After a four-year championship drought, uncharacteristic of their dominance of women's college basketball during the tenure of head coach Geno Auriemma, the UConn Huskies returned to the top of the NCAA women's basketball world with a perfect 2008-09 season.
So far this fall, they've picked up exactly where they left off, and Auriemma is on his way to rewriting the record books.
When Auriemma became the head coach of the Huskies back in 1985, he took over a middling program that was struggling to find its mettle. UConn had never earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament, let alone a national championship. The Huskies finished an uninspiring 12-15 in Auriemma's first year on the job, 14-13 in his second and 17-11 in his third.
But since then, they've been on a remarkable roll.
The Huskies made their NCAA Tournament debut during the 1988-89 season, and although UConn bowed out in the first round that year, it has appeared in every Big Dance since and made the Sweet 16 in every tourney since 1993. UConn's first Final Four appearance came in 1991, and Auriemma's Huskies struck gold for the first time with a perfect 35-0 season and their first national championship in 1995.
Years have passed and the players have changed, but the newfound tradition of winning at UConn has never wavered. And that's largely thanks to Auriemma, who on Friday became the 11th coach in Div. I history to notch 700 career victories.
In his 24 years at the helm of the Huskies, Auriemma has won six national championships — including four in five years from 2000 to 2004 — posted an unprecedented 14 30-win seasons and compiled the best winning percentage of any active NCAA coach (.852). The latter mark is second only to that of the legendary Leon Barmore, who coached Louisiana Tech from 1982 to 2002, as Auriemma has not endured a losing season since his first year on the job.
This year's UConn squad will look to turn in a fourth perfect season for their 2006 Hall of Fame-inductee coach, and they're off to a 6-0 start. Auriemma's team has dominated its opponents over the past year and change en route to the nation's longest active winning streak, which stands at 45 games.
Not surprisingly, the Huskies are unanimously ranked atop the AP Top 25 and the ESPN/USA Today coaches' poll. The team is led by an unparalleled starting five, which includes decorated junior All-American forward Maya Moore and senior center Tina Charles, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2009 Final Four. Together, that duo highlights an efficient attack that has logged a 56.1 field-goal percentage so far this season, as well as a stifling defense, which has held opponents to just 30.3 percent shooting from the floor. The Huskies have dominated the boards 270-149, stolen 80 balls and tallied 132 assists.
Put all of that together, and it's not surprising that Auriemma's bunch has more than doubled-up its opponents on the scoreboard, winning by an average score of 90-43.
And there's no end in sight for UConn, at least until the No. 2-ranked Stanford Cardinal come to Hartford on Dec. 23. If the Huskies can top Tara Vanderveer's also-undefeated squad, only three true threats to the Huskies' perfection will remain on their regular-season schedule. Those will come on Jan. 9 against No. 4-ranked North Carolina and on Jan. 16 and Mar. 1 — Connecticut's two meetings with No. 5 Notre Dame.
Fine recruiting efforts — aided significantly by the professional success of Auriemma's former players, such as Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird — have once again given UConn a star-studded lineup that makes a 30-0 regular season and a run at its seventh national championship distinct possibilities.
As long as the six-time Naismith Coach of the Year is calling the shots from the Connecticut bench, Auriemma's Huskies figure to be a mainstay in the NCAA's elite.
