Geno Auriemma is shooting for perfection.
Only nine times in NCAA history has a basketball team gone undefeated and only three times has a women's team--including Auriemma's 1995 Connecticut squad.
So it should come as no surprise that his 2002 squad (37-0) is two games away from perfection once again.
"I don't put too much stock in that stuff," Auriemma said. "I don't think there's any point in comparing teams.... I think whoever is the latest is the greatest. If we win 39 games and win a national championship, everybody will say this is the best team ever until somebody does it next year."
If this year's squad does not go 39-0 , Connecticut fans will obviously be disappointed. The Huskies are no stranger to the Final Four--this is their third consecutive trip and fifth overall. Since Auriemma jumped from Virginia assistant to Huskie head coach in 1985, he has compiled a 462-98 record and turned the program into a nearly invincible juggernaut, winning national championships in 1995 and 2000--the team was an injury away from the championship last season, when Notre Dame won.
If any team looks unbeatable, it is Connecticut. Earlier this season, the Huskies dispatched two Final Four members, Oklahoma and Tennessee, both by the same score, 86-72. They also beat No. 1 seed Vanderbilt 69-50 in the regular season.
In the tournament, the Huskies have been magnificently consistent, outpacing St. Francis 86-36, Iowa 86-48, Penn State 82-64 and Old Dominion 85-64.
All season long, no one has found a way to beat Connecticut. The closest any team has come is Virginia Tech, who led the Huskies for 9:22. Connecticut won that game 59-50. Tough night.
The team is high on talent, high on leadership and just about everything else. There are five main reasons the Huskies are undefeated right now--their starting lineup.
Senior Sue Bird is undeniably the best point guard in the nation and sophomore Diana Taurasi rounds out the best backcourt in the game. Taurasi is the team's youngest starter but, like Swin Cash, is a deadly three-point shooter.
The frontcourt is equally loaded. Seniors Asjha Jones, Cash and Tamika Williams are among the quickest forwards in the nation and are dominant in the paint.
Duke coach Gail Goestenkors, the only Final Four coach who has not yet squared off against Auriemma, said that any team is beatable.
"When we played Tennessee in 1999, everyone thought they'd waltz to the championship," she said, hearkening to the 1999 East regional in which the Blue Devils upset Summitt's Volunteers to go to their first Final Four.
She said that this year's Final Four is stronger than 1999's, when Duke fell to Purdue in the championship game.
"If [Connecticut] is playing their best game, they can't be beat," she said. "But you never know. That's why you play."
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