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Congratulations to Geno Auriemma's Lady Huskies of the University of Connecticut, for winning their eleventh National Championship.  A great accomplishment, carrying great significance in the world of college basketball.  

Geno Auriemma surpasses the legendary John Wooden with his eleventh NCAA Championship, and the win for UCONN was the 75th in a row.  Amazingly, all seventy five of those wins are by double digits.  Last night's game was an 82-51 drubbing of a very good Syracuse team.  Even though UCONN won by 31 points in a 40-minute game, believe it or not, the game wasn't as close as the score would indicate.   Had Auriemma kept the pedal down, it could have been a fifty-plus point blowout.  At one point, the score was 25-6, and UCONN was out-rebounding Syracuse 27-9.  Athletic 6-4 superstar forward Rebecca Stewart, the best player in the country by a wide margin, was active on defense and unselfish on offense, and was surrounded by superbly talented and knowledgeable teammates.  They were a joy to watch.  This is a UCONN team that had a #5-seed Mississippi State team down 40-4 in the first quarter of their game two weeks ago.   

Auriemma was asked before the game if a win put him in John Wooden territory.  Wooden's UCLA Bruins had similar dominance of men's college basketball in the 60s and 70s.  Wooden, the "Wizard of Westwood", won ten titles in twelve years, including seven straight from 1967-73.  His teams had winning streaks of 47 games (broken by Elvin Hayes and U of Houston in the Astrodome in 1968) and 88 games, broken at Notre Dame by an Irish team that included Adrian Dantley and John Shumate.  (I watched that game.)  Auriemma has had a winning streak of 90 games, and now this current streak of 75.  Auriemma believed a win would place him in that esteemed company, and I believe he was right.  

UCONN's Lady Huskies simply play a different game than does the rest of women's college basketball.  Last night, they scored several buckets from an offense designed around breaking a full court press.  They are ALL superb passers, and like the old Knicks of the 70s, sometimes look like they have six players on the court.  It is that tradition of excellence that, in turn, draws the best players.  And then Auriemma molds them into the best TEAM.  Many will point to Auriemma's draw of prime talent as the reason for his winning.  Of course, he has had truly great players like Maya Moore and Sue Bird and Jenn Rizzotti and Rebecca Lobo, and now Rebecca Stewart, just as Wooden had Gail Goodrich and Alcindor and Walton and Keith Wilkes and a stable full of talent.  But it is what is DONE with that talent, molding into a team, that is the mark of the great coaches.  And Geno Auriemma is definitely one of the great coaches.  

What we are seeing is greatness at a rare level.  Enjoy it.  Like Wooden's Bruins, it will not last forever.  It is the UCONN Lady Huskies' fourth NCAA Championship in a row, and sixth in seven years.  2015-16 was also the sixth undefeated season for Auriemma (Wooden had four).   The last undefeated men's Division I team was Bobby Knight's 1975-76 Indiana squad with Kent Benson and Scott May, forty years ago.  

How rare is this greatness we are witnessing?  The UCONN Lady Huskies have not lost a game since November of 2014, in double-overtime to Stanford.  Before that?  Almost exactly three years ago, in the Big East tournament, to Notre Dame.  Their record in the last 123 games?  122-1.  ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO and ONE.   Dominance.