The University of Connecticut women's basketball team begins its quest for an unprecedented fifth consecutive NCAA championship and 12th overall on Saturday when it plays 16th-seeded Albany in the Bridgeport Regional in Storrs, Conn.
Winners of a staggering 107 in a row, the Huskies (32-0) claimed the top overall seed and enter the NCAA Tournament with an unbeaten record for the eighth time in program history.
UConn effectively replaced graduating seniors Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck without missing a beat, with Katie Lou Samuelson (team-high 21.0 points per game) paving the way. The sophomore guard/forward drilled all 10 of her 3-point attempts in a 100-44 rout of South Florida in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game.
Sophomore guard/forward Napheesa Collier has added 20.2 points per game and a team-high 8.9 rebounds per contest while her 68.9 percent field-goal efficiency ranks second in the nation. Junior guard Gabby Williams completes the newest version of the triumvirate by averaging 13.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and a team-best 5.3 assists.
"Not that everything that we've done has meant nothing, but it's almost like it could all be gone in a day, in one day," Williams told the Hartford Courant. "(Coach Geno Auriemma) has been emphasizing that to us that we only have one shot ... so now we've got to get it right the first time."
Kia Nurse, who averages 12.2 points and 4.0 assists, is using the 11-day break between games to rest an ailing ankle that forced the starting junior guard to miss four contests this season.
"I was surprised at how well it held up coming into the conference tournament," Nurse told the newspaper. "It felt good."
While UConn's impressive resume stands on its own, Albany (21-11) also has become a consistent presence in the NCAA Tournament. The six-time reigning America East Conference champion righted the ship after mediocre start to win 12 of its last 13 games, highlighted by a 66-50 victory over Maine in the conference tournament final.
Imani Tate scored a game-high 21 points in that contest en route to being named the tournament most valuable player. The senior guard, who has scored 1,743 career points, is averaging a team-best 19.1 per game and junior guard/forward Jessica Fequiere has chipped in with 12.4 points and a club-high 7.2 rebounds per contest.
"I couldn't be more happy. There's definitely a sense of relief," said first-year coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee, who replaced Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, who transformed the program into a perennial power before leaving to coach at Central Florida.
"There's also pride. We still felt like we were going to win, maintain what these players started. There was no panic in our team. I'm the coach, but it's about them. They came together from the beginning."
The Great Danes have proven a formidable foe in the NCAA Tournament of late, bouncing fifth-seeded Florida in the opening round last season while giving heavyweight Duke a run for its money two years ago.
