Geno: ‘I Kinda Like When We Lose During the Regular Season'

That loss to Stanford five months ago must seem like a distant memory.

Sometimes you have to go backwards to move ahead. That's the general gist of Geno Auriemma's point, the one he made during Wednesday's appearance on Mike & Mike.

“I kinda like when we lose during the regular season, because it lets everybody in Connecticut know, hey you know what, you can still win the title without having an undefeated season," he said.

The Huskies did just that in the second game of the season, when they went out to California and lost in overtime to Stanford. Auriemma admitted he didn't trust his team then, only a little more so in December, and then as we moved into the new year and the end of the season, things started coming together ... and here we are.

It always seems to end this way, with the Huskies in the Final Four, and it's hard to take Auriemma seriously when UConn won it's final 37 games, and it's average margin of victory against conference opponents was by more than 40 points. But it's what goes on behind the curtain that we don't see -- and what ultimately proved to be the difference.

'We had to work hard this is one,'' national player of the year Breanna Stewart said. ''This is one of the hardest things we've had to do since I've been here.''

Coach Geno Auriemma sounded a similar tone as he spoke with ESPN's Holly Rowe after the game.

"We have to work really, really hard to make it look easy," he said. "This is an incredible group. ... Every day this team just kept working and working. They deserve everything."

And that lost to Stanford five months ago? That must seem like a dream right now.

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