WBB: Huskies ready for a familiar, imperfect, but difficult opponent in UCF
STORRS-The women’s basketball ledgers between the University of Connecticut and a team that’s formally introducing itself to the NCAA Tournament read exactly as you’d expect them to: the Huskies have emerged victorious in all 13 get-togethers with the University of Central Florida Knights, with only two of them close in a traditional sense: only the most recent matchups, both held in 2020, ended with the final margin of victory lower than 20 points.
But don’t expect the modern Huskies (26-5) to go on spring break when they face UCF in the second round of NCAA Tournament play on Monday night in Storrs (9 p.m. ET, ESPN).
The seventh-ranked Knights’ Saturday victory over Florida, earned on the Gampel Pavilion hardwood hours after No. 2 UConn handled business against Mercer, proved historic in more ways than one. Not only did it tie an Orlando program record for most wins in a single season but it tallied the Knights’ first NCAA Tournament triumph in seven tries. The notable triumph outlasted in-state adversary Florida by a 69-52 and was earned in the traditionally physical ways established under head coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson and assistant Nykesha Sales (a UConn on-court legend in her own right) since the tandem took office in 2016.
The victories earned over UCF were part of the Huskies’ unblemished 139-game run in American Athletic Conference play. As both sides prepared on Sunday, UConn head coach Geno Auriemma said that the victories over the Knights were the hardest to earn in that tally, crediting the relative struggles to UCF’s unapologetic physicality. That effort is currently led by Destiny Thomas, Brittney Smith, and Masseny Kaba, who have united to average nearly 19 rebounds a game this season.
“Their defensive philosophy is to be very, very disruptive. They work really, really hard to get you out of your stuff, out of your rhythm,” Auriemma said. “You've got to do a really good job of taking care of the ball, being assertive with the ball, and I think you've got to be the more aggressive team when you play against them. There is an assertiveness that you have to have, and you have to be able to sustain it for an entire 40 minutes.”
“Every year that we played them I think, with few exceptions, it was that kind of game. Sometimes we won by a lot; sometimes we won by a little. Either way, the game always followed a particular pattern.”
With the focus on the present, Auriemma had only one particular memory to share from the series against the Knights, recalling the time a Napheesa Collier-led scoring effort put up 61 points in the first half of a 93-57 victory. The head coach referred to the happening as “an anomaly” in hindsight.
“Every game usually ends up in the 60s somehow, someway,” Auriemma said, complimenting Abrahamson-Henderson’s defensive efforts and claiming that her setup is not one where UConn can throw “30 threes” at the Knights and expect to win the game. The former Albany/Missouri State boss previously helped hold UConn to 59 points in their penultimate conference meeting in January 2020. “The consistency is what I think is impressive, that every year they have been able to impose their style of play on everybody they play. It doesn't matter who they play, they make them play the way they want them to play.”
Two of the remaining players who faced UCF as a conference opponent, Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Evina Westbrook, concurred. Monday will mark the final time their game sneakers touch Storrs’ hallowed hardwood, and their path to a championship ending could literally be blocked by a team that led the nation (47.6 points per game) in defense this season. Such prowess manifested in their Husky-free run to their first AAC Tournament title earlier this month.
“We understand they're going to come in and press us and be aggressive, something that we have to be ready for,” Westbrook said. “We have to give more and not only match their defensive intensity but give it right back to them. We need to be aggressive and just be tough overall. We understand that that's the type of game that is going to be played tomorrow. We just got to be ready for that.”
Nelson-Ododa, who pulled down eight rebounds in Saturday’s 83-38 win over Mercer, was an unfortunate casualty of UCF’s brand when the teams’ final shared showdown as AAC members in February 2020 when she was hit on the nose in an interior scrum with Kaba (who was whistled for an intentional foul). The resulting 66-53 victory was made to look one-sided by late fouls but was one of UConn’s biggest threats to AAC perfection. She expects more of the same intensity from the Knights, whose talented upperclassmen group includes senior scorer Diamond Battles, in Monday’s postseason challenge.
“I definitely expect a tough game, if not tougher than what we experienced in the past just because of the experience that the older people have. I know they have a few seniors or grad seniors, whatever the case may be. But just from when we played them my sophomore year to now I expect it to be even more physical,” Nelson-Ododa said. “(Kaba and Smith) are a big challenge, especially as posts, just in terms of physicality and being aggressive with them. But I think in the grand scheme of things it's just going to be a whole team effort keeping people from doing what they do on their side, just limiting them to what they're capable of.”
| Date | Location | Game | Time (ET) | TV |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Monday 3/21 | Raleigh, NC | No. 1 North Carolina State vs. No. 9 Kansas State | 4 p.m. | ESPN |
Monday 3/21 | Norman, OK | No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Notre Dame | 6 p.m. | ESPN2 |
Monday 3/21 | Bloomington, IN | No. 3 Indiana vs. No. 11 Princeton | 8 p.m. | ESPNU |
Monday 3/21 | Storrs, CT | No. 2 UConn vs. No. 7 UCF | 9 p.m. | ESPN |
