So, one month ago....

[pap49cba]

...did you think we'd be here? I must confess I didn't.

 

[CL82]

Final 4? yes. NC? Well let's say I was "cautiously optimistic."

 

[Flyegirl]

Nope

 

[Icebear]

Thought we could but not that we would.

 

[SWHuskyFan]

Have to agree with you. It really seemed like Baylor's year and we'd have to wait for next year. It also seemed like ND would also be in our way. In the end we rolled through the competition as well as any of our best years. Just a great tournament by the whole team. Pretty much everyone stepped up and gave what was needed from them. Not that long ago people were coming to the conclusion the Breanna wasn't what we expected. What a difference her emergence made.

 

[UConnChapette]

I confess to having doubts. Which is a big reason why I changed my avatar to Tinkerbell. I needed to get the positive mojo and thinking back. Once we made the FF, I became very confident we would win #8.

 

[Blueballer]

No I did not. And when Dolson got hurt I really thought no. Then Stewie went OFF and Baylor lost and then you started thinking, well maybe.

 

[Wbbfan1]

Thought team MIGHT beat ND and then would lose in the Championship game to Baylor. If the team was able to play this well against Baylor, they just might have beaten Baylor anyway. Baylor had no answers for Louisville 3's would they have had an answer to UConn's 3's?

 

[cferraro04]

Care to guess how TonyC will answer that question?

 

[ktuck911]

Final 4 definitely... Even to the Natl Championship game... ND's Diggins gave a little extra ribbing with her comments after they beat us in the Big East Tourney championship game... I knew we'd come back and outplay them... I thought we'd be playing Baylor tonite.... Regardless of the outcome, I'm happy. We did our job.. We're the NATIONAL CHAMPS...

 

[Fishy]

No.

Not by a mile.

After they lost that game to Notre Dame in triple overtime, I didn't think they had it in them. I wasn't the least bit surprised when they coughed up the Big East title game - I thought they were the third best team in the country with little hope of overcoming Baylor and to a lesser extent, Notre Dame.

They were just so bad in those close games. But then Stewart turned into Kevin Durant and UConn's problems with close games went away...they just stopped having close games. Once they clubbed Notre Dame, my sense was that tonight was just a formality - but prior to that, I still had serious doubts.

Honestly, this was just an astounding job by Geno. And that kid Stewart is just going to be a holy terror until she's done - there'll be dozens of college coaches at her graduation just to make sure that she's gone.

 

[DaddyChoc]

NOPE... not after ND crushed us 3 times (yeah I said crushed) and BG was still healthy

thanks Louisville and BStew

 

[Buzzyboy]

Have to agree with you. It really seemed like Baylor's year and we'd have to wait for next year. It also seemed like ND would also be in our way. In the end we rolled through the competition as well as any of our best years. Just a great tournament by the whole team. Pretty much everyone stepped up and gave what was needed from them. Not that long ago people were coming to the conclusion the Breanna wasn't what we expected. What a difference her emergence made.

What I felt was that UConn would probably lose to Baylor during the regular season, maybe pick up another loss to Notre Dame. By the end of the regular season I felt the freshmen would be seasoned and that UConn had a legitimate shot at the title though a little short of prohibitive favorites. It seemed that it would be Baylor-UConn in a game that would be close to a tossup. I didn't factor in UConn struggling in the last minutes of all the Notre Dame games leading to the semi-finals of the Final four but they finally got all their horses in a row! Wonderful!

 

[alexrgct]

Prior to the season? Yes, though my prediction was we'd beat Baylor in the regular season and lose in New Orleans.

After the loss to Baylor? Less confident, but yes.

After two more Notre Dame losses? No. Figured beating both ND and Baylor would be too great a task, and they would have to do both. Liked what I saw from Breanna the second half of the BET final, but that gave me hope for the future...just not the immediate future.

My God, these performances by Breanna will go down as the stuff of legend. Certain events seem bigger in the moment than they do over time. I think Stewie's games will be the opposite.

KML and Stef in particular have to be giddy. They are going to have so much daylight now with teams trying to stop Breanna.

 

[johnnyc]

No. I thought maybe FF but not this. I was expecting too much from the freshman and when it didn't materialize I figured next year would be the start.

 

[Sonny44]

What I felt was that UConn would probably lose to Baylor during the regular season, maybe pick up another loss to Notre Dame. By the end of the regular season I felt the freshmen would be seasoned and that UConn had a legitimate shot at the title though a little short of prohibitive favorites. It seemed that it would be Baylor-UConn in a game that would be close to a tossup. I didn't factor in UConn struggling in the last minutes of all the Notre Dame games leading to the semi-finals of the Final four but they finally got all their horses in a row! Wonderful!

That was exactly my prediction at the beginning of the year.
The only way it could have been better would be for us to beat Baylor in the finals.

 

[doggydaddy]

You might not believe me, but I always felt they would win it all.

 

[jplotinus]

I posted that losing to ND in the BET was no big deal, more helpful than harmful. I hoped for Stewie's emergence, but wasn't counting on it. A month ago it seemed as if Geno and staff were prepping Stewie for a bigger role, working very hard with her to help her overcome the tendency towards over-thinking her game.

We all knew Stewie playing up to her full potential would present matchup problems for all teams, even Baylor, had it come to that. I'm not saying I would have preferred a Baylor matchup because that would have been a harder game. But it would have been winnable based on Stewie's post season rise and all others playing well.

Bottom line is that what started out as an expected "push button" season was more difficult all the way up to the tournament. The tournament ride was, actually, of the "easy button " variety.

 

[Storrsbred]

In the presser last night, Geno mentioned that at some point in the Vanderbilt game things completely turned around. He stated then that he knew the team light bulb, flickering up to that point for most of the season, had turned on. He went on to say he didn't know what happened and didn't know when exactly it happened, but he remembered seeing it click. So, maybe even Geno didn't know it would happen, even though he thought it could happen, until that point.

 

[Ozzie Nelson]

I was wrong and dumb as usual.

 

[Suebird10fan]

My God, these performances by Breanna will go down as the stuff of legend. Certain events seem bigger in the moment than they do over time. I think Stewie's games will be the opposite.

Well said. I totally agree. To really appreciate it you had to see Stewie during the middle of the season. Against Baylor she looked totally lost. And that wasn't mainly because it was Baylor. That's just how she was playing. And then this.

 

[arnie3]

Not until they got over the hump with ND. Then it was mission accomplished. What a great story line.

 

[hoopsdiva]

...did you think we'd be here? I must confess I didn't.

I'm usually convinced that we're dooooomed until we're up by 10+ points with 30 seconds left to go.

I guess that's just part of the mojo.

 

[msf22b]

I was saddened and angered after the Big East Tourney as was the team.

But as they rolled through the regional, one could sense a new outlook and of course Geno knew.

But did I think they would go all the way ?…No, but I thought the final 4 was possible/likely.

I said that they would go as far as the frosh carried them and at the perfect moment, the youngsters were
fully integrated into the team.

Hardly mentioned for example is the 2nd half play of Moriah, who came in, made a couple of bonehead plays and then cut out the last piece left of Ville's heart with her dishing and swishing.

Stewie's emergence is the stuff of legends; impossible to adequately chronicle, a tale that will be oft mentioned in tales of the woman's game.

So happy for the Seniors: Caroline, Kelly (who was indescribably excellent) and for Heather…what a great moment.

A lot of teams out there are going to be rolling there eyes at the prospect of next season's beat-downs.

 

[baylorprof]

A month ago, we Baylor folk started asking the same question but from a different angle. You guys seemed in such a disarray offensively and limited in rotation options that we were wondering who else is out there and began wondering if we needed to look West toward a Stanford game. Deep down inside we knew we could handle Stanford, and had proven that Sims could outplay Diggins.

But having Auriemma is like having a 6th player on the court. He brings a men's game style of coaching to the women's game (being as hard on his best players as he is to get them to "get it"), so that occasions like Stewart's emergence can happen. KMulkey does the same thing, but at Baylor she can't get by with quite as much "challenging" as Auriemma can).

I thought you guys were going to just have to think of Stewart as a project for the next 2-3 years. And most of the posters here that I read felt just as puzzled. But wow. No way we match up with your guys next year. NO ONE nationally does.

As an outsider, when I watched Dolson being as uninvolved in the offense last night, and limping, I wondered even she becomes a 6th/7th off the bench player and a Stewart /(I'm blank on your frosh #5 whose given great minutes in the tourney) combo starts next year. Either way. Stewart is going to be a beast, and fortunately for you guys, that started in the last month, not in her second year.

The ONLY upside I see of Stewart's monster game/month is that perhaps the Brianna Turners of the world back off UCONN as a dream schollie, knowing that if Stewart stays healthy and on her game, between her and MLewis, there's not going to be a lot of offensive room for shooting max numbers of 3s every game. But if anyone can convince a national recruit to come and join your herd of national recruits, it's your coach, so who knows.

Again, congrats. Given that we hiccupped vs. Louisville and didn't make the show, glad to see your coach get his continued due reward.