Huskies to Honor Alumni vs. Notre Dame
The Story: The No. 8-ranked UConn women will face their sternest test of the season and put their 13-game winning streak on the line tomorrow night in front of a national audience as they welcome No. 15 Notre Dame to Gampel Pavilion (8 p.m., Fox).
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: UConn (17-3, 9-0 Big East) will go up against one of its longtime nemeses in the Fighting Irish (14-4, 5-3 ACC), who surprisingly lost 79-65 at home to Syracuse last night.
• The Huskies, who are down to nine scholarship players with five out for the season, have not faced a difficult test since they lost at Texas on Dec. 3.
HONORING THE GREATS: Twenty-three former women’s basketball players are expected to be in attendance as UConn honors those who played for the Huskies during the 2002-03, 2003-04, 2012-13 and 2013-14 national championship seasons.
• Among those who have said they’ll be on hand include Diana Taurasi and Breanna Stewart. Plans call for the alumni to eat dinner with the players tonight, when plenty of stories about Geno Auriemma will surely be told.
FRESHMAN PHENOMS: Say what you will about the Huskies’ quartet of Ashlynn Shade, KK Arnold, Qadence Samuels and redshirt freshman Ice Brady. Notre Dame has its own star in the making in Hannah Hidalgo.
• Hidalgo, a 5-foot-6 guard from Haddonfield, N.J., is second in Division I in scoring among freshmen at 23.9 points per game. She scored 31 points in the season-opener at South Carolina (how’s that for a debut?) and 32 points at Syracuse on New Year’s Eve, and only twice this season has scored fewer than 20 in a game.
• She’s also an aggressive defender who’s averaging an unfathomable 5.4 steals per game, tops in Division I, and has 6.4 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game.
• Hidalgo was the No. 5-ranked player in the country last year, according to the ESPN Hoopgurlz recruiting rankings, and chose Notre Dame over Stanford, Duke, Michigan, Ohio State, and UCF.
ABOUT NOTRE DAME: The Irish, led by fourth-year coach Niele Ivey, are averaging 83.3 points per game and outscoring opponents by an average of 22.3 points per game.
• Aside from Hidalgo, junior guard Sonia Citron is averaging 18.3 points per game, while 6-foot-3 senior forward Maddie Westbeld is chipping in 13.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.
Top-Ranked Huskies a Cut Above the Rest
The Story: Being the top-ranked team is great, but what Dan Hurley is focused on is the long game — and that includes winning the Big East regular-season title.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Big East is drama-filled this year with Seton Hall coming out of nowhere in the first half of the season and trap games on the road every night. The conference had three top-10 teams to begin the season and it looked like there was going to be a race for the ages to the regular-season title. There’s still time for that, but what we’ve seen in the opening half of the season is that the Huskies have clearly edged ahead of the rest of their opponents.
• The Huskies, after a shocking loss to the Pirates to open Big East play, have stayed above the fray as we head into February and are on a seven-game winning streak.
• UConn, which plays Xavier on Sunday at noon at XL Center, is searching for its eighth straight win and has a two-game lead over second-place Creighton.
• Creighton and Marquette look like they’re back to what we thought in the preseason as the Bluejays have won three straight and the Golden Eagles have won their last two. Those teams are primed to make a run at the Huskies in the second half.
HOW MANY TOURNAMENT TEAMS? Nine of the Big East’s 11 teams are in contention for an NCAA Tournament berth (sorry, Georgetown and DePaul). The NET Ranking, which the NCAA uses, is unreliable until late in the season as double-digit changes come with with winning or losing every game. Luckily, we have the KenPom ratings, which are also used by the committee to evaluate teams.
• UConn, at No. 7, is the Big East’s only top-10 team. Why isn’t it No. 1? Two reasons: The nonconference strength of schedule, even with some top-flight wins, was terrible with games against some of the lowest-rated teams in the country. Secondly, and perhaps a bigger reason, UConn’s defense has clearly slipped without Donovan Clingan playing major minutes. The defense is ranked 28th while the offense is No. 3. The Huskies have plenty of room to improve on defense once Clingan is fully healthy.
• How about the rest of the league? Creighton (No. 15) and Marquette (No. 17) are right there and figure to be top seeds. Then we get into the bubble, where six teams will likely vie for two or three spots. St. John’s (No. 31), Xavier (No. 34) and Villanova (No. 39) are on the right side of the bubble for now, while Providence (No. 46), minus Bryce Hopkins, put itself back into the mix with a much-needed win over Seton Hall last week. On the fringe? Butler (No. 57) and Seton Hall (No. 67) have work to do but are in the hunt.
BOTTOM LINE: Desperate teams that need a great win on the resume are going to bring their “A” game against the defending national champions. UConn better be ready every night.
— John Silver
Morning Reads
• Former UConn kicker Noe Ruelas will join Cam Ross in transferring to James Madison as he announced his decision on social media yesterday afternoon.
• The men’s hockey team (10-11-2, 6-8-1 Hockey East) will open the Connecticut Ice tournament at the XL Center tonight by hosting Sacred Heart, then will face Quinnipiac or Yale tomorrow.
• The No. 11-ranked women’s hockey team (16-6-2, 13-3-1 Hockey East) will try to run its winning streak to six and seven games with a two-game home series against Vermont tonight and tomorrow.
• Three former UConn field hockey players have qualified to represent their countries at the Paris Olympics in July, with Karlie Kisha (United States), Cecile Pieper (Germany) and Sophie Hamilton (Great Britain) all set to play on the world’s biggest stage.
Top photo: Geno Auriemma looks on from the sidelines during the Huskies’ game against Dayton. (Courtesy of UConn athletics)
