The Big Dogs are Bringing Nightmare Fuel
The Story: The women’s basketball team is rejoining the Big East after a seven-year hiatus and will pick right up where it left off. The Huskies were immediately dubbed the unanimous favorites to win the conference, have the preseason player of the year in Christyn Williams and the preseason freshman of the year in Paige Bueckers. Expectations, of course, remain high.
THE STUFF OF NIGHTMARES: How terrified are the other Big East teams to have UConn back in the mix? Consider Creighton coach Jim Flanery‘s tale from early in the pandemic.
“I’m wandering around the island and I run into Geno [Auriemma] and Chris Dailey, and Geno was like 6-4 and he was built like a linebacker,” Flanery said. “And long story short, I was too chicken to ask him when we were supposed to play each other, and I couldn’t find any of my assistants because they were off doing island things.”
TOAST OF THE TOWN: The Big East is a much better women’s basketball conference than the AAC (to be fair, so is the CCC East). UConn did not lose a single conference game in its seven years in the AAC and will be hard pressed to produce that kind of dominance in the Big East — at least over the long term. DePaul, which was a strong second in the preseason poll, is the three-time defending Big East champion and was ranked No. 15 in the final coaches poll last year.
GENO SOUNDS THE ALARM: As an immigrant, and one who has had several current and former players involved in activism, Geno couldn’t stay silent when asked about the importance of voting.
“To be honest, I’ve never felt anything like I’m seeing and feeling in today’s world,” he said. “Never. Not any time in my life have I been so disgusted with so much of what I see happening in the country. … The pandemic is one of the least of our problems. There is a cure for the pandemic. It’s out there. It’s coming. I’m not sure there’s a cure for some of the other stuff going on in this country. You can’t make a vaccine for some of the nonsense that has been going on. You can’t. There isn’t a vaccine for that. The only thing you have for that is your vote. That’s it.
“No one can inoculate you from the stuff that has been happening in this country. The things that are being said, the way people are treating each other. The most anger I’ve felt in my life about anything has been what’s going on in our world right now.”
WILLIAMS’ TIME HAS COME: Williams, a junior, has waited in the wings as a role player and secondary scoring option and that will end this year. Williams averaged 14.6 points per game last season and is now the top dog for the Huskies, who are the only major-conference team without a senior.
BUECKERS READY TO BRING IT: Bueckers, on the other hand, has not played a single game for the Huskies but is one of the more hyped recruits ever to come to UConn. That’s saying something as the nation’s No. 1 recruit could have the kind of impact that Breanna Stewart or Diana Taurasi had as freshmen.
Bueckers, a 5-foot-11 point guard, was USA Basketball’s 2019 Player of the Year. Expectations are through the roof for the freshman, but we know Geno has a way to motivate and ground even the most-hyped players. (He’s already starting.)
NELSON-ODODA, WESTBROOK RECOGNIZED: UConn is far from a two-player team. Junior center Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Tennessee transfer Evina Westbrook were also named to the All-Big East preseason team. Nelson-Ododa averaged 10.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game last season. Westbrook is an interesting selection. Also a point guard, she sat out last season and is recovering from knee surgery. She averaged 14.9 points per game as a sophomore in the SEC.
