Like the men, the UConn women's team played three games in three days over the holiday break. Unlike the men, however, they won all three times by a combined 142 points. Victim No. 1: Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday (74-28). Victim No. 2: Buffalo on Saturday (90-34). And victim No. 3: Dayton on Sunday (78-38).
The second-ranked Huskies have run their record to 6-0 and in the process, set an NCAA record for most consecutive home wins with 89. Freshman phenom Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis led the way with 23 points Sunday after a two-point effort the day before, hitting the first five three-pointers she attempted.
It was Mosqueda-Lewis' performance against Buffalo that prompted coach Geno Auriemma to speak Saturday about the growing pains even national high school players of the year face when transitioning to the college game.
“I never said she [Mosqueda-Lewis] was the second coming,” he said, according to the Hartford Courant. “I never had her scoring 4,000 points, making the Olympic team, making everybody forget Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi and all the rest of them.
“And all those people out there saying I’m stupid for not starting her, well, I think she did it [missed her shots] on purpose just to let everybody know Coach has a pretty good plan and let’s stick with it for a while.”
Auriemma, as is often the case, seemed unconcerned about one bad game from one of his best players. In fact, he highlighted the fact that KML is an adept passer, too.
“She might be the best passer we have into the post,” he said. “She finds Stefanie (Dolson) a lot …When everybody tells you you’re such a great shooter and you miss, if you’re not careful you start to think that that’s all you are. And I never want her to think that.’’
Well, against Dayton KML must have forgotten what Auriemma told her. Because in addition to the 23 points and six three-pointers, she had six rebounds and zero assists.
Asked after the game what the difference was between Mosqueda-Lewis from Saturday to Sunday, Auriemma offered this: “Like most good shooters, [Mosqueda-Lewis] likes to think that they don’t worry about a bad day. That’s a part of basketball. What you don’t want is them to start feeling sorry for themselves or pass up open shots. That’s the last thing you want to happen.”
Pretty sure we don't have to worry about that.
