Why UConn needs to be tougher – and what that looks like

Why UConn needs to be tougher – and what that looks like

In UConn’s marquee matchups so far this season — Notre Dame, USC and Tennessee — the team got exactly what it wanted. The Huskies lost all three contests, though they’ve never concerned them much with regular season results. They went in with higher aims. 

“We came out of all those games understanding a little bit more about ourselves and each other — and that's what those games are for,” Geno Auriemma said. “You want to put yourself in position and obviously win those games and at least have a chance to win those games. I think we learned a lot. That's all you can ask for. So we were better coming out of those games than we were hopefully before those games.” 

UConn is clearly capable of competing with all three teams. This isn’t like the 2019-20 campaign when the Huskies were waxed by Baylor (74-58), Oregon 74-56 and South Carolina (70-52). This year’s squad has kept it close in every defeat. 

They were within one point late in the third quarter at Notre Dame before it got away from them. They were tied with just over two minutes left against both USC and Tennessee. 

Each time, the Huskies faltered in the clutch. The losses have made it painfully clear that UConn lacks toughness — both physical and mental — at the moment. 

“People think that means you gotta be able to punch people harder than they're punching you and that kind of stuff — be physically tougher,” Auriemma said. “Toughness in games on the road, it does include some of that. You gotta be able to get stops when you need them and get a rebound when you need it.” 

The Huskies haven’t done those things. At Notre Dame, they cut the deficit to one in the third quarter only to allow a 3-pointer at the buzzer and unraveled from there. When they hosted the Trojans, they immediately got punched and didn’t recover until the second half. Last Thursday in Knoxville, they let up defensively and on the glass in the second half. 

Even with those shortcomings, that’s not the type of toughness the coach is talking about. 

“Mainly the kind of toughness that you need on the road is like, ‘We really need you to make that three right now.’ ‘We really need you to make that jump shot right now.’ ‘You gotta get to the free throw line.’ Things that you normally would do,” Auriemma explained. “If you're a really, really good 3-point shooting team, that's why you say, ‘Can we really go into every game thinking we're going to shoot 12 of 20 from the three point line?’ No. But there are key times when you have to make them and that's the kind of toughness that you're talking about. As much as physical toughness, yes, there's a certain mental toughness that you have to have.” 

Paige Bueckers embodied that type of toughness earlier in her career. The best example came at Tennessee during her freshman year. Despite starting 2-13 from the field, she put that all behind her when she nailed a game-sealing 3-pointer with 30 seconds left. 

That hasn’t been the case — for Bueckers or UConn as a whole — this season. Shots that could’ve swung momentum in the Huskies’ favor ultimately clanged out. They’ve consistently found themselves on the wrong end of clutch-time plays. 

That was especially true against USC. With 2:24 left, Bueckers evened the score at 67-67 with a layup. On UConn’s next possession, she couldn’t bury an open jumper that would’ve taken the lead. After the Trojans scored to pull ahead, Kaitlyn Chen missed an open 3-pointer. With five seconds left, Sarah Strong failed to convert on two free throws that would’ve tied the game. 

In the gotta-have-it moments, the Huskies came up empty. 

UConn will get another opportunity to show that toughness when it travels to South Carolina on Sunday. But even that’s just another regular season game. Whether or not the Huskies figure out their out how to develop that clutch gene will be the difference in March. 

Because at this point in the calendar with the closest they’ll get to a full roster, there isn’t much room for improvement. 

“There comes a point also where… sometimes what you see after 25 games, maybe that's what you have and that's who you are,” Auriemma said. “When you get to this time of the year, you're actually spending less time on the court than you were in December and January.”

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