NEW YORK — Here was a stage befitting UConn women’s basketball. Gampel Pavilion and PeoplesBank Arena are home, Mohegan is cozy and close by, but the Huskies have long belonged on Broadway, at least for limited engagements.
After all, isn’t a regular season game for a UConn women’s team a lot like a Broadway show? You know the plot, know the ending, know all the songs, but you go to see great performers give their great performances. And you go again and again.
“This is the biggest stage,” Geno Auriemma said, after UConn belted out an 85-49 victory over St John’s and closed out an undefeated regular season at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. “And they make it look like a stage. The lights are on the performers, not the fans.”
The Huskies, like stars of the theater past and present, rarely disappoint. Moving the ball (25 assists), stealing it 15 times to ignite offense and playing every moment like it mattered, even if the big scoreboard hovering over them indicated it didn’t. They did not cheat their audience of 9,612, the largest ever for a Red Storm home game. Most of the crowd came from Connecticut, sure, and if they played in the afternoon they might have sold out the World’s Most Famous Arena, doubling that attendance figure.
UConn and St. John’s players were on the marquees around The Garden, and Auriemma, who has coached here only a half dozen times in his 41 years, told his players what they’d experience, the crowd close and all enveloping, the bright lights trained on the court.
“I was explaining to them that some of the greatest moments in sports have happened in this building, not just basketball,” Auriemma said. “My first time here, I was almost late for the tipoff, I was walking around the building, looking at all the pictures, reading all the captions, trying to remember how old I was when this happened, or that happened. Growing up in Philadelphia, it wasn’t popular to say those ’70, ’71, ’72, ’73 Knicks were your favorite team of all time, but they were, that’s the way I always felt basketball should be played, the perfect way basketball was played, so I’ve always had a special feeling about this place.”
To venture a little further down this rabbit hole, even a Philadelphian has to give Geno a pass there. When those famous Knicks won their last NBA championship in 1972-73, the infamous 76ers of that season were finishing 9-73.
The current Knicks got a bit of a statement win at The Garden early Sunday, beating UConn’s Stephon Castle and the Spurs, 114-89. Comic Larry David was spotted at that game, but given his noted disdain for UConn blowouts, if you remember him heckling Dan Hurley during the men’s 30-0 run against Illinois in the Elite Eight a couple of years ago in Boston, it wasn’t surprising that this nightcap wouldn’t be his cup of tea.
These things don’t come up in Hartford or Storrs, only in and around Madison Square Garden.
“It was a great experience, coach was telling us before the game that it would be,” said Sarah Strong, who had 11 points, seven rebounds, six steals and four assists. “Sitting on the bench the Knicks were just sitting on, and being able to play on the court after them, it was fun.”
Serah Williams, grad transfer, a Brooklyn kid who had 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and two blocks — Auriemma telling her afterward she “played like a UConn player” — also savored the night, as she did her first conference regular season title T-shirt.
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“It’s Madison Square Garden, Manhattan, New York City,” Williams said. “.. It’s a blessing.”
Azzi Fudd scored 14, and Allie Ziebell 13 off the bench. UConn women at The Garden was a happening, for sure. Auriemma reminded his players this could be a once in a lifetime experience for them. That, by the way, shouldn’t be the case.
“We were really grateful we had the opportunity to get in here,” St. John’s coach Joe Tartamella, who worked as a grad assistant at Auriemma’s camp 20 years ago. “People want to watch a great product. You’re watching some elite basketball out there tonight. There’s an appetite for it, as it continues to grow. The better you are, the more people want to see it.”
St. John’s has played at MSG as an opening act for the men’s team, and UConn has played here as part of an event, notably the Maggie Dixon Classic. This was the first “stand alone” women’s regular season game played here, and if the right people are on their game, it won’t be the last. Tartamella would like to schedule at least one game at The Garden every year, and it would obviously make more sense for it to be against UConn. It would give his program and the league more exposure. “Last year, we played here, it wasn’t even on TV, how does that happen?” he said.
Looking down the road, one can’t help but wonder why the women’s Final Four has not yet come to The Big Apple. The event has proven it can sell out NBA/NHL arenas, the Liberty are drawing big crowds in Brooklyn, where the Unrivaled semfinals were played Monday, so a Final Four in the “Mecca of Basketball” is long overdue. The NCAA has committed to sites through 2031, so if it does come to Madison Square Garden sometime in the next decade, it’s not certain Auriemma, soon to turn 72, nor Amore, soon to turn 64, would still be working the big room. Maybe one of us could be coaxed out of retirement for such an occasion.
“New York people are going to turn out if you put a really good product on the floor,” Auriemma said. “And they’re used to having a good product in New York. The Liberty was always a great draw. And I do think New York, Madison Square Garden, would be a perfect place for a Final Four on the women’s side.”
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The next Final Four will be in Phoenix, however, and UConn is on a mission to get there and repeat as champs. Auriemma cringed at the suggestion this team was better than last year’s. How could it be, now that Paige Bueckers is on tour with Unrivaled and the WNBA? Down to two showstoppers, Strong and Fudd, but with a strong ensemble cast, these Huskies made 31-0 look so easy, where last year’s team lost three. They could rout the opponents they’ve played so far with or without Bueckers; the suspense will come once they’re deep enough into March Madness to face a Texas, South Carolina, LSU or UCLA.
“There are a lot of times I watch us play and think, ‘That wouldn’t have happened if we had Paige,’” Auriemma said. “So there are things that happened that maybe are not obvious to other people, but on the coaching staff, we know. That doesn’t mean they can’t play at a high level and maybe match what that team did last year. Maybe that’s in the cards for them, I don’t know. We’re a much different team than we were last year.”