{"id":26711,"date":"2010-12-17T08:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-17T13:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=26711"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:19:27","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:19:27","slug":"husky-women%e2%80%99s-basketball-moves-toward-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/12\/husky-women%e2%80%99s-basketball-moves-toward-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Husky Women\u2019s Basketball Moves Toward History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>The<\/a>
The women's basketball team celebrates another victory. Photos by Steve Slade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The national focus on the Husky women\u2019s basketball team, as it moves toward possibly surpassing the record 88-game winning streak of the 1971-1974 UCLA men\u2019s team, has not quite reached the level of the 1973 Battle of the Sexes in tennis between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.<\/p>\n

No. 1-ranked UConn tied the unbeaten streak of John Wooden’s UCLA team on Sunday with an 81-50 win over No. 11 Ohio State in the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden. And they can own the streak by defeating No. 15 Florida State on Tuesday night (7 p.m., ESPN2) at the XL Center in Hartford.<\/p>\n

Apples and oranges?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beyond having a Hall of Fame coach leading each team, it is not simple to compare teams of men and women from different eras playing schedules of varying competition for their respective time periods. In the minds of some veteran reporters, because men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball records are maintained separately, discussion of the teams is an interesting debate but the two are not comparable \u2013 even 37 years after King’s defeat of Riggs began a landmark shift toward equality for women competing in sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only contention is that men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball are really like two different sports,\u201d says Phil Chardis, assistant sports editor of the Manchester Journal Inquirer<\/em>, who has covered UConn athletics for years. \u201cI don\u2019t even know why you would want to compare them. Do you want to compare numbers? That\u2019s fine. It just so happens they both play basketball, but they are not the same kind of basketball. When the NCAA lists coaching championships, it\u2019s not John Wooden, Pat Summitt, Geno Auriemma, and Bobby Knight. It\u2019s John Wooden and Bobby Knight over here. It\u2019s Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma over there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practice makes perfect<\/strong><\/p>\n

Doris Burke of ESPN, one of the few analysts to cover both men\u2019s and women\u2019s college basketball, is also not interested in fanning the flames of a UConn women-UCLA men debate.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Coach<\/a>
Coach Geno Auriemma talks strategy with his team. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI have no interest in comparing the [UConn] streak to UCLA. It stands on its own merit,\u201d she says. \u201cThe streak for me represents extraordinary consistency in habits by UConn. Over the years, I have encouraged people who ask me why they are so good to take in a practice. They win games because they are willing to pay the price every single day to prepare properly. There is an accepted level of responsibility to putting on that Husky jersey. Any player the staff recruits comes in understanding there is a certain standard to be met every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Assaiante, head coach of the men\u2019s squash team at Trinity College in Hartford, which as of its winter break has won 228 consecutive matches over the past 12 years, understands Auriemma\u2019s approach to handling the winning streak, even as he tries to continue his own team’s record performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough we\u2019ve won three times the number of contests, I wouldn\u2019t trade places with him,\u201d Assaiante says. \u201cStreaks are a ploy to pull you out of the moment. You work hard to accomplish this [record]. But like the old saying goes, \u2018Be careful what you wish for.\u2019 There\u2019s no benefit from it. On the first day of practice this year, I held up a sheet with 224 written on it and tore it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performing in the moment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assaiante says focusing attention on a winning streak or anything else that can be a distraction will affect how well the team will play during a game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about performing in the moment,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen [UConn] gets on a basketball floor, they\u2019ve got to be focused on the job at hand. If your mind is on something that other people have done and you\u2019ve contributed a little bit, that can only affect your performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<p>Freshman<\/a>
Freshman Bria Hartley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a game won by the Huskies, it is not uncommon for opposing coaches to note how hard Auriemma\u2019s team works on each play, whether offense or defense, something they don\u2019t often see when playing other teams. Even the most experienced coaches express some astonishment.<\/p>\n

“They just deny the ball and get every rebound,\u201d says Van Chancellor, head women\u2019s basketball coach for Louisiana State University and a former WNBA and U.S. Olympic coach. \u201cWhat UConn does so well is that they execute everything so well, every play that they have. They do a really good job at what they do, and it’s hard to stop that.”<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, after UConn has notched another win, reporters have asked coaches about the confidence the Huskies project from the moment they arrive on the court for pre-game warm-ups.<\/p>\n

“I am amazed with the psychology of this team,\u201d says Terri Mitchell, head coach of Marquette. \u201cThey play the game expecting to win. They walk on the court with a confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opposing coaches are also asked about how intimidated their players might be before facing the Huskies, whom they see on television and suddenly find standing next them on the hardwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time UConn takes the court, there\u2019s a whole bunch of gals dreaming of playing for UConn and Geno and they didn\u2019t even get a look. That\u2019s where a lot of intimidation starts,\u201d says sports psychologist Bob Rotella, who earned his master\u2019s degree and Ph.D. at UConn and spent two decades working with athletic teams at the University of Virginia, where he initiated the university\u2019s doctoral program in sports psychology. \u201cThey may play in a gym with 800 people watching, and then they come in to face thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rotella, who has known Auriemma since his days as an assistant for the women\u2019s basketball team at Virginia, sees common attributes in how successful coaches work with their student-athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenge is getting student-athletes to be ready to play hard every night on both ends of the court,\u201d he says. \u201cOn the one hand, coaches want to be warm and fuzzy, which everyone wants to do. But you also have to be willing to push them and be demanding when that\u2019s needed. It\u2019s getting kids to buy into other roles that makes winning more important.\u201d<\/p>\n

An element of the unknown<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Auriemma noted before the 2010-2011 season began, especially with a team that now relies on so many first-year players \u2013 including guard Bria Hartley, forward Samarie Walker, and center Stefanie Dolson \u2013 the Huskies\u2019 winning streak likely will end at some point this season.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Freshman<\/a>
Freshman center Stefanie Dolson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know what the freshmen are going to do after exams. That\u2019s the great unknown,\u201d says Auriemma. \u201cI know what Maya [Moore] is going to do next Sunday. I have a pretty good idea of what Tiffany [Hayes] is going to do. Kelly [Farris] might make a shot. It\u2019s been a while and she\u2019s due. But it\u2019s a toss-up; like, what\u2019s everybody else going to do? That\u2019s why I\u2019m kind of resigned to whatever happens is going to happen, because there are too many people doing things for the first time. You don\u2019t know how they\u2019re going to react.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the UConn winning streak ends Tuesday in Hartford or on Dec. 30 when the Huskies play at No. 3 Stanford, or some other time this season or next, Assaiante, the Trinity squash coach, says the Huskies will move on \u2013 just as his team will, whenever its winning streak ends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know when it happens, we\u2019ll deal with it,\u201d he says. \u201cOf course we\u2019re going to lose, but we\u2019re going to make it really hard for the other guy to get over us. We share the moment in every contest. We\u2019re one big family. We share the wins, we\u2019ll share the loss. … You take the information from that experience and you move forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys [on the squash team] have tremendous respect for what\u2019s going on at UConn. This is good for sports at UConn and for girls and women in our society. Geno and UConn deserve a tremendous vote of thanks for what they\u2019re doing for the sport. Hats off to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rotella, the sports psychologist, says he hears echoes of Wooden in Auriemma\u2019s psychological approach to coaching.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn Wooden never did any scouting of the opponent,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen he put his offense and defense together, he assumed it would work against the opponent. You learn to measure winning in a different way. We want to play our game, our way. What you do is compete and act like a winner. When you do that, nothing upsets you. Basically what [Geno] has instilled in those kids is a belief in themselves. We call it a \u2018will to win.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UConn women may surpass the UCLA men’s 1970s winning streak Tuesday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-26711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 02:06:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26711"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27400,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26711\/revisions\/27400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=26711"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=26711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}