UConn women's basketball

Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma had no idea how 6-foot-5 freshman center Stefanie Dolson was going to perform Sunday against No. 11 Ohio State at Madison Square Garden. Not only was UConn taking aim at a record-tying 88th straight win, but Dolson was facing 6-4 senior All-American Jantel Lavender following a poor week of practice.

Auriemma said Dolson had a cold. Somebody told him she had pink eye too. But whatever was ailing Dolson over the past few days subsided in the first few minutes Sunday.

Dolson outplayed Lavender, finishing with career-highs of 15 rebounds and three blocks in 25 minutes.

“I think something happened the last day or so,’’ Auriemma said. “Maybe something I said or something she did or something somebody said. But after the first three or four minutes of the game she kind of settled in. And there was one timeout early in the game where I could tell by the look in her eyes. And I just asked her, `You’re going to kick her butt, aren’t you?’ And she just had this smile on her face like `I’m ready now.’’’

Dolson added four points and two assists for the Huskies.

Lavender, who entered the game leading the nation in scoring (26.6) and averaging 10.7 rebounds, finished with 14 points (7-of-21 FG), seven rebounds and six turnovers in 38 minutes. She was not gracious in defeat, failing to give Dolson any credit for her poor performance.

“No, she didn’t (surprise me),’’ Lavender said. “I just didn’t finish my shots. I had some good looks and I just didn’t finish.’’

Moments earlier, the Huskies had wrapped up an 81-50 victory over the Buckeyes and a spot in the history books. It was time to rejoice a bit.

Yet, when Auriemma went into the stands to visit with his family it wasn’t Win No. 88 that was the first topic of discussion with his brother, Ferruccio. It was the Eagles’ 38-31 come-from-behind win over the Giants.

“You’ve got to understand it’s very, very simple for me to stay grounded and stay where I am,’’ Auriemma said.
“The guys I grew up with, my family and everybody. When I went into the stands after the game, my brother congratulated me. He put his arms around me and he said, `Yo man, the Eagles kicked the (heck) out of the Giants.’ Seriously. That’s kind of what’s important where I grew up. So we’re all celebrating. We’ve got two things to celebrate about.’’

Auriemma and UConn men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun have had a frosty relationship for some time. But with the Huskies on the verge of breaking the record for the longest winning streak in the history of Division I basketball, Calhoun put aside any differences he might have to provide a few congratulatory remarks Sunday.

“I’m friends with (Rutgers coach C.) Vivian Stringer and I know (Tennessee coach) Pat Summitt very well. Good person, good coach,’’ Calhoun said. “But you’d have a tough time – there’s no way you could convince me, the facts are there – they’re the best women’s program in the history of women’s college basketball.”

Rich

Larry Farmer is the winningest player in UCLA history at 89-1. He was a starter for the Bruins in 1971-72 and 1972-73 when they were on their way to setting a Division I record by winning 88 straight games.

As the Huskies look to win their 88th straight today in the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden, there will be a member of Farmer’s family that just might be rooting for them to tie the record. His 14-year-old daughter, Kendall is a UConn fan.

“She’s a big Diana Taurasi fan,’’ Farmer said. “As a matter of fact, she has an autographed basketball from her. (Phoenix Mercury president and general manager) Ann Meyers is a good friend of mine from UCLA, and she got Diana to autograph a ball for my daughter. So my daughter’s a big UConn fan. We watch Maya (Moore) play. She’s fun to watch because she’s so good. There are players like Maya and Diana whose games I respect so much that are so good they are crossover players. Whether you’re a man or woman you enjoy watching them play. Maya is just fun to watch play.’’

Farmer said that he and Kendall watch probably five or six UConn games together a season, with most of them coming during the NCAA tournament. Kendall, however, has not been kidding him as the Huskies have continued to draw closer to UCLA’s record.

“No, it’s funny,’’ Farmer said. “I also have a son. He goes to Dennison, which is a Division III school in Ohio. His college coach has always been a Coach Wooden fan. About a year ago, the players and coach had a conference call with Coach Wooden. His coach will constantly quote Coach Wooden and bring up stuff about Coach Wooden. And my son doesn’t resent that about his dad. In fact, I think he’s pretty proud of it. But they’re kind of used to people bringing up stuff that we accomplished at UCLA and me being a part of that. They just look at it as something daddy did when he was little. The UConn record, though, has not been something that either one of them has mentioned.’’

Rich

There was no conscious thought of any winning streak. The members of the UCLA men’s basketball program were not using a large red marker to cross off the days on the calendar during the 1970s.

Winning was what each player came to UCLA to do. It was what they were supposed to do under legendary coach John Wooden. The level of expectation wasn’t simply to reach the Final Four every year. It was to win the national championship every year.

No matter how high the winning streak seemed to soar it was not a part of the everyday discussion in the locker room. Greg Lee, a three-year starting guard for UCLA from 1972-74, said the players did not speak about it. The coaching staff certainly never did either. And when the run was stopped at an NCAA Division I record 88 games in 1974, it was not yet known just how revered that number would become.

“It was never the focus of any sort of pressure or `Boy, we’d better win this one’ or anything like that,’’ Lee said. “It was not a high-priority issue. We were just trying to win basketball games. There was never any thought that we were preordained or this was some magical thing. And it’s ridiculous we didn’t keep winning. We should’ve won many more. But, actually, we figured out a way to lose. Let’s not go into that.’’

Thirty-six years later, the number is one that represents true excellence in the sport. Prior to the current run by the UConn women’s basketball team, which will look to tie UCLA’s record Sunday against No. 11 Ohio State at the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden (2:30 p.m.; ESPN), it was a number that was thought to be unreachable.

No other Division I men’s team had ever won more than 60 straight games (San Francisco, 60). The previous Division I record for women’s basketball had been UConn’s run of 70 straight from 2001-03. As the years passed, even some of the UCLA players began to believe that their record would stand the test of time.

“I thought records were made to be broken,’’ former UCLA guard Pete Trgovich said. “Then as the years went by and you think about different streaks and records you realize we did something very special back then. As the years went on and the record stood as long as it has, it got more and more precious.’’

UCLA began its march to greatness with a 74-61 victory over UC Santa Barbara Jan. 30, 1971. The Bruins won their final 15 games that season, including the fifth in a stretch of seven straight national championships.
They finished 30-0 in 1971-72 and 1972-73 before winning their first 13 games in 1973-74. Then-No. 2 Notre Dame stopped UCLA’s record run with a 71-70 win Jan. 19, 1974 in South Bend, Ind.

“We knew we were going to get everybody’s best shot,’’ former UCLA forward Larry Farmer said. “Kids would come, even in our league, when they would come to play us, kids from other teams would go into the bookstore and buy UCLA basketball shirts. And every arena we played in was sold out. We understood we were going to get everybody’s `A’ game and we practiced for that. It was kind of a compliment. Beating us would have made a lot of people’s seasons. In fact, I’m pretty sure it would have made just about all of their seasons. But you get used to that. Coach Wooden just taught us to avoid the highs, avoid the lows and you just try to come out and play consistent. That’s what we did during that entire time. We were a blue collar team so we would put on our hard hats, pick up our lunch pails and go to work. We kind of approached every game the same. I know the other teams didn’t. They would probably highlight that game on their schedule.’’

The Bruins developed an air of invincibility as their streak progressed. They won by an average 30.3 points in 1971-72, and by 23.5 over the course of the run.

UCLA was 18-0 against ranked teams, winning by 14.0 points. The Bruins won 28 games by at least 30 points, nine by at least 40 and six by at least 50. Only 16 games were decided by less than 10.

“I think a lot of it had to do with the type of players we were,’’ Trgovich said. “I think it was the way Coach Wooden recruited. He recruited guys he knew wanted the pressure of winning. When you went to UCLA you go there because you enjoy pressure. Everywhere you go you are the favorite and everybody roots for the underdog. There’s a lot of pressure to keep it up. That’s why we went to UCLA. We wanted that pressure. We wanted to win national titles. We wanted to go undefeated. So it wasn’t a negative pressure, it was a positive pressure to force us to play at our best.’’

Lee, Hall of Famer Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes, who is currently a finalist for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall off Fame, were all starters over the final three seasons of the streak. Farmer and All-American Henry Bibby were each two-year starters.

The thought of losing ever entered into minds when they took the floor, even in the biggest games they played.

“It was never even considered that (losing) was an option,’’ Lee said. “ And we would get ripped if we were only up by 10 at the half. We were supposed to win by ungodly numbers. And it just so happened we had some very, very intelligent players that were just really talented but very smart. So that made it very easy to sort of focus and it kind of helped that Bill was better than everybody else.’’

In order to become a team of historical significance, the need to have at least one truly great player is essential. Russell and Jones were the leaders for San Francisco. Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi led UConn during its 70-game streak. And Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore have provided the foundation for the Huskies’ current run.

With respect to Wilkes, who scored 1,349 points in 90 games and was a first team All-American in 1973 and 1974, it was Walton who carried UCLA to greatness. A three-time first team All-American, he still is ranked No. 11 in team history in scoring (1,767), first in rebounding (1,370) and second in field goal percentage (.651).

Walton averaged 21.1 points and 15.5 rebounds as a sophomore in 1971-72; 20.4 points and 16.9 rebounds and set a team single-season record with 506 rebounds in 1972-73; and 19.3 points and 14.7 rebounds in 1973-74.

“It was essential to have a guy like Bill Walton,’’ Trgovich said. “We never dreamed we would lose a game with Bill Walton. And without him we don’t get close to any of that.’’

Walton, who had 72 double-doubles in his career, was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated five times during the streak. He had his number (32) retired by UCLA Dec. 3, 1990. Three years later, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

“Obviously having the best player in the country who was disciplined and doing his job as a team player certainly was a huge advantage,’’ Farmer said.

Walton led UCLA with 24 points the day the streak ended. It was not enough to offset a late-game collapse.

The top-ranked Bruins led by as many as 17 points in the first half. The lead was 70-59 with 3:30 left in regulation, but Notre Dame rallied to score the final 12 points of the game to end the greatest run ever by a Division I men’s basketball team.

Seniors Gary Brokaw, who finished with a game-high 25 points, and John Shumate, who had 24, each had four points for the Irish in the decisive run. Freshman Adrian Dantley had two before junior Dwight Clay gave Notre Dame the lead.

Clay made the game-winning shot – a jumper from the right corner – with 28 seconds left. Seniors Tommy Curtis and Walton each missed jumpers in the final seconds for UCLA, and four attempts to tip in a miss were unsuccessful.

“It should never have happened,’’ Lee said. “And, by the way, if you look at their roster they had about five players that ended up playing in the pros for six, seven, 10 years. They were very, very talented. Adrian Dantley and John Shumate. They had some good players. They weren’t as good as our team, but … Never mind.’’

Clay, 57, said that he was being defended by Curtis. But he noticed that Curtis was repeatedly cheating over to help Wilkes on Brokaw. Clay continued to drift deeper into the corner before finally waving his arms for Brokaw to pass him the ball as UCLA had collapsed on Shumate inside.

Brokaw found him. With his mother in the seats, Clay found a spot in history.

“I had a good feel for it because that’s my own spot in the zone offense,’’ Clay said. “Brokaw usually plays the point in the zone offense and I go from corner to corner. So I had good accuracy from those corners.’’

Making a game-winning shot to end a long winning streak was nothing new to Clay. He was given the nickname, “Iceman,’’ after his jumper from the corner gave Notre Dame a 71-69 win at Marquette Jan. 13, 1973. The victory ended Marquette’s 81-game home winning streak.
The shot that took down the Bruins is still a big deal to Clay. He said he still receives questions about it. He harbored a great sense of pride that day even if he did not know exactly what that shot meant in the grand scheme of things.

“Not at the time,’’ Clay said. “We knew that they had won 88 games and we knew they were ranked No. 1. Our intention was to be No. 1 and if we beat them we would become No. 1. But my 15 minutes of fame has lasted over 30 years.’’

There are those who are younger and less knowledgeable about UCLA’s streak who do not believe that it was indeed Clay who made the game-winning shot that day. It does not take him long to clear things up, and humble his doubters.

“I keep the last six minutes of the game with me,’’ Clay said. “I keep it in my briefcase. So when the naysayers ask me a question about it I bring it out and show it to them like, `There’s the Iceman right there.’ That’s why I keep it with me. The proof is in the pudding.’’

UCLA had defeated Notre Dame in four prior meetings during the streak by an average of 32 points.

Lee said this was the best Bruins team of the streak. Trgovich called the loss to the Irish “unexpected,’’ especially because of UCLA’s uncharacteristic late-game collapse. Farmer, the winningest player in UCLA history with a career record of 89-1, labeled the loss “disappointing.’’ And it was not because the streak had ended, but because it was another game UCLA could have won.

“It was something that we were not used to,’’ Lee said. “We didn’t remotely like that happening. None of us were used to losing, which is kind of unrealistic because, come on, you’re going to lose in life. But there was no reason for that team … That was the most talented of the three teams. The second string was ridiculous our senior season. We were so talented. We never ever should’ve lost.’’

UCLA finished 26-4 that season, losing to No. 10 NC State 80-77 in double overtime in the NCAA national semifinals. The Bruins then defeated No. 6 Kansas 78-61 in the NCAA semifinal consolation game to end the season.

Regarding the streak, consider the fact that when Austin Carr scored 46 points to lead then-No. 9 Notre Dame to an 89-81 win over No. 1 UCLA at home Jan. 23, 1971 that stopped a 19-game winning streak. Of course, the Bruins went on to win the next 88 games to set the record. They won their next five games after again losing to Irish. The streak very easily could have soared over 110 games.

“We had won two years in a row with Bill Walton, and we never dreamed we would lose the third year with Bill,’’ Trgovich said. “I can remember talking with Dave Meyers and Andre McCarter, we came in together behind Walton and Wilkes. We just felt we would never lose with those guys. So we used to talk about how we had to go undefeated our senior year so we could go through our whole careers undefeated. That was our mindset, and back then it was a very realistic goal. That was our goal then to not lose a game in college. When you think about it now it seems absurd we would be thinking about that, but back then it was realistic.’’

UCLA’s longest winning since the streak ended is 26 games from Jan. 9, 1995 to April 3, 1995. That was also the last season the Bruins won a national championship.
“Years later when we come back to reunions with guys into the 40s and 50s, it became kind of an in-house UCLA thing that we would kind of giggle and brag amongst ourselves,’’ Farmer said. “But it was pretty much just in-house. All the things we accomplished were a result of team play and hard work and nobody really takes the credit for that and brags about it. But when you get older and look back, you really appreciate and respect the things we did that were special. There have been a lot of good coaches and a lot of great players and terrific programs, and not everybody has been able to do that. There’s a reason for that. Luck, avoiding injuries, sometimes just the bounce of a ball. There are a lot of things that go into the course of a year. When you look at 80 games plus, now you’re looking at three seasons. It’s a pretty special deal.’’

The mark of excellence had originally been set by San Francisco. Russell and Jones carried the Dons to an NCAA record 60 straight wins from 1954-56. Their run was ended by a 62-33 loss to then-No. 7 Illinois on the road Dec. 17, 1956.

UCLA would break that record with an 82-63 win at Notre Dame Jan. 7, 1973. Again, there was little celebration by the Bruins.

“It was just another W,’’ Farmer said. “I know it sounds arrogant, but it’s really not. It’s true, but I’m almost embarrassed to tell you. When I got to UCLA and people started talking about basketball it was always about winning the national championship. It wasn’t until I left UCLA that I heard people talk about the Final Four. That was never our goal. It was winning the championship. There was celebration over beating Notre Dame. We beat Loyola to get to 60 and then we beat Notre Dame for 61. The game was on national TV. It was just another W. We were going home to play USC, our cross-town rival the next game. As it turned out we went back and spanked them and it was just another W. There was no more celebrating that we broke the streak than there was the next week.’’

Being a part of the streak is something the Bruins cherish. However, it is not as if they each have compiled a scrapbook to recount the events or have plaques to prove they were a part of history.

Lee said when he now meets with some of his former teammates now they do so as friends. They talk about many things and make fun of one another too.

Trgovich said there has not been a uniform celebration for winning 88 straight games, but it is something he is definitively interested in. And with UConn on the threshold of making history, it has brought memories for those who made history more than 30 years ago. It is not something that will be forgotten.

“I envy (UConn),’’ Trgovich said. “I wish I could do it again. But this has been great. Every time they talk about the UConn women they are talking about us now, and it brings it all back. The excitement was going into a season with winning a national championship. Anything less would be like we underachieved that year. That was so exciting. I was very, very fortunate to be at the right place at the right time and experience what I did. And it was so amazing it has lasted me a lifetime.’’

Rich

Here are the thoughts of former UCLA guard Greg Lee and UCLA killer Dwight Clay of Notre Dame as UConn nears the Bruins’ Division record of 88 straight wins.

Greg Lee
“It’s almost a different record. It’s fine with me. I’m sure there’s some lacrosse team that’s won 128 in a row or something that you don’t know about. I happened to hold the record winning the most consecutive beach volleyball tournaments when I was playing beach volleyball. It got tied by Karch Kiraly and his partner. I had these same kinds of questions. `Did you ever think anyone was going to challenge you?’ `Someone’s going to come along and do it.’ Sure enough, they lost the next weekend. They tied us. They didn’t break our record. So it is was it is and as I said if we had not screwed up and we’d won another 20 games in row to finish out that season. Oh, it would only have taken another 12 or 15 to finish out that season. Still, Connecticut could’ve broken the record if they keep winning. Instead of being 88, they would be breaking the record of 104 or whatever.’’

Lee, a three-year starter for the Bruins during the streak, and Jim Menges won a record 13 consecutive pro beach volleyball tournaments in 1975-76. Menges and Lee won the final seven matches of the 1975 season and the first six in 1976. That mark was tied by Karch Kiraly and Kent Steffes in 1992.
Menges and Lee won 25 out of 28 tournaments, finishing second 3 times, from 1973-1982

Dwight Clay
“I’m rooting for them. I’d like to see them break it. I know they are playing Ohio State this weekend. There’s a good friend of mine, Gene Smith, who’s the AD at Ohio State. He was at the school when I was up here and I’ve talked with him recently. But we didn’t talk about the streak or the UConn game. I’m wishing him luck as well as Connecticut going on.’’

Rich

Being on the short end of 6-feet, Geno Auriemma admitted Friday that his favorite players from the great UCLA men’s teams from the 1960’s and 1970’s tended to be guards. He mentioned Mike Warren, who was an All-American in 1968, and John Vallely, in particular.

 Auriemma, 56, was old enough to understand what it took to be great back then and why the Bruins were so successful under John Wooden. UCLA won seven straight national championships from 1967-73 and 10 championships overall in a 12-year span from 1964-75.

This is a run Auriemma, as well as everyone else who was able to witness this greatness, will forever remember.

 “Unlike a lot of people that want to make comparisons or want to talk about it, I saw it,’’ Auriemma said. “I witnessed it. They were probably at the forefront of what television started to do for the NCAA tournament. Everybody talks about that great UCLA game against Houston in the Astrodome (Jan. 20, 1968) and that kind of kicked off the new NCAA college basketball world. So I think they were right there at the beginning of it, and they generated an awful lot of attention because they won all the time and the way they won. The way they looked, the way they played. Just everything about them was just precise. They were like an incredible drill team. They executed perfectly and they had great, great players. It wasn’t like they were getting bad players and then coaching the hell out of them. They were getting the absolute best high school players in the country and coaching the hell out of them. So I loved watching them play. I knew every guy on the team. I knew every starter. Heck, back then they were probably the only team in the country you knew who the starters on their freshman team were. So I think they did a lot for college basketball. They did a lot to bring it to places where maybe college basketball wasn’t that big. And then it suddenly became big.

“There was just something about them and the way they played. And you know what else I admired about them, which …. What I like about our situation up to this point is, you know, forget the streak, you’re trying to win championships. And everyone assumed that they would win those championships when they had Lew Alcinder and they had Bill Walton… But when those guys graduated and they didn’t have a center, so to speak, they still kept winning championships. So I think the standard that they set, the way they went about trying to achieve something that was very, very difficult to do year after year after year after year with a changing cast of characters. That’s what’s to be admired. Not necessarily the number of wins that they got to. It’s like Joe DiMaggio hitting 56 in a row. Then he hits like three line drives that get caught. Well, I think he went on another 17 in a row after that. It’s not the actual number that’s important. I think it’s what it means about how you go about what you do every day.’’

 Auriemma is also a huge fan of Wooden. He again told the story Friday of when he had the chance to sit down and speak with the legend while they were both speaking at a clinic in Palm Beach, Calif. in the mid-1990s.

 Auriemma has a framed copy of the April 17, 2003 issue of with Diana Taurasi on the cover hanging in his office. It was a commemorative national championship issue that was signed by Wooden. Wooden also had an article in the magazine entitled, “Why I’m a UConn fan.’’

 “John Wooden probably met a lot of people in his life, obviously,’’ Auriemma said. “And some young coach at a clinic, he wouldn’t remember that. But we did talk. I just listened and he patted my knee while he talked. It was like listening to your grandfather. And I just listened and every once in a while he would ask me a question and I would give him an answer. It was just 15, 20 minutes. I don’t even know. I was like, `Wow, I’m talking to John Wooden.’ Then we win the national championship in 2003, and he has a story in Sports Illustrated. He talks about our unselfish play and how we move without the ball and it’s the way the game used to be played. All the good stuff he admired about the game that we try to be. And then somebody asked him about me and he said, `You know, I’ve never met their coach, but he seems like a pleasant young man.’

“And I’ve always kept that thinking, `Lots of people that are really nowhere near John Wooden’s category have called me lots of things other than that, but as long as he thinks I’m a pleasant young man I’ve got a lot going for me.’ That’s the way I look at it. I can always hold onto that. So Sunday when all those people are yelling at me, I’ll say, `You shouldn’t do that. John Wooden thinks I’m a pleasant young man.’ He’s putting a good word into God for me right now.’’

 Wooden passed away June 4 at the age of 99. Auriemma wishes he were still alive. Just in case the Huskies tie UCLA’s record Sunday, he would have liked to hear what Wooden would have said about the accomplishment.

 “That would put everybody else’s comments in perspective,’’ Auriemma said. “Who knows what he would think. My guess is I don’t think anybody that was associated with that program or did what they did is losing any sleep over what’s happening on Sunday. I don’t envision them sitting around their TV sets getting ready to crack the champagne if we lose like the Dolphins of ‘72 did. That’s not what this is all about. It’s not that at all, and I’m kind of happy about that.’’

Rich

Ohio State’s Jantel Lavender knows exactly what’s at stake for the Huskies at Madison Square Garden Sunday in the Maggie Dixon Classic. She knows how many games UConn has won in a row, and what one more will mean, not only the Huskies, but to the Buckeyes as well.

Lavender, a 6-foot-4 senior All-American who leads the nation in scoring (26.6) and has scored in double figures in every one of 111 career games, does not want to go down as No. 88. She is dead set on leading No. 11 Ohio State into the history books in a positive manner just as Dwight Clay led Notre Dame into the history books when his jumper ended UCLA’s record 88-game winning streak in 1974.

“I do want to stand in the way of the 88-game winning streak,’’ Lavender said. “(Assistant coach Ed Baldwin) had a really good point. You don’t want to be a trivia question; be on the bad end of a trivia question. We have to come out extremely hard. I’m excited. We want to win. We have what it takes to be a great team. We just have to show it. This is our time.’’

Lavender knows it won’t be easy. She knows the Buckeyes have to compete hard for the entire game, because UConn certainly will.

“No one on this team wants to be embarrassed,’’ Lavender said. “UConn doesn’t take plays off. We do have the necessary pieces to play a 40-minute game. We have to keep that intensity they have the whole game in order to compete with them. You can’t teach heart. You see the older players playing hard and everyone wants to follow in their footsteps. You don’t want to be on the team at UConn that loses.’’

UConn All-American Maya Moore was made aware of Lavender’s comments following practice today at Gampel Pavilion. She said she wouldn’t expect anything less from Lavender, who she has known and played with at various levels of USA Basketball for years.

“Anything you can use as another team …’’ Moore said. “I would use (the streak) too. That’s what she’s going to use to motivate her team. We just have to come in ready to compete. I’m glad that their team is ready to go. I don’t think it would be as fun if we came to play a team that was scared or not ready to go. So it’ll be fun. It’ll test us. It’ll challenge us. And we love games like that when we’re pushed and we’re challenged because it brings out the best in us.’’

Most recently, Moore and Lavender were teammates on the 2009 World University Games Team that won the gold medal in Belgrade, Serbia. UConn junior Tiffany Hayes was also a member of the team.

Here are Moore’s thoughts on Lavender …

“She was pretty consistent for us whenever I played with her, which has been pretty much every year I played USA Basketball,’’ Moore said. “She relieved a lot of pressure. When you put it in there to her something good is going to happen, either a bucket or a foul. She’s fun. She’s like a mom. I remember like one year she helped me with my hair when we were in Colorado. She’s just that teammate, that sister-like figure that you want to have. Like that big sister. She’s just a fun-loving type of person who doesn’t like to pull a lot of drama. She’s real laidback and just a real positive person. Entertaining. Never a dull moment with her.’’

And here is Lavender’s take on Moore and Hayes …

“I know Maya really well, since Nike All-American camp in ninth grade,’’ Lavender said. “I know she works really hard every single possession. She wants to be the player who falls on the ground to get the ball then scores. She wants to be the playmaker. She wants to do whatever it takes for her team to win. She’s the type of player, of course, who can be a game changer. Everybody watches Maya. She’s a great player. She’s the best stop and pop shooter out here. We need to get in her grill. Tiffany Hayes, I know her real well. Tiffany Hayes is a bull-headed driver. She can shoot the 3s. She’ll shoot 5 feet from behind the line. She’s a lefty. I keep in contact with Tiffany on Facebook, but Maya doesn’t have that stuff.’’

Rich

Geno Auriemma listened to a lot of people hype up a lot of things while he was growing up. They did not necessarily have to be talking about something as meaningful as a long winning streak or a string of consecutive national championships. It could have been just something in general terms.

Auriemma did not like how these people sounded. And he vowed to never become one of these people. This is why he has made a point of not making a big deal of the achievements of the top-ranked Huskies during his 26-year tenure, especially over their current 87-game winning streak.

Instead, Auriemma chooses to live in the moment, live for the game in front him and his team. It is a philosophy that has yielded the program seven national championships and a spot in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall off Fame for him.

“If you don’t downplay it you come across looking like a schmuck,’’ Auriemma said. “I can’t control what is out there, what people are going to make of this whole thing. I think the only thing you can do if you really harp on this is scare the daylights out of the freshmen. And I don’t intend to do that.’’

Auriemma is certain that the Huskies are fully aware of the streak, one that is one win shy of tying the UCLA men’s basketball team for the longest in the history of the sport. UConn will look to tie the record of 88 when they face No. 11 Ohio State Sunday in the Maggie Dixon Classic.

Auriemma said they players are too intelligent and that there is too much in the way of media coverage these days for them not to be aware of their current standing on the threshold of making history. But when it is not an everyday topic of discussion, realizing they are riding a long winning streak and knowing the exact number of wins are two entirely different things.

“It doesn’t ever really come up,’’ senior Lorin Dixon said. “I think when you think about the streak sometimes people become scared to lose rather than just going out to win. I don’t even know how many wins we actually have. We’re going out there to just to beat this next team that’s in our way of achieving our goal … the Big East and then the NCAA championship. So I think when you go out like that it keeps you focused and it keeps you on the ground. I feel like the fact that we don’t talk about it ever is probably the best way to go about it.’’

This stance has immensely helped the freshmen this season. Dixon said they came in fearing they were going to make a mistake that would directly cause the streak to end. Auriemma quickly put them to ease by instructing them not to pay attention to the streak, to just play.

Dixon also made it a point to lend a hand. And freshmen Bria Hartley, Stefanie Dolson and Samarie Walker have played a sizeable role in helping UConn win its first nine games this season by an average of 38.6 points. The trio is averaging a combined 29.0 points and 14.7 rebounds in 67 minutes.

“We kind of had to get on them,’’ Dixon said. “`You can’t feel that way. You can’t think that way. Just come in and play your game and we’ll be fine. We’ll keep winning.’ And I think it’s something that they did change their mindset. So now they’re just as fired up as we are to continue the streak that we have.’’

Walker said they sometimes have their “fears and weak moments.’’ But Auriemma continually diffuses the pressure of the streak by shifting their concentration to the next opponent.

And, right now, it is Ohio State that is standing in UConn’s way of securing a piece of history. Not that the Huskies are counting, though.

“There’s only so much room in our heads,’’ senior All-American Maya Moore said. “There’s only so much we can handle. It’s a distraction and you have to stay focused. You don’t have time to think about anything else, especially with our schedule. So when we’re here for basketball we want to focus on basketball and what Coach is saying. And it’s worked for really long time. I don’t think we should change that strategy.’’

Rich

Whether UConn wins or loses against No. 11 Ohio State Sunday in the Maggie Dixon Classic, John Wooden’s grandson, Greg Wooden, and Steve Hathaway, the president of the L.A. Athletic Club, will be in attendance Tuesday when the Huskies meet No. 15 Florida State at the XL Center.

Rich