Final Four Hasn’t Been Kind
The Story: The UConn women are one step from the national championship game and is a big favorite against Arizona tonight at 9:30 p.m. on ESPN. Can the Huskies get over the recent national semifinal hump and play for all the marbles against Stanford or South Carolina on Sunday night?
WHY THIS GAME SCARES US: UConn owns women’s basketball. The Huskies are the most compelling team and have the most compelling coach and the most compelling players, and they bring eyeballs to the TV sets. What they haven’t owned is the national semifinal. UConn has won 11 national titles in its history and is 11-0 in national title games, an incredible rate. But how about the Final Four? UConn is only 11-9 in the national semifinal, including losses in their last three appearances. We still have nightmares of Mississippi State and then Notre Dame (of all teams!) beating the Huskies in recent years. Great games? Yes. But the Huskies went packing. In their run of 12 straight Final Four appearances, UConn is 6-6.
PLAYING THE WOMEN’S IVERSON? We don’t know a ton about Arizona, but we just read that the Wildcats have an Allen Iverson clone! Aari McDonald is a two-time Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and, at 5-foot-6, the senior is a jitterbug on the court. She is also explosive, as evidenced by her 33 points in the Elite Eight. OK. We are intrigued.
MUHL QUESTIONABLE: Guard Nika Muhl’s status for tonight’s game is uncertain, though she is closer to getting on the floor. The Huskies could seriously use the defensive prowess of the rugged freshman guard against Arizona. Muhl has the dreaded high-ankle sprain, which she picked up in the opening-round game against High Point, and she has missed the last three games. She figures, if healthy, to get the first crack at defending McDonald. If not, she’ll probably Christyn Williams‘ responsibility.
WHAT DID GENO SAY? “There were moments in December and January where I didn’t want any part of this team. Because they were so good off the court, they were so tight, they were so together — off the court. And they were everything but that on the court.”
Did Football Lose The Spring?
The Story: Randy Edsall lamented the fact the football team lost its final three practices and the end-of-spring scrimmage, but even with the COVID-19 issues, he believes the last two months were productive for the development of the program.
SPEAKING OF SPRING, DREAMING OF FALL: What are we to make of the football team? We are so out of the loop. In fact, everyone who isn’t actually in the Burton Complex is out of the loop. We haven’t seen a football game or a practice since December 2019. It is April 2021! We don’t have any clue about what the team is going to look like and what it is capable of doing or who will be back for summer camp.
NO DECISION, NO TWO-DEEP: UConn had 91 players in spring practice, which is an incredible number since there are a bunch of freshmen coming in when the team reports to campus in July. UConn can use all the practice it can get and it made lemonade out of the lemons of cancellation. Essentially, it took a redshirt season as a program. Edsall won’t release a two-deep for the spring and said he expects additional preferred walk-ons and, perhaps, transfers to join the team.
WHAT DID EDSALL SAY? “As we go into August, we’ve got 25 practices before that first game. Who’s going to start to even separate themselves because of how hard they worked and how much they studied and the effort they put in in these next four months?”
WHAT ABOUT THE QB? For the last 20 years, UConn has had a quarterback battle going into camp except for one time. We aren’t kidding. Outside of the Dan Orlovsky era in 2004, the quarterback has been a question every season. This year is no different and Edsall said we probably won’t know the starter until the first game in August at Fresno State. Who is in the competition? We know you forgot the candidates (we had to look them up), but Jack Zergiotis, Steve Krajewski, Micah Leon and freshman Tyler Phommachanh are the likely finalists.
BOTTOM LINE: The players will go away at the end of May and have their marching orders from Edsall and strength coach Matt King. When practice returns, we are expecting most of the players to have their vaccinations and for a normal season to commence. We can’t wait. The Huskies open on Aug. 28 at Fresno State before playing at home against Holy Cross on Sept. 4. It can’t come soon enough.
Morning Reads
ROWING ALUMS TO SUE: UConn eliminated its women’s rowing team last year due to budgetary reasons, but former players have filed a Title IX complaint against the school. (Hearst Connecticut Media)
BASEBALL ENDS NON-CONFERENCE PLAY: UConn will get to the meat of the Big East schedule soon but has one more series with UMass this weekend.at Elliot Ballpark. (UConnHuskies.com)
SOFTBALL IN CHICAGO: The softball team is in Chicago for Big East play with a three-game set against DePaul. (UConnHuskies.com)
VBALL TO SEMIS AGAINST CREIGHTON: The volleyball team is one match away from the Big East title game and will Creighton today in Omaha. The Huskies are led by reigning offensive player of the week Caylee Parker. (UConnHuskies.com)
