Geno Auriemma stood on the sideline in front of his bench with his hands on his hips, his left leg popped.
A fruitless Huskies possession resulted in the Connecticut coach dropping his head and crossing his arms like a frustrated teacher.
His Huskies led by only 34 early in the fourth.
Auriemma’s relentless fire and passion for suffocating the light out of opponents is contagious.
So even with a lead so comfortable as Sunday’s game against scrappy St. John’s, Auriemma expected better from his Huskies.
They need to be better if they want to win back-to-back national championships.
No. 1 UConn, under the bright stage lights of Madison Square Garden, capped its perfect regular season by throttling the Johnnies 85-49.
The beatdown made last week’s UConn men’s 72-40 win against the Red Storm look like coddling.
Yet there was no major celebration after the Huskies’ 47th consecutive win.
That’s never been UConn’s style.
The Huskies don’t dare to cut down the nets unless they earn the right by winning a national championship.
The closest thing UConn got to relish in the success of this season was Auriemma telling his players in the locker room that he was proud of them.
In the same breath, though, he warned, “We have a lot to work on to get ready for the Big East tournament.”
UConn already runs like a well-oiled machine.
During their win streak that dates back to last February, the Huskies have beaten opponents by an average of more than 38 points.
But March is when the real stress test comes, and UConn has some polishing to do.
“Just kind of tightening up all aspects of our game, aiming for perfection in practice,” Sarah Strong said. “It’s not going to happen, we’re gonna get pretty close to it.”
That’s the goal, at least.
An outside narrative surrounds UConn this season: The Huskies are even better than last year’s team, which ended their title drought with the help of the eventual No. 1 pick in last year’s WNBA draft, Paige Bueckers.
But Auriemma shook his head in disagreement when a reporter mentioned how this season’s team might be better than a year ago.
“I don’t like that narrative,” he said. “You take away [Bueckers] one of the top five players in the WNBA off the team and say you’re better. I don’t know how I can justify saying that because there are a lot of times when I watch them play and I say, ‘That wouldn’t have happened. That wouldn’t have happened.’
“That doesn’t mean they’re not capable of playing at a real high level that matches what that team did last year,” Auriemma continued. “Maybe that’s in the cards for them — I don’t know — but no, we’re a much different team than we were last year.”
Strong, a sophomore, is even better than a year ago, averaging 18.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.1 steals.
Azzi Fudd, in her first fully healthy season, may be the nation’s most lethal sharpshooter, converting on 45.4 percent of her 6.9 3-point attempts per game.
KK Arnold is a more reliable floor general.
Blanca Quiñonez is one of the best freshmen in the country.
Up and down the roster, UConn is loaded with talent.
And still…
“None of those guys that I bring off the bench are Paige,” Auriemma said.
Auriemma, the winningest coach in women’s college basketball, has said in the past that, to be great, a team needs to have players who can do multiple things.
This UConn team has the ingredients to put together a postseason run that culminates in cutting down the nets in Phoenix and bringing back another national title to Connecticut.
“We have enough good players to have as good of a chance as anybody else out there to win a national championship,” Auriemma said. “But like anyone else that’s going to be playing in that tournament, you’re going to have to be playing at your best. … Generally, the best team usually wins the national championship, but not always. [Sometimes,] it’s the team that comes together at the right time.”
Winning the Big East regular-season title, which UConn clinched last month, was cute. Running through the conference tournament is an expectation.
Conquering March Madness and being the last team standing is the end game.
Only 21 teams since 1982 have pulled off undefeated regular seasons.
Of those, 10 ultimately won the NCAA Tournament.
This was UConn’s 10th undefeated regular season.
Six of the Huskies’ previous perfect seasons culminated in a national title.
“It’s not an easy journey by any stretch of the imagination,” Auriemma said. “There is something to be proud of, there is something to feel good about and they should feel proud of themselves.”
