No. 1 Connecticut on verge of 71st straight win, breaking its own record

UConn on verge of breaking its own win streak

HARTFORD, Conn. — Geno Auriemma and the Connecticut Huskies are more focused on winning a 16th Big East tournament title than breaking their own NCAA record for consecutive victories.

UConn will try for its 71st straight win Monday night when the top-ranked Huskies face sixth-ranked Notre Dame in the Big East conference semifinals. UConn tied the record the program set from Nov. 9, 2001, to March 11, 2003, with its 77-41 rout of Syracuse on Sunday.

“Let’s say we win tomorrow and lost Tuesday, what are the kids going to do, go to half court and put their fingers up and say, ‘We won 70, 71?” Auriemma said.

What has made UConn so good during its current run has been the Huskies’ ability to block out the bigger picture.

“Any record or history doesn’t really mean much if we don’t accomplish our next goal, and that’s beating Notre Dame,” said Maya Moore, who got her 2,000th career point in Sunday’s win.

The last time UConn had 70 straight wins, the streak ended in a Big East tournament semifinal loss to Villanova. But that Huskies team was different from the one that had gone undefeated the year before.

“The first time we went through this, the following year we had to replace four All-Americans and replaced them with a lot of inexperienced players,” Auriemma said. “We had one great, great, great player who pretty much carried our whole team.”

This time around UConn only lost one player from last season’s undefeated team that won the school’s sixth national championship. The Huskies returned Moore — the national player of the year and All-American Tina Charles as well as two other starters.

Having so many players back has helped UConn win every game of its current streak by double figures and an average of over 32 points. The Huskies have already beaten Notre Dame twice this season, including a 25-point win last Monday.

Still, the school does have a history of ending notable winning streaks.

Notre Dame stopped Oklahoma’s 47-game winning streak in football in the 1950s, UCLA’s 88-game winning streak in men’s basketball in the 1970s and North Carolina’s 92-game winning streak in women’s soccer in the 1990s.

“They have had a great season and they’re the best team in the country by far,” Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said. “I don’t think there’s anybody close to them. We’ve seen it up close twice and haven’t really liked the view from my seat.”