The UConn women’s basketball team extended their win streak to 100 games Monday night at Gampel Pavilion with a 66-55 win over South Carolina. (Jackson Haigis/ The Daily Campus)
Monday, the UConn women’s basketball team made history by winning their 100th consecutive game. This week’s question is quite simple: when will this winning streak finally end?
Matthew Kren, Staff Writer
The answer to this question is certainly not “in my final semester as an UConn student.” With just a few more months left for me in Storrs, the Huskies seem to have just 12 games between them and a chance to play for a fifth straight championship. The next seven games will all be against foes who they have dominated since the inception of the AAC. The only ranked team left that they have the chance to play before March Madness is USF but the No. 22 ranked team in America just lost to the 16-9, 6-6 the American, Central Florida Knights. I just do not see this team losing in the regular season, the American tournament and the first four rounds of the tournament. If Maryland falls before UConn plays them in the tournament, they might not lose until 2018.
Chris Hanna, Staff Writer
Well, they certainly won’t lose this year, given the remaining schedule. The Huskies are battle tested having faced as many as six top 10 opponents this season and a few more in the top 25. If they continue to play like this against opponents of South Carolina’s ilk, there’s almost zero chance they fall before their strive for five.
Honestly, I don’t see this team losing next year either. UConn will lose Saniya Chong to graduation but still has the remainder of the starting lineup coming back. Plus, the recruiting class Geno Auriemma has put together is fantastic yet again. The class is led by the No. recruit in the nation in Megan Walker and also includes No. 14 Mikayla Coombs. And let’s not forget Batouly Camara and Azurá Stevens, who will be eligible to play next season after transferring. Auriemma once said something along the lines of Stevens being the best player in the nation and she’s not even playing. With all the returning pieces and additions to an already incredible team, I just can’t see the Huskies losing until at least the 2018-19 season.
Stephanie Sheehan, Associate managing editor
The answer to this question is simple: As long as Geno is still at the helm of this program, the UConn women’s basketball team will not lose another game. Geno’s favorite thing lately is to tell the media that they’re going to lose eventually and he’s just waiting for it to happen, but that always makes me laugh because it’s the most ironic thing for him to say. Geno built this program on hard work, overcoming adversity and, most importantly, winning. It took him 31 years, but the winning culture is just so ingrained into this team that, no matter how much Geno says he’s expecting it to happen, losing is just not an option that these women will accept. The team has literally two seniors right now, and both of them are not members of the starting five. This team is going to be a dynasty like no other for many, many years.
Daniela Marulanda, Campus Correspondent
They will lose when people finally appreciate what they and other amazing women athletes do for the sports. At least that is what I hope. I think the only team that could come close to beating them this year is Maryland and is unlikely to happen. Next year the team will have a strong freshman class coming with no.1 overall recruit Megan Walker. Mikayla Combs, Lexi Gordon and Andra Hunter-Espinosa are also going enter Geno’s winning ways camp. That combined with poised veterans such as Gabby Williams and Kia Nurse really makes it hard to predict when they will lose if at all next year. I guess we’ll have to wait for another “rebuilding” year to see if Geno and his players are going to lose.
Matt Barresi, Campus Correspondent
Never? Not before I graduate (two years if things go as planned)? Not until at the very earliest the murmured Mens/Womens double-header at Madison Square Garden next year against Notre Dame?
Honestly this is an impossible question to answer. They will probably lose to a team we don’t expect at a time we don’t expect. I will say, there seem to be plenty of uninformed and/or overconfident fans on campus who don’t realize this isn’t quite last year’s juggernaut. Notre Dame and Baylor already gave the Huskies games this year. Maryland has a dynamic squad also. Come Elite Eight time in the NCAA tournament is where things might start getting dicey for this team. That hardly means they’ll lose, but if it’s going to happen, that’s when.
After that? Impossible to say. Maybe this makes me one of those uniformed and overconfident fans I just mentioned, but if they run the table this year, I don’t see how it’s not going to happen next year. Losing Saniya Chong will sting a little, but they will return everyone else giving them outstanding experience to work with and are bringing in incredible talent via recruiting and Duke transfer Azura Stevens. That team is simply going to be incredible, speculating on when/if that team will lose at any point just seems irrational at this point, which is just another testament to how incredible this streak truly is.
Matt Kren is a staff writer for The Daily Campus, covering women’s basketball. He can be reached via email at matthew.kren@uconn.edu.
Chris Hanna is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at christopher.hanna@uconn.edu. He tweets @realchrishanna
Stephanie Sheehan is the associate managing editor for The Daily Campus, covering men’s basketball. She can be reached via email at stephanie.sheehan@uconn.edu. She tweets @steph_sheehan.
Daniela Marulanda is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at daniela.marulanda@uconn.edu.
Matt Barresi is a campus correspondent for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at matthew.barresi@uconn.edu.
