The Huskies are on the verge of winning their 71st straight game. They will get their chance to make history yet again when they face No. 6 Notre Dame in the Big East tournament semifinals tomorrow night at the XL Center.
UConn has not lost in nearly two years. Since April 6, 2008 in the national semifinals to Stanford in the national semifinals in Tampa, Fla. to be exact. In fact, the Huskies have lost a mind-blowing 44 games since the start of the 1933-94 season. That’s an average of 2.6 losses in 17 seasons.
Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma said today that he has every one of those losses on file in his mind too. And that he certainly has not forgotten what it’s like to lose due to the team’s most recent success.
“You never forget that feeling, trust me,’’ Auriemma said. “It’s like doing something wrong at home and then you don’t do it again for another six months. All of a sudden it happens, and it doesn’t take much to remind you. I worry that Caroline (Doty) and Tiffany (Hayes) don’t know anything about losing. They’ve not lost a game. They’re 70-0 at Connecticut. And that’s kind of amazing. That’s just… I don’t know how you interpret that for them.’’
It truly pains Auriemma to have to talk about The Streak. So much so that he joked that was going to send associate head coach Chris Dailey to meet with the media following today’s win over Syracuse. He has no use for the streak. And neither do the Huskies, for that matter.
Auriemma said last week following practice that it was insignificant. He reiterated that fact today.
“Unless you’ve been in that situation the average person out there thinks we get up every morning … Like we’re in a prison cell, we get up every morning and go to the wall and carve out another `X’ and say, `That’s one less day I’ve got to worry about this,’’’ Auriemma said. “That’s so far from what the reality is. I don’t think there’s been one day that I’ve gone to practice thinking at all about how many games we’ve won. And the average person won’t understand that, but it’s true. It’s honest to God true. When you get an obsession and you get something obsessive that kind of gives you some tunnel vision, and tunnel vision is not good. You need to be able to take the blinders off and be able to see everything that’s going on in front of you. And that’s why I don’t talk about it. I don’t think about it. I don’t care I guess is my biggest thing. I know everybody else around the country does. I know everybody wants to ask me. I know everybody thinks it’s a big deal, and I guess in the world we live in today I guess it is a big deal. And maybe it’s supposed to be a big deal. But what’s that 70 in a row going to do for you if we lose tomorrow? You know what we talked about all day long today in practice and actually in every time out and everything leading up to this game … It’s the same thing we talk about all time. If you don’t give up 3s, if you don’t foul people and you don’t give up second shots then we will win every single game we play. Do you know if you count 3s, free throws and second shots (Syracuse) outscored us 36-26? So you want to know what I spend my time thinking about? Dumb stuff like that.’’
It has come to the point where Dailey recently asked Auriemma if he was secretly hoping the Huskies would lose so that all of this talk would go away and they could just get back to the business of concentrating on winning the national championship. Much like they did in 2003 when the first 70-game winning streak was stopped by Villanova in the Big East tournament final at Rutgers. UConn then went on to win the second of three straight national championships.
Auriemma admitted that he has actually formed the speech he would deliver once UConn does lose again.
“You might think this is crazy, but I actually prepare what I’m going to say after the game if it happens,’’ Auriemma said. “I do. Like we’re at Notre Dame (last) Monday, and if today’s the day, here’s the way it happens. Unless there’s a kid from the student paper that really (makes me angry), this is what I’m going to say. But I just have never gotten comfortable with … every game is going to be a W. I haven’t truly embraced that. I can’t. I think my makeup for whatever reason won’t let me. I think when you’re sitting over there where you guys are sitting, it’s probably a done deal, right. It’s going to be 71. It’s going to be 81. It’s going to be 91, 101. I just cringe and go, `Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. If they could only see it from this side.’’’
Auriemma was referring the night of the loss to Villanova when he blew up at former Daily Campus reporter Amanda Alnutt after she asked him what he was going to do to make sure it didn’t happen again. His outburst was then re-played repeatedly on ESPN.
Here’s the speech he said he was going to deliver if they had lost to the Orange today.
“`Hey listen, last time we lost in the Big East Tournament, we won a national championship. Don’t worry about it. Take 4 or 5 days off for spring break, and I’ll see guys on Saturday,’’’ Auriemma said. “I had it all planned. Secretly, I would go out tonight and get dinner thinking, `Yeah. Now we’re ready!’ I’m holding that speech. I better not have to use it after this week, though. After this week, no speeches.’’
Rich
