With the combination of star quality play and the quintessential teamwork for which it’s renowned, the UConn women’s basketball team coasted to an NCAA Division I record with its 89th consecutive win Tuesday night, beating No. 15 Florida State 93-62 before a sold-out crowd at the XL Center in Hartford.
During his 26 years as head coach of the UConn women’s basketball team, Geno Auriemma has recruited high school All-Americans and convinced them that to win consistently and to win championships, it’s a team effort that counts above all else.
As Casey Stengel, the legendary manager of the New York Yankees, put it: “Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ’em to play together is the hard part.”
It is a philosophy that led the UCLA Bruins coached by John Wooden to achieve what was thought to be an unassailable record – 88 consecutive wins from 1971 to 1974 – that the Huskies tied on Sunday after defeating No. 10 Ohio State 81-50 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, before claiming the record last night.
Led by All-American senior Maya Moore’s career-high 41 points, the Huskies jumped ahead to a 17-point lead midway through the first half over Florida State and never looked back. Moore nearly outscored the Seminoles by herself in the half, scoring 26 points. The half ended with the Huskies leading 54-27. Freshman Bria Hartley had 21 points and junior Tiffany Hayes had 14 points for the Huskies.
Among Wooden’s oft-quoted coaching wisdom so admired by Auriemma is a core belief about teamwork: “The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”
It is a familiar theme for those who regularly follow the Huskies, and it was foremost in Sunday’s post-game comments by All-American Maya Moore when she answered questions about the game.
“We come to practice every day and you hope when game time comes, you’ll be able to execute. That’s exactly what we did,” Moore said. “I don’t think you can ask for a better team win. That’s the best way to play – when you have everybody on the team contribute what they are really good at. What’s the point of playing a team sport if everybody is not going to get involved and contribute and enjoy it together?”
At the XL Center, Moore elaborated further: “It takes a group of people who are highly invested and unselfish, who do more than just what’s required. We do more than work together on the court. We are a group of people who are constantly around each other and look out for each other and care for each other as well. This is a family and that’s how we treat it. We hold each other accountable. We’ll confront each other when something needs to be confronted. We argue just like sisters do, and we’ll also go to war for each other just like sisters do. It’s a lot of extra things.”
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In his characteristically direct manner, Auriemma addressed those who have questioned comparing the winning streaks of the UConn women and the UCLA men. “You can put whatever spin on it you want,” he said. “But one thing is non-negotiable. Both teams refused to settle for anything less than the very best they could give you, night after night, day after day. They did it, and we’re doing it.
“I’m constantly amazed by these kids and what they are able to do under the circumstance that they’re put in. One of the things that John Wooden used to say about competitive greatness is [that it’s] having the ability to be your absolute best when your best is needed, and that’s what Maya Moore is and maybe that’s what Bria Hartley is. I don’t know. Certainly Maya, during all these 89 games, has been her absolute best when it was absolutely needed, and I’ll always remember that and I’ll always admire her for that, because that’s not easy to do.”
As the women’s basketball team approached its historic milestone, Auriemma’s coaching colleagues expressed their admiration for what he, his coaching staff, and student-athletes have accomplished.
Opening his news conference earlier this week in Storrs about the Jan. 1 Fiesta Bowl, where the Huskies will face Oklahoma in UConn’s first BCS bowl game, football head coach Randy Edsall said, “What they’re doing is unprecedented. I don’t care if it’s men, women, regardless. When you can win 88 games in anything, it’s special. I wish people would stop trying to say it’s women’s basketball. It’s sports. It’s a tremendous achievement and a tremendous honor, and it should be looked at that way because nobody’s ever done it in the history of basketball.”
“Who’s been a better coach in women’s college basketball than Geno? Nobody,” men’s basketball head coach Jim Calhoun told reporters over the weekend. “And who’s got the best program in the country? It’s the greatest women’s program in the country. It should be really applauded for the incredible accomplishment, for what they’ve done. And nobody in their sport has done it and I don’t think anybody ever will do it, including them. I don’t think they can repeat it. The game is getting better. It’s just an incredible accomplishment. And I truly, sincerely, mean that.”
The Wooden family was represented Tuesday night in Hartford by the legendary coach’s grandson, Greg, who flew in from Newport Beach, Calif., at the invitation of Steve Hathaway of the LA Athletic Club, which annually presents the John R. Wooden Award to the nation’s outstanding basketball player. Moore won the 2009 award, and was a Wooden All-American last year. Tina Charles won the 2010 award.
Wooden said that his grandfather, who died in June, thought that over the past decade of his life the best collegiate basketball was played by women, especially the Huskies.
“He thought they were playing basketball closest to his style,” Wooden said. “He especially liked Connecticut, how they passed the ball, how they had quite a few stars who probably could have scored quite a few points, but were willing to sacrifice for the team; that they were playing unbelievable basketball because they didn’t care who gets the credit. They just want to win. I thought someone should be here from the family and show some kind of support. … I know my grandfather would have loved to have been here to see this.”
With the final seconds of the game ticking down to make the historic win official, the sold-out crowd at the XL Center stood up, cheered, and applauded, holding up signs with the number 89. As they celebrated the win at center court, the Huskies pulled shirts over their jerseys that read “89 wins … and still counting.”
While answering questions following the game, which was covered by dozens of national media representatives, Auriemma took a congratulatory telephone call from President Barack Obama. During the conversation, the coach observed that the Huskies had not lost since the President’s inauguration two years ago. “How about we keep that going for a couple more years?” Auriemma said, drawing laughter from the press corps.
He then related Obama’s comments: “What any sports fan would – he said it’s a great thing for sports,” Auriemma said. “It’s an accomplishment to be celebrated, and he’s proud of the way we handled it. He wants Maya to know how much he enjoys watching her play. I think he was talking to me as a basketball fan, and I appreciated that.”
In the run-up to the Ohio State game, when national media organizations increasingly began to focus on the Huskies, reporters would ask Moore if she remembered the games she lost in a Connecticut uniform. In one news conference, she looked down at the microphone and quickly muttered under her breath, “Stanford, Rutgers,” drawing laughter. On Sunday, facing a standing-room-only audience of reporters at Madison Square Garden, which is known as the “World’s Most Famous Arena,” the soft-spoken senior quietly made a point about the challenge that she and her teammates, currently including five freshmen, have faced for more than two years.
“Some of the best lessons you learn in life are when you mess up, when you fail,” Moore said. “I tell people I still remember very vividly the couple of losses I do have. It’s easy motivation when you lose. So I think what we’re doing is harder. You have to deal with that motivation somewhere else rather than a loss. I think it’s harder to get motivated when you don’t have those actual losses on your record. When we practice, coach puts us in those situations all the time. We lose sometimes. That’s when you have to take those failures and come back against our practice players. It’s not like we don’t experience those feelings of failure. You just have to overcome it.”
Asked if the team understands what it has achieved, Moore said she and her teammates will need some distance to appreciate what they have done.
“It’s something time will allow us to really think about it. It’s kind of mind-boggling,” she said. “We know it’s something special but we’re still in the middle of a season, so it’s kind of tough to take in the full reality of what’s going on. We think about where we came from … [and] the other players [who are part of the streak]; Renee [Montgomery], Tina [Charles], and Kalana Greene. We think about those guys. I’ll remember doing it with the special group we have.”
