There are things in life that are just unfair and factual. The UConn women’s basketball team bulldozing over the competition year after year is just fact. Better yet writing about the team they defeated is unfair.
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Moriah Jefferson each scored 15 points to lead the Huskies to a 63-53 victory over Notre Dame. It was UConn’s third straight title; Geno Auriemma and the Huskies have won all 10 of their trips to the national championship game.
Auriemma and his Huskies are a perfect 10. Literally. Not only does he get the best women to play for him, he shares the best quotes. “Obviously, it’s a very significant number because that’s the number that’s been out there and people want to talk about it. I’ll be the first to say I’m not John Wooden, and I got a bunch of friends who’d tell you I’m right, I’m not,” Auriemma said. “As I said the other day, I just think what we’ve done here in the last 20 years is pretty remarkable in its own right. The Hall of Fame coach joined some elite company in UCLA’s John Wooden after tying the Wizard of Westwood with his 10th NCAA tournament title.
The fact is Auriemma gets the best players in the country to play for him, to follow his coaching philosophy, moreover does it completely different from every other women’s program. When the next best team steps up to the plate, you walk away with another women’s bracket with UConn winning it all again.
Breanna Stewart added 15 rebounds and eight points for UConn. The two-time AP Player of the Year balls hard when the lights shined their brightest. She earned Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four honors for the third time, making her the first woman ever to achieve that. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the only men’s player to do it when he played for Wooden’s Bruins. “There just hasn’t been a player like Stewie in the women’s game in a long, long time,” Auriemma said. She stated when she came to UConn that her goal was to win four championships. She’s now one title away from being the first to win four straight.
Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw had her team back in the championship game for the fourth time in five seasons. The Irish have come up short each time, including the past two against UConn. Notre Dame’s lone title came in 2001.
