Takeaways from UConn's AAC Championship Victory
UConn women’s basketball defeated the UCF Knights 66-45 at Mohegan Sun Arena to capture their sixth-straight American Athletic Conference Tournament Championship and their 24th overall.
Here’s what you need to know:
Defense Makes Statement
At halftime of UConn’s AAC Tournament opener against ECU, Geno Auriemma snapped. He wasn’t pleased with his team’s defense effort through the first 20 minutes and he let them know it in the locker room.
“For the first time all year I kind of lost it on them,” he admitted.
The message was received. ECU scored just 11 points in the third quarter out of the half. Against USF, UConn allowed five points in the first quarter and gave up just 15 at the half. In the final two games, the Huskies limited the opponent to just 45 total points.
After the halftime tirade, Auriemma saw a switch flip in his team.
“These last two games, there’s been a change in their mindset. You can see it. Change in their shootaround, change in their approach, change in everything. That changes everything,” he said. “Whatever I was doing, it wasn’t registering. And it finally registered this week. Maybe it was a little bit of a panic: ‘We don’t have Lou. Can’t count on all those points. Gotta dig a little more.’ I don’t know.”
Auriemma believes that defensive effort is the biggest x-factor for UConn as they enter the NCAA Tournament.
“What you bring right from the beginning of the game on the defense end -- that’s been the difference in when we’re great and when we’re lousy,” he said. “There’s no inbetween with this team.”
Collier Caps Off Incredible Tournament
After Saturday’s quarterfinal win Auriemma noted how the Conference Player of the Year doesn’t always win the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player Award as a way to contextualize freshmen Olivia Nelson-Ododa’s career performance.
Napheesa Collier decided to break that trend. In the regular season, she averaged 20.8 points per game and 10.2 rebounds a game. But in the tournament, Collier topped both those marks with 28.3 points and 13 rebounds over the three games.
“The word for her is phenomenal. In every game. That’s even probably an understatement,” Crystal Dangerfield said. “What she does for our team can’t be matched by anybody else and I’m glad she’s on my team. That’s for sure.”
With Katie Lou Samuelson out with a back injury, the Huskies needed Collier to step up and she answered the bell. Part of that had to do with the existential dread of knowing the next game could be her last.
“Three games ago,” Collier said when asked when she started thinking about her college career coming to an end. “It’s do or die at this point.”
UConn Proves Capable Without Samuelson
For a UConn team that has played with a short bench for most of the season -- assuming Auriemma used his bench at all -- the idea of losing a starter, let alone Samuelson, was concerning. The Huskies didn’t respond well to the challenge in their first game against USF, coming away with just a 10-point victory. They didn’t look much better in the first game of the tournament against ECU, leading by just seven at the half.
But as the tournament went on, UConn learned to play without their star senior. Collier, Dangerfield and Megan Walker shouldered the scoring load. Olivia Nelson-Ododa replaced her rebounds. Mikayla Coombs picked up the slack on defense.
“I thought they grew a lot,” Samuelson observed. “Each game, we did something better than the game before. We worked on stuff that showed how much people individuals and as a group we’ve improved overall. I was really proud of the way they played today.”
Now, if Samuelson returns for the NCAA Tournament, UConn will have two more players in the rotation that they didn’t have prior to the start of the postseason. The emergence of Nelson-Ododa as a legitimate post presence can help boost the Huskies in their three weakest points: Lack of size, lack of depth and defense.
“It’s really good to know she has that kind of experience and confidence in these couple games to go out there and play as hard as she can,” Samuelson said of the freshman.
WATCH MORE POST-GAME VIDEO FROM GENO AURIEMMA AND MORE PLAYERS HERE!
Auriemma Revels in Championship
UConn has won 120 games in the American Athletic Conference with zero losses. On Monday, they secured their sixth-consecutive tournament title. But Auriemma noted that despite the Huskies’ dominance, it’s still special feeling to win it all.
“Each championship means different things to different people,” he said. “Our seniors are like ‘Of course, this is what we do,’ and our freshmen are like ‘This is really cool’...You can’t just whitewash that and say ‘Oh that’s nothing, it’ll be about the Final Four.’ This is really a big deal for these kids, so you want to make it a big deal.”
While it may have been another tournament of 20+ point wins, this one didn’t come as easy for UConn. The Huskies had to overcome a slow start against ECU, fight off a depleted but scrappy USF squad before battling a physical, tough UCF team. And they had to do it all without their second-best player in Samuelson. The big margin of victory on paper doesn’t give due credit to just how much UConn worked to earn this title.
“That’s why this is so rewarding,” Auriemma said. “Nothing came easy.”
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