Selection Sunday storylines: Late-season surge bounces UConn women into a likely No. 2 seed and some homecooked games
The UConn women’s basketball team may not have an easy road to the Final Four, but after a strong finish to the season and dominant performance in the Big East Tournament, it might involve fewer air miles.
By nearly all bracket projections, the Huskies will be in a significantly better position than they were in the NCAA’s last pretournament bracket reveal on Feb. 28, and will be a No. 2 seed when the official bracket is released Sunday at 8 p.m.
“I feel like we’re used to stepping up when we need to,” senior Christyn Williams said. “And I feel like we’re just playing our best basketball right now, and we’re firing on all cylinders. I think that’s really good for us moving forward.”
According to ESPN’s Charlie Creme, the Huskies will be assigned to the Bridgeport Regional, which means the road would begin with two home games at Gampel Pavilion, then move on to the Sweet 16 and Regional Final games at Webster Bank Arena.
But by that projection, the Huskies, who have reached the Final Four 13 consecutive years, could face Kentucky, a possible No. 7 seed, fresh off its upset over top-ranked South Carolina in the SEC tournament, in the second round. NC State is a lock to be a No. 1 seed, and most likely assigned to Bridgeport.
Given where the Huskies were a couple of months ago, with multiple key players injured and nonconference losses mounting, it’s a testament to their resilience and talent level when healthy that they are in this position now. But this is UConn, and the season begins, rather than ends, with the conference title.
“Sometimes the expectations are so high for kids here at UConn that even when they’re really, really, really good, March is everything,” coach Geno Auriemma said. “ Good or bad, right or wrong, it’s all about March.”
Here are five storylines to follow as the Huskies await their roadmap:
The season thus far
UConn is 24-5, including 19-1 against Big East opponents. Out-of-conference losses to South Carolina, Louisville, Georgia Tech and Oregon hurt their resume, though the Huskies were not at full strength for any of those games. They did have Paige Buckers when they lost to South Carolina, but had lost Aubrey Griffin, who is out for the season, and Azzi Fudd was dealing with her foot injury. They were without Bueckers, and other, in the other losses. One more win and the Huskies might be a No.1 seed.
Possibilities
On Feb. 28, the NCAA projection has UConn as a No. 3 seed in the Greensboro Regional, where they would have to get through top overall seed South Carolina to get the Final Four in Minneapolis. Aside from Bridgeport and Greenboro, the other regionals are in Wichita and Spokane.
If UConn is a No. 2 seed, the potential first-round opponents, a No. 15 seeds, are American, Montana State. Mercer and Texas-Arlington. ESPN projects American coming to Gampel. In women’s tournament history, only eight times has a No. 13 seed or lower won a tournament game, three No. 13′s and one No. 16, Harvard over Stanford in 1998. Neither a No. 14 nor 15 has ever wo a first-round game.
Where Fairfield lands
The Huskies will have some in-state company in the tournament. The Fairfield women (25-6) won the MAAC tournament and its automatic bid on Saturday, beating Manhattan. Lou Lopez-Senechel, from Grenoble, France, is Fairfield’s top scorer (19.6 points), including 24 in the MAAC final; grad student Sydney Lowery of Shelton averages 9.0.
Fairfield is expected to be a No. 14 seed, so is unlikely to be lined up to play UConn in a first-round game, even if sent to Storrs. ESPN has the Stags going to Michigan.
Turning Paige
The big question concerning UConn is Bueckers, who returned from her knee injury Feb. 25 but has not yet looked like her old self. The rest of the Huskies have taken care of business, but the deeper they get into he tournament, the more likely it is they will need more minutes and a big game from the 2020-21 national player of the year. It would be interesting to note how he absence, and now her return, affects the selection committee’s seeding of UConn.
The history
UConn has not won the national championship since 2016, losing semifinal games in 2017, 2018, 2019 and to Arizona in 2021, with no tournament played in 2019 due to COVID. This hardly qualifies UConn women’s fans as “long-suffering,” but for a program with 11 championships, it has been a while.
As the team is currently functioning, with nine players in rotation, it may be Auriemma’s best chance since 2016 to capture No. 12. Notably, he said during the tournament that for the first time in a few years, the Huskies are playing the kind of basketball to which he and their fans are accustomed to seeing.
“I think none of us had really understood what it meant to play UConn basketball,” Evina Westbrook said. “You kind of understand why UConn has been successful. If this is UConn basketball, the way we’ve been playing. I’m so happy that we figured it out and we’re figuring it out at the right time.”
Dom Amore can be reached at damore@courant.com
