No. 1 UConn enters today’s game at Marquette with a 26-0 record, 42 consecutive victories, and a coach who just admitted he has problems he can’t fix.
After a 50-point annihilation of Creighton on Wednesday, Geno Auriemma stood at his postgame podium and delivered one of the most Geno quotes imaginable: “My job between now and the end of the season is to try to fix the things that I can and hide the things that I can’t fix and hope they don’t cause us to lose. There are some things I can’t fix.”
The Huskies have won a program-record 14 straight games by at least 30 points. They’re averaging dominant victory margins. They’ve beaten multiple top-15 opponents. And their Hall of Fame coach is standing in front of reporters talking about concealment strategies.
What Geno Sees That the Scoreboard Doesn’t Show
Auriemma has been here before. He’s led six UConn teams to perfect seasons and owns the two longest winning streaks in college basketball history. The current run sits tied for the eighth-longest in Division I women’s basketball history, and it’s being sustained by a roster that features both the projected No. 1 WNBA Draft pick in Azzi Fudd and a leading National Player of the Year candidate in Sarah Strong.
The numbers suggest perfection. Fudd has been shooting efficiently from three after a sluggish January. Strong, who briefly missed time with tightness, has returned and continues to lead the team in scoring, rebounds, steals, and blocks. The supporting cast has delivered when called upon. Allie Ziebell dropped 20 points off the bench against Creighton.
But Auriemma sees something else entirely. After the Creighton game, he identified areas of concern: offensive rebounding, “silly” fouls, and half-court offense flow. The Huskies grabbed just three offensive boards against the Bluejays, one of their lowest single-game totals of the season. UConn has struggled on the offensive glass throughout the year.
“We shoot the ball and everybody jogs back on defense,” Auriemma said. “You don’t need any talent to be an offensive rebounder. All you need is, when the ball leaves somebody’s hand, you automatically put yourself in a position to chase it down.”
The half-court offense remains a work in progress, too. In spurts against Creighton, Auriemma described watching “everybody running around looking for something; I don’t even know what.” When the ball moves and the cuts come with purpose, UConn looks unstoppable. When it doesn’t, Auriemma sees vulnerabilities that tournament opponents will eventually try to exploit.
Several Games From History, One Road Trip at a Time
UConn is chasing its seventh perfect season in program history. The Huskies travel to Milwaukee today to face a Marquette team (16-9) they demolished, 89-53, in December. Then comes a trip to Villanova before returning home to close out the regular season.
The schedule has hardly been soft, despite what critics say about the Big East. UConn owns the 11th-toughest schedule in the country per NET. They’ve beaten No. 15 Tennessee by 30. They’ve navigated injuries to freshman Blanca Quiñonez, managed Strong’s workload, and still haven’t dropped a game decided by fewer than 20 points since November.
Strong remains the engine. The sophomore forward averages 19.2 points, eight rebounds, 4.5 assists, 3.4 steals, and 1.5 blocks, leading the team in all five categories. She shoots 60.1% from the field and nearly 91% from the line. When she missed the Butler game for rest, it marked the first game she’d sat out in 64 consecutive starts dating to her freshman year. UConn won anyway, 80-48, but the offense looked noticeably different.
Fudd has answered every question about whether she could carry the scoring load when needed. She’s the projected No. 1 pick in ESPN’s latest WNBA mock draft and has found her rhythm after struggling in January. The fifth-year senior became just the 10th player in program history with 250 career three-pointers against Creighton.
The question now isn’t whether UConn can win games. It’s whether Auriemma can find solutions to problems most observers can’t see before March arrives. He’s spent 41 years at this job, 12 national championships worth of experience telling him what matters when elimination games begin.
“This is game number 26 for us,” Auriemma said. “After 26 games, you start to realize, ‘This is who we are as a team.'”
For everyone watching, who they are looks like the most dominant team in the sport. For Auriemma, who they are still needs work. The Huskies tip off against Marquette today at 1 p.m. ET on FS1, hunting win No. 43 in a row while their coach hunts for solutions to problems only he can see.