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Photo: Evan Rodriguez — Storrs Central
UConn is dancing its way to the Final Four. After the Huskies took down the 6-seed Notre Dame Fighting Irish 70-52 in the Elite Eight on Sunday, they celebrated in Texas style.
During the Fort Worth 1 Regional trophy presentation, UConn passed around a cowboy hat with the school’s logo emblazoned on the front. Eventually, it made its way to Geno Auriemma, who put it on and did a quick little giddy-up dance, much to his team’s delight.
“It was fun to see him smile because he don't usually do that,” Blanca Quiñonez said.
“He's not usually like that. He's usually all serious or anxious, grumpy,” Sarah Strong followed up. “Just seeing him let loose and be his true self was really good.”
“I thought that the cowboy hat looked pretty good on him. It looked pretty natural,” Azzi Fudd added. “When he breaks out a dance move, that's how you know he's proud of you, he's happy.”
Later, most of the team convened at center court and began line dancing. That wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. During the school’s spring break earlier in March, UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey had everyone learn the steps and moves in preparation for their trip to Texas.
“It was one of our team activities that we did,” Kayleigh Heckel said. “We learned two dances. The second one was a little harder so we didn't all learn that one. But I feel like we had the first one down. It's really cool that we can just pull it out and do it now.”
Naturally, Ashlynn Shade — the Huskies’ country music-loving, cowboy boot-wearing junior — led the way.
“Ash definitely picked up the fastest because Ash loves line dancing,” Heckel said. “She had that down right away.”
Not much about UConn’s two contests during the Fort Worth 1 Regional was fun. It had to battle through two rock fights and overcome poor shooting to punch its ticket to the Final Four in Phoenix. So once the job was finished, the Huskies decided to let loose.
“I mean, it wasn't a lot of fun on the bench sometimes, watching some of the stuff that we were doing,” Auriemma said. “It's fun because you watch how much fun they're having, and you can't help getting caught up in it. Even in the midst of all the pressure that goes with playing in these games, they are finding ways to have fun.”
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