Hoops parity? Not with UConn women around
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009 8:26 PM
Tired of parity in sports? Wishing for a good ‘ol dominant team to run roughshod over the opposition? Look no further than the Connecticut women’s basketball team.
No, the Huskies aren’t the defending champs (that’s Tennessee). But this season is shaping up as a year in which the Huskies are taking everyone to the woodshed in record fashion.
Monday’s 88-58 thrashing of No. 2 North Carolina was a pitch-perfect display of hoops. And it came in Chapel Hill, where the Tar Heels had won 31 consecutive games.
Yes, UConn took apart the nation’s second-ranked team on the road. It wasn’t the biggest blowout between a 1-2 showdown (that would be the Vols’ dismantling of Stanford, 105-69, in 1994), but it’s by far the biggest win by No. 1 on the road in women’s NCAA hoops history.
“They came into our house and showed us how to play basketball,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said afterward. “I wish we could’ve given them a better game.
“They compete hard and they are extremely physical. This game was much, much more physical than any game we’ve played this year. And I think it bothered us, it got to us. We didn’t go rebound with them. But this is the way a game is going to be when you get into the NCAA and play for a national championship.”
Even more impressive? The Huskies did it without freshman guard Caroline Doty, who is out for the season. Doty merely started every game this season before tearing her ACL against Syracuse on Saturday.
How many teams can lose a starter and win their next game by 30 points, let alone a game against a 17-0 team? Yikes.
No matter what UConn coach Geno Auriemma says, it’s evident his Huskies are head and shoulders above the rest of the women’s hoops landscape.
“I told the players in the locker room that the only gap I’m interested in is the one that exists between when we’re playing great and when we’re playing poorly,” the coach said afterward. “If that gap keeps narrowing, then I’ll be happy.”
This wasn’t the first time UConn took apart another Top 5 team. It beat then No. 4 Oklahoma 106-78 on Nov. 30.
If this is how the Huskies treat their opponents, I’ll be interested to see what kind of team eventually gives them a game. If it ever happens.
