In the grand scheme of the season, Geno Auriemma knows it was healthy for the UConn women’s basketball team to struggle the way it did at Marquette on Saturday.
But it was also clear postgame that the players were going to feel his wrath in practice after the sluggish performance.
“It was good that we were put in that situation,” Auriemma said after the 71-56 win. “But there’s some things we’ve got to tighten up, obviously. (Marquette) did a great job on the boards, and we’ve got fix that when we get back. We need to have a different level of intensity I think on the defensive end, and more pace on offense. I thought we played slower than we’ve been playing lately.”
Though they came away with a comfortable victory, the Huskies were painfully low energy from the very beginning in Milwaukee. Sophomore phenom Sarah Strong, who Auriemma said has been “under the weather,” had a dismal first half shooting 1-for-9, and no one outside of star guard Azzi Fudd seemed capable of stepping up to fill the void. Even with five 3-pointers and 17 first-half points from Fudd, UConn only led at halftime thanks to a 16-4 run over the final five minutes of the second quarter, and it outscored the Golden Eagles by just three points in the second half.
Auriemma’s biggest concern was on the boards, where Marquette out-rebounded the Huskies 42-29 and beat then 14-8 on the offensive glass. The team’s lack of aggression rebounding has been a season-long complaint from Auriemma, but Saturday was just the fifth game they trailed on the boards and the first where they got beat by double digits.
“We’re under the impression that every shot we take is going to go in. Every shot we take, everybody just runs back on defense like ‘that’s going in,’ and that’s not the way you need to play,” Auriemma said on his radio show Monday. “The best players in the world, Hall of Fame players, miss half their shots. If you take 10 shots, five of them are not going in. Generally speaking, the teams that win are the teams that control the other five, and we’re not very good at that, so that’s something that worries me going forward.”
Saturday’s win was also the first time Auriemma truly felt the absence of freshman forward Blanca Quinonez, who has missed six straight games due to a shoulder injury. Quinonez is consistently UConn’s first player off the bench to inject a burst of energy into the lineup, and her speed and size can be game-altering within a matter of seconds. More than once this season, Quinonez has checked in and immediately ripped off a solo run of six or eight consecutive points
Though she wasn’t cleared to play, Quinonez went through the team’s full pregame warmups at Marquette, and Auriemma said on his radio show Monday that he expects the freshman to play Wednesday when the Huskies face Villanova on the road.
“We need to play quickly and play fast, and it’s the first game since she’s been out that I think we really missed Blanca,” Auriemma said Saturday. “She goes out there and shakes things up, so we have one less player that can create a lot of problems for the other team.”
UConn aims get back on track at Villanova, where it can clinch the Big East regular season championship for the sixth season in a row with a win. The Huskies dominated 99-50 when they hosted the Wildcats on Jan. 15 at Gampel Pavilion, forcing Villanova’s season-worst 26 turnovers and holding it to its lowest field goal percentage to date.
But Villanova won’t make things easy in the second meeting, especially not on its home court. The Wildcats are on a six-game winning streak in Big East play, and star guard Jasmine Bascoe has played some of her best basketball since putting up just eight points in the loss to UConn. Bascoe is second in the conference in scoring behind only Strong averaging 18.1 points per game, and she has scored at least 20 in four of her last six performances. The sophomore guard also leads the Big East in assists with 4.8 per game.
Auriemma hopes the result at Marquette will be a lesson learned: Even though they’ve won 63 Big East games in a row, even though they haven’t lost in 376 days, the Huskies can’t afford to take their foot off the gas as the NCAA Tournament approaches.
“We don’t have enough of those games where it’s ugly, nothing works, everybody’s little bit pouty and pissy because ‘I can’t make my shots,’ and then they lose their mind on defense,” Auriemma said Monday. “There’s a lot of explanations for it, but I think it’s a reminder that we can’t just go out there and go, ‘Hey, we’re UConn and you’re Marquette, and we want the score to be 90-50, so could you accommodate us please?’”
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How to watch UConn women’s basketball at Villanova
Site: Finneran Pavilion; Villanova, Pa.
Time/date: 7 p.m., Wednesday
Team records: UConn 27-0 (16-0), Villanova 21-5 (14-3)
Series record: UConn leads 48-18
Last meeting: 99-50 UConn, Jan. 15 at Gampel Pavilion
TV: NBC Sports Network
Streaming: Peacock
Radio: UConn Sports Network on FOX Sports 97.9