By UConn women’s basketball standards, the sky was falling.
The Huskies lost their second game this season, the first time they’ve lost multiple games since 2012-13, and followed up the loss with a less-than-inspiring ten-point win over Cincinnati. To top things off, UConn fell to No. 5 in the AP Poll, its lowest ranking since 2007.
But there was no sense of panic in the Huskies’ locker room. The team returned back from its road trip on Sunday and, with two days before their next game, head coach Geno Auriemma decided to simplify things, a move that paid off in Wednesday night's 118-65 win over East Carolina.
“Let’s say our playbook is ten pages. Our playbook is down to like half a page, and I think that’s helped them,” Auriemma said. “We’ve tried to minimize how many things they can do and their focus has been pretty narrow."
Their focus was getting out in transition and finding open shots. The Huskies went back into the press they debuted against SMU and forced 11 first quarter turnovers. They scored 31 points on the fast break and assisted on 35 of their 45 baskets.
The goal was to help them realize just how simple of a game basketball can be when played the right way, especially with the talent the Huskies have on hand.
“It’s not a hard game,” Auriemma explained. “That guy has the same color shirt as I do, I’m going to throw it to them. Wait, there’s a guy with a hand in front of it, maybe I’ll throw it to that guy instead. How is that hard? I’ll never understand.”
UConn certainly made it look easy Wednesday night. Every starter reached double figures while the Huskies scored their highest point total of the season. Even the bench shined, scoring a season-high 25 points.
It didn’t hurt that two players that had been struggling recently -- Katie Lou Samuelson and Christyn Williams -- both found their groove again. Samuelson had been in a shooting slump but exploded with a 31-point performance in just 20 minutes, hitting 9-11 from the field. Only two of the field goals were threes, leading Auriemma to note how versatile her offensive game has become.
“She had 27 points in the first half and made two threes,” Auriemma said. “That’s unheard of back in the day for her. It’s a good sign.”
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The key was to not worry about shooting and just play basketball, according to Auriemma.
“I think sometimes shooters get obsessed with ‘Why is it not going in?’ and they keep at it and all they do is get more frustrated because they can’t get it to go in," Auriemma said. "If you just forget about that part of your game and do a bunch of other stuff, then all of the sudden the other stuff fills in the gaps...
"You have to be a basketball player, not a basketball shooter.”
While Samuelson was working through a slump, Williams hit the dreaded freshman wall. In her past seven games, she reached double figures just once and struggled to make much of an impact out on the court. But against the Pirates, she went back to the style of play that brought her success earlier in the season.
“There was an aggressiveness about her, an assertiveness about her,” Auriemma said. “That’s when she’s at her best. Good things happen when you’re like that. She has too much talent to stand around and do nothing. It was a good night for her, really good night.”
Williams hit a pair of three-pointers, something she hadn’t done in those last seven games, and celebrated with a double-fist pump. At the end of the third quarter, she beat the shot clock with a step-back jumper just before the end of the buzzer. Again, it was about getting back to what she knew she was good at.
“I like to create and that’s what I did in high school so I’m trying to get back into that rhythm,” Williams said.
Despite the good feelings of the night, it is understood: the competition between UConn and a national title will be more unforgiving than ECU. And good teams won’t let the Huskies stick to what they’re comfortable with. But Wednesday night felt more like typical UConn, complete with a lopsided AAC win.
