The UConn women’s basketball team was ahead by 19 points at halftime of Wednesday’s win over Creighton, but as far as Geno Auriemma was concerned, the Huskies were losing where it mattered most.
The Bluejays, without a single player taller than 6 feet 2 on the court, led No. 1 UConn 20-15 on the glass, and the Huskies combined for a single offensive board in the half. With just five games left in the regular season, rebounding has become a constant point of emphasis for Auriemma as he searches for issues to nitpick with his undefeated squad.
“I went in a locker room and I said that we didn’t even attempt to get an offensive rebound,” Auriemma said after the Huskies’ 94-44 victory. “We shoot the ball, and everybody jogs back on you. And I said I don’t understand. You know, you don’t need any talent to be an offensive rebounder. All you need is, when the ball leaves somebody’s hand, you automatically put yourself in a position to chase it down.”
According to the stats, UConn is one of the best teams in the country in just about every area. They lead the nation in assists, assist-to-turnover ratio, field-goal percentage, three-point percentage and scoring defense while ranking top five in scoring offense, steals per game and turnover margin. But the glaring outlier in the Huskies’ numbers is on the boards. The team is 50th in rebounding margin, 112th in defensive rebounds and 228th in offensive rebounds.
“We make so many shots,” Auriemma said. “But when the shots are not going in, the ones that don’t go in, I want us to get better at getting some of those back.”
Auriemma’s other complaint after the Creighton win was some early disjointedness in the offense, leading to an especially underwhelming first quarter. Sophomore forward Sarah Strong accounted for 12 of the team’s first 19 points, and while it’s a luxury to have stars capable of taking over when the team is struggling collectively, Auriemma doesn’t want the team to become overly reliant on its best players.
“There was no flow. It was just everybody running around looking for something; I don’t even know what,” Auriemma said. “Then the rest of the time there was a flow, like everybody was playing together. To me, that’s the only chance we have to be really, really good. We have some players that we can isolate them and play one-on-one or two-on-two. But that’s what I’m always looking for: Is there a kind of a rhythm and a flow to our offense?”
With the regular season winding down, UConn will look to keep fine-tuning when it faces Marquette in a Valentine’s Day battle on the road. The Huskies dominated the first time the teams met in December in Hartford, beating the Golden Eagles, 89-53, with four players scoring in double digits. Strong put up a team-high 22 points shooting 3-for-4 on 3-pointers despite giving up six turnovers, and Williams had one of her best games of Big East play with 11 points and six boards plus three assists, a block and a steal.
Behind Strong and star guard Azzi Fudd, freshman forward Blanca Quinonez was UConn’s third-leading scorer against Marquette with 12 points on 50% shooting. Quinonez has missed the last five games after reaggravating a shoulder injury initially suffered in November, but Auriemma said she could make her return to the court on Saturday in Milwaukee.
Having Quinonez back bolsters the Huskies in multiple areas: On top of her 10.7 points per game, she averages 3.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.8 steals. She is also a uniquely versatile scorer for her size, shooting 57.4% from the field and 40.4% from 3-point range.
But the biggest question surrounding the freshman’s return is how Auriemma will adjust the rotation given sophomore guard Allie Ziebell‘s impressive string of performances during Quinonez’s absence. Ziebell has scored in double digits five times in the last six games shooting 50% or better from the field, headlined by her 34-point performance against Xavier on Jan. 28 and the 20-piece she put up against Creighton on Wednesday. She also logged a career-high four steals in a win over Butler last weekend and grabbed a career-best five rebounds at DePaul on Feb. 4.
“If she doesn’t run back on defense, that sucker is going to the bench forever when Blanca comes back,” Auriemma joked of Ziebell. “When someone’s not available, that’s really an opportunity for other people, like ‘This is my shot.’ … Allie can do a maybe a few of the things Blanca can do, but she has some experience. She was a point guard in high school, so she knows where the ball’s supposed to go, and she can shoot it like nobody else … There’s going to be games where she’s going to be a big factor.”
How to watch
Site: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee
Time/date: 1 p.m., Saturday
Team records: UConn 26-0 (15-0), Marquette 16-9 (10-6)
Series record: UConn leads 23-1
Last meeting: 89-53 UConn, Dec. 17 in Hartford
TV: FS1
Streaming: FOX Sports app
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9