HARTFORD, Conn. — Women’s basketball fans across the country may have been shocked to see No. 4 UConn upset by St. John’s on Tuesday night, but head coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t. Just like he wasn’t surprised when the Huskies fell to Marquette on the road two weeks ago.
UConn has navigated injuries throughout this entire season, playing shorthanded without much production from the bench. The Huskies defied the odds for most of the year, seamlessly chugging along despite missing star guards Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, among others, and committing an alarmingly high number of turnovers. But it’s all caught up to them over the past month as the offense has hit a clear lull.
“Coaches are supposed to have all the answers,” Auriemma said. “But this is one of those years where it’s always in the back of your mind, even when you’re playing great and everything’s going great, shots are dropping, people are really confident, you always know in the back of your mind that this can’t last. It’s not sustainable.”
From the start of the season through a win over Tennessee on Jan. 26, the Huskies averaged 81.8 points per game on a nation’s best 52.5% shooting from the field and 39.8% clip from 3-point range (sixth in the country) despite committing 16.8 turnovers per game.
In the seven Big East games since (excluding game vs No. 1 South Carolina), UConn has averaged 61.7 points per game on 41.8% shooting from the field and 31.7% shooting from deep, while committing a relatively similar 16.9 turnovers per game.
Six of those seven games have been decided by single figures and the Huskies have gone 4-2 in those matchups. They have been held under 70 points in each of their last five, the first time that has happened since January 1992.
Against St. John’s, UConn shot a season-low 35.3% (22 of 62) from the field. The Huskies were also outrebounded 42-37, gave up 13 second-chance points and allowed St. John’s to score 18 points off their 12 turnovers.
“You can look at stats and you can try to rationalize whatever you want. But I think it goes beyond that,” Auriemma said. “There’s a point in time now, this late in the season, where you have to really find something else inside you because your tank is running dry almost. So you gotta really, really, really mentally get yourself in a place where you can still function.”
The Huskies were able to do so in two tough games against Creighton and No. 15 Villanova last week, but couldn’t sustain that against the Red Storm, who Auriemma repeatedly said played like the much better team.
Self-inflicted mental errors, effort and entitlement were among topics discussed by Auriemma and players following the loss, which marked the first time the program has dropped two regular-season conference games in the same season since 2013-14.
When asked about the recent stretch of offensive struggles, Auriemma pointed to numerous things, from not getting as many shots as the other team due to getting outrebounded to a lack of transition baskets. He specifically emphasized his team’s lack of ability to play physically. For instance, not being able to finish and-one plays.
“The game at Marquette was very physical. The Creighton game’s not as physical, the Villanova game’s not as physical. [Tuesday] was exceptionally physical,” Auriemma said. “So I think our players have to understand, and from a coaching standpoint, I think we’ve done a [poor] job of getting that point across. You can give me a million reasons why, all legit, but the bottom line is we just physically … don’t respond like I like in these games. The Marquette game and [Tuesday’s] game specifically, I think physically we didn’t respond. We didn’t and St. John’s attacked us.”
If certain players aren’t showing up from the start of the game or responding throughout the course of it, Auriemma feels like he doesn’t have many options to turn to. In the past he could sub someone in to change the course of the game, but that hasn’t been the case this season. The bench was outscored 29-3 by St. John’s on Tuesday.
“We need points,” Auriemma said. “And we don’t have guys on the bench that can score points. So those guys are helpful, provided we have a lead and we’re playing well and the buckets are going in, then they can go in. But when we need points, we need people to put the ball in the basket. Right now that’s what we’re missing the most.”
That doesn’t appear to be changing anytime soon, though. And UConn needs to win both of its next two games to claim sole possession of the Big East regular-season title. So how do the Huskies turn things around from here? Nika Muhl and Lou Lopez Senechal both pointed to their effort in practice as the first place to start.
“I feel like just the way we’ve been practicing hasn’t been the Connecticut way of practicing,” Muhl said. “We just haven’t been who we were. I feel like dealing with all these injuries and everything, coaches are trying so hard to help us with lowering the practice time and all of that, but I feel like our mindset needs to be not worrying about that stuff.
“Our mindset as players needs to be that we gotta go 100% every time and we’re not entitled to win these games. Yeah, we’re low on people, we got people coming back, but that hasn’t been an excuse all year and it’s not an excuse now either.”
Lopez Senechal echoed that sentiment, as well as that UConn didn’t play with the proper effort. She also noted that the Huskies need to be more focused on communication, especially when it comes to things like going through screens.
“We know we can’t expect to just win games and not practice the right way,” Lopez Senechal said. “I think (communication is) something we’ve been lacking in practice in the last couple of weeks.”
Both players and their teammates plan to use Tuesday’s loss as motivation moving forward. They don’t want to feel this type of sting again.
“All the emotions that we’re feeling right now — anger, embarrassment, disappointment — that’s what’s gonna help us bounce back,” Muhl said. “And first practice in, like it’s gonna be crazy in practice. So I feel like just starting to practice harder, better, smarter, that’s gonna get us where we back where we need to be obviously with our effort.”
