news-record.com

SAN ANTONIO -- Defeating Baylor on Sunday night, 70-50, Connecticut sought its rightful place on the trophy shelf and the bookshelf, reaching the national championship game in pursuit of a seventh title and its standing in women's basketball history.

First, a caveat: Although these Huskies, who face Stanford tonight, have won 38 games this season and 77 in a row over two seasons, they are not considered the greatest women's team ever. Not even the best UConn team. The Huskies who went 39-0 and won the 2002 championship are widely considered to be unmatched.

The current UConn team lacks the experience, depth and individual insistence -- what is called killer instinct or, more colloquially, a bit of "the dog" -- found in the 2002 lineup of Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Swin Cash, Tamika Williams and Asjha Jones.

"The 2002 team would beat this team nine out of 10 times, hands down," coach Geno Auriemma said. "They were a WNBA team in their own right."

Yet there is a collective determination about the current team, a ravenous purpose, that has given it a singular presence. After Baylor closed to 41-38 in a rare second-half threat to the Huskies, UConn remained composed and drew away with a 16-4 run.

"Everything we've done to this point could go wrong," Auriemma said beforehand. "But no matter what the score is, my players are under the impression that it doesn't matter, we're going to win."

Some teams might have grown complacent in victory or tuned out the coach. Not UConn. No opponent during the streak had come within 10 points. The Huskies won their first 37 games this season by an average of 36 points, trailing for a total of 37 minutes, 52 seconds out of 1,480 minutes played.

UConn won its first four NCAA tournament games by a combined 188 points, a record.

"We just keep going at teams until we wear them down," guard Lorin Dixon said. "Whether it's first half, second half, up by 10 or 30, it's the same mentality."