Huskies striving to stay unbeaten
The Connecticut women’s basketball express is only two victories from completing its perfect run.
To do it, the Huskies will have to defeat Stanford -- the team that knocked them out of the Final Four last season. Oklahoma and Louisville will play in the other semifinal tonight in St. Louis with the title game Tuesday.
The Huskies (37-0) have already handily beaten those two teams, routing Louisville in the Big East Conference tournament championship game. That leads some to believe that the winner of today’s matchup with Stanford will end up as the national champion.
“I’ve heard people say that,” Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma said. “But it’s not the case. The championship game is Tuesday night. I don’t want to make tomorrow the championship game.”
The Cardinal (33-4) has made its own impressive run to the Final Four, winning all four games in routs. Stanford, which has won 20 games in a row, beat Iowa State by 21 points in the Berkeley Regional final Monday night.
“In some ways, with us, we’ve learned a lot from losing,” said Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer, who has never coached an unbeaten college team but led the United States national team to a 60-0 record and Olympic gold in 1996 in Atlanta.
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Not backing down
Louisville and Oklahoma have been drubbed by top-ranked Connecticut. Twice in the Cardinals’ case.
Louisville Coach Jeff Walz, whose team lost by 28 and 39 points, joked that it was all part of the plan to lull the Huskies into a false sense of security.
“I think we did a great job,” Walz said. “Obviously, if we play them they’re way overconfident.”
Oklahoma’s Sherri Coale, on the wrong end of a 28-point loss at Storrs, Conn., in late November, bristled a bit at the notion that it’s the Huskies’ tournament to lose.
“I think it’s a great Final Four,” Coale said. “I think it’s a fans’ paradise, and I think there will be two really good games on Sunday, and another really good one on Tuesday.”
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Etc.
Connecticut’s Maya Moore, averaging 19.2 points, became the second sophomore to win the Associated Press’ player-of-the-year award.
Moore’s coach, Auriemma, picked up his sixth AP coach-of-the-year award.
