu that struck his team before the Huskies lost the NCAA championship game, 64-49, Sunday night. “This particular South Carolina team was the best one they’ve had. What does that mean for next year? I don’t know, but you go into next season thinking they’re going to be in your way at some point if you want to win the whole thing.”
South Carolina started two seniors, Destanni Henderson, the guard who tormented UConn with 26 points, and 6-foot-2 forward Victoria Saxton, one of the frontcourt forces that helped the Gamecocks compile their shocking 49-24 edge in rebounding. Aliyah Boston, the national player of the year who averaged 16 points and 15 rebounds across the NCAA Tournament, is a junior.
Going forward, no one should expect South Carolina to drop off much from one season to the next, no matter who leaves. Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley, with her engaging, authentic persona and added appeal of her status as Olympic head coach, will keep the Gamecocks in contention for any recruit they desire.
And they desire to win a lot more.
“I don’t think winning two national championships or going to the Final Four back to back is considered a dynasty in my day and age,” Staley said.
This is going to be a lot to overcome if Auriemma, 68, is going to get that elusive 12th championship before he decides to call it a career. But UConn is in position to do it.
The Huskies, with this improbable, or maybe we should say less-probable-than-usual, run to the championship game, are not yet to be relegated to “yesterday’s dynasty.” The program has lost no relevance, just the old lion’s share of the limelight.
“This year [with the various injuries] was a perfect example of you plan for some things and then all of a sudden your plans get blown up,” Auriemma said. “I like our chances, provided we don’t have to navigate a season like we did this year. Knock on wood, if we stay healthy, I expect to be back here next year.”
The task for Auriemma is to tweak a talented roster to better match up with the teams that will be in the Huskies’ way next March: South Carolina, NC State, Stanford, maybe a resurgent Notre Dame or an up-and-coming Indiana. The field of true contenders is getting bigger. And he is going to need bigger, more physical forwards to open the floor for UConn’s star attractions, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd.
“It gets harder to anticipate what could happen the following season,” Auriemma said. “It’s a different world now. You have so many variables into how a team is put together. You used to have a pretty good feel. This is the team we have. This is the team we’re going to have, and nothing is going to change that. There are too many things different now but the number of freshmen and sophomores we played, who played a lot of minutes and really got an education of what it takes to win at this level.”
The best news in all this is the transfer portal and the new rules governing it. Auriemma made clear that he is no fan of the system that has over 800 players looking for new schools, many of whom won’t find them or may be carrying baggage a title contender doesn’t need. But no program or franchise can maintain its success by ignoring new ways to gather talent.
Auriemma, with his knack for identifying players to fit his culture, has found valuable players in the portal: Evina Westbrook from Tennessee and Dorka Juhàsz from Ohio State, who might have made a difference if she had not fractured a wrist in the Bridgeport Region final. Surely there are other powerful forwards out there who would want to test themselves against the UConn experience and see themselves as the missing piece of championship puzzle.
Bueckers, Fudd, Juhász, Caroline Ducharme, Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Mühl, six of the nine-player rotation the Huskies had when healthy, are presumably coming back, with Aubrey Griffin recovering from back surgery. Auriemma sent freshman Amari DeBerry in for a few first-half minutes Sunday and said she has committed to working hard this summer to earn a bigger role next season. Piath Gabriel will be a sophomore. Incoming freshman Ayanna Patterson, 6-2, and Isuneh “Ice” Brady, 6-3, were recruited with an eye toward building the future frontcourt.
UConn no longer has the target on its back in women’s basketball, but it’s clear to all where the target is. If the college game now employs a form of free agency, who would have a better GM?
“You look at the makeup of your team and the other teams around the country and you ask, ‘What are we missing?’ And, ‘what are our strengths?’ And you try to address those in the offseason. That’s what we’ve always done, and that’s what we’re going to do,” Auriemma said.
