Season like no other could catapult UConn to most improbable of NCAA women's basketball title runs

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Geno Auriemma sat at the dais in the media room in Atlanta's McCamish Pavilion, arms crossed, voice subdued and his typical charisma replaced with something unheard of for the 11-time national championship coach.

The first loss to an unranked team in nearly a decade happened when the Huskies fell to Georgia Tech. Two weeks before losing Azzi Fudd to a foot issue, they lost the 2020-21 national player of the year to a knee injury. Adding insult to injury, Nika Muhl was ruled out of the game with a foot injury of her own.

It was tough enough to know that they would be short three guards, but the way they played was far different than what Auriemma and the rest of the basketball world had been used to. The performance itself and the fact that the players never emerged for postgame interviews was startling.

I see a team that is disheveled. I don't have the ability to affect my players to make sure that we're in a better place mentally and physically.

I don't think it will get fixed. I really don't.

If you told Auriemma that night his team would get healthy in late February, he wouldn't have believed you. Five regular-season losses and a pair of NCAA tournament wins over 1-seeds is where the University of Connecticut is at. South Carolina, which has spent the entire season ranked No. 1 in the country, will play the Huskies on Sunday. They are looking for their 12th national championship. If they can pull it off, it will cap one of their most unlikely title runs to date.

It began with sky-high expectations for both internal and external reasons, as the 2021-22 campaign has been tumultuous with seven of their nine rotation players missing at least three games due to illness or injury. After losing to Arizona in the Final Four in 2021, the University of Connecticut returned most of its major contributors and was ranked second in the preseason polls.

At the start, things were not perfect. The team was overly reliant on Bueckers, and in its 73-57 loss to the Gamecocks in the Bahamas, the offense produced just three points in the fourth quarter, even with the sophomore guard on the floor.

December and January brought challenges that Auriemma had never experienced before. The star power in Bueckers and Fudd was lost for 19 and 11 games, respectively. Between Muhl, Christyn Williams, Dorka Juhasz, and other players missing time, and a COVID-19 outbreak around the holidays, the University of Connecticut was at times down to six players in practices. Muhl described the team as going through hell after they returned from Eugene.

The national championship game of the women's NCAA tournament is set. Play a tournament.

After losses to Georgia Tech and Louisville, the Huskies dropped out of the top 10. Their streak of 169 consecutive wins against conference teams ended when they lost to Villanova.

Nelson-Ododa said that December and January were one of the toughest months he had ever faced. It was a challenge to figure out our roles and what we would have to bring to the table.

Team members had to play out of position. When Bueckers and Muhl were out, Williams and Evina Westbrook ran the point. Ducharme was forced into an outsize role with the team struggling to replace the go-to scoring Bueckers provides, and she largely met the challenge.

Nelson-Ododa said that they had to shift how they practiced because they were limited.

The typical 40-point wins from the past are no longer. For the first time in their lives, many players had to learn how to win ugly games in the Big East, because the games were tighter than usual. The only way out for Auriemma was to keep trudging along.

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The title game will be against South Carolina, as the University of Connecticut defeated the defending champion.

With Fudd back in the fold by late January and Bueckers recovery proceeding relatively smoothly, the team could enter the most critical stretch of the season fully healthy.

The team needed a lot of growing up, according to Auriemma. If we had stayed the same, I don't think we would still be playing.

The wins over Tennessee and DePaul re-instilled confidence in the team. The team around her had developed into a well-balanced, defensive-minded group in which players understood how to excel in their roles and grind out wins. The most impressive individual performance of the NCAA tournament so far has been Bueckers 27 points in the double-overtime win over NC State.

It wasn't just a contrast to how things went at Georgia Tech; it was a direct result of it.

Even though his team is healthy and battle-tested, Auriemma isn't sure he has the best team in the NCAA tournament. He admitted that the team needed the Cardinal to be off their game for a chance to win.

Auriemma knows that they are here for a reason. They didn't have to be the wire-to-wire No. 1-ranked team or have an unprecedented winning streak to earn it.

That might be what makes the difference.

You don't have to be the best team for a long time according to Auriemma.