The Huskies closed out the decade with a 78-59 victory at No. 12 Florida State Monday. It was their 50th straight win and the second time they have had a streak of this length in the last nine-plus seasons. Of course, UConn set an NCAA record by winning 70 straight games from Nov. 9, 2001 through March 11, 2003.
The Huskies finished the decade a combined 314-27 (.921) with two undefeated seasons, eight 30-win seasons, four national championships, six trips to the Final Four, seven Big East regular season championships and six conference tournament championships since the 2000-01 season.
Individually, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore were each named The Associated Press National Player of the Year. They also won the Naismith Award and the Wade Trophy. Taurasi was a two-time recipient of the Naismith Award.
Svetlana Abrosimova, Bird, Taurasi, Swin Cash, Moore, Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles were named Kodak/State Farm All-Americans. Bird, Taurasi, Moore and Montgomery was also named first team All-Americans by The Associated Press. And coach Geno Auriemma was three times honored by The Associated Press, Naismith and the WBCA as the national Coach of the Year.
“I’ll probably look back and think that you’ll never have that kind of opportunity probably ever again to do something like that because you’re doing it almost for the first time,’’ Auriemma said. “You can never duplicate what you’ve done. You can do it again, but you can’t duplicate it. Really that 2000, 2001, 2002 stretch right there, those three years, that’s about as good as it gets. I don’t know that any team has played basketball at that level or had that many great, great players be a part of it.’’
Due to the New Year’s holiday I will be conducting my weekly live chat Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. See you there.
Rich
A great team again this year. They should go all the way.
Comment by Connecticut Sam — December 29th, 2009 @ 3:36 pm