After dominating the Final Four, UConn reminds everyone it still runs the sport

Back in October, UConn women’s basketball took the court for the first time in a competitive setting during a secret scrimmage with Columbia.

The Huskies lost.

“I thought we wouldn’t make the NCAA Tournament,” Geno Auriemma half-jokingly told ESPN.

Five months later, UConn won the national championship behind one of the most dominant NCAA Tournament runs ever. The Huskies racked up the second-largest point differential in a Final Four ever at +57, behind only their own 2015-16 squad.

Yet UConn’s run this year was more impressive. In 2016, the Huskies rolled over 2-seed Oregon State in the national semifinal and 4-seed Syracuse in the title game. This past weekend in Tampa, UConn crushed No. 1 overall seed UCLA and defending national champions (who also had a strong argument for the top seed) South Carolina.

The Huskies beat the Bruins by 34, the largest win in Final Four history. On top of that, only one national champion between 2017-24 had a better points differential in their final two games — 2024 South Carolina at +37.

In the title game, UConn took down the Gamecocks by 23. To put that in perspective, there has only been one other Final Four game decided by 20+ points since 2016 — the Huskies’ win over UCLA.

It went beyond Tampa, too. UConn out-scored its opponents by 197 across the entire NCAA Tournament, the fourth-best mark ever and the most by a non-No. 1 seed.

During their run to the national championship, the Huskies reached a level of dominance that hasn’t happened in years and is really only possible at one place.

“We probably did something that only Connecticut can do,” Auriemma said at the team’s championship rally.

So even though nine years passed between championships, UConn reminded everyone it still runs women’s college basketball.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.