In hindsight, UConn’s Final Four loss to South Carolina shouldn’t have been a surprise. Warning signs were flashing around the team for a while, but they were ignored — and for good reason. Under Geno Auriemma, the Huskies seemingly always peak at the right time.

That was the case last year. UConn dropped three games during the regular season — capped off by a demoralizing loss to Tennessee in early February — but put it all together in Tampa and won the national championship with arguably the most dominant Final Four showing of all-time.

In 2024, the Huskies started two freshmen and had just seven players they could rely on, yet made the Final Four as a 3-seed. In 2022, they reached the national title game despite a slew of injuries. In 2013, UConn shook off an up-and-down regular season and marched its way to a national championship behind a freshman Breanna Stewart. The Huskies’ four losses that year were tied for the most by a title-winning team in program history.

But this year, UConn didn’t play its best basketball down the stretch. At the Final Four, the Huskies were a completely different team than the one that dominated the first three months of the season.

So what happened?