TAMPA, Florida — UConn isn’t letting Paige Bueckers leave without a national title, so woe to anyone who tries to get in their way.
Just ask UCLA, which was effectively run off the floor by halftime Friday night and wound up on the wrong end of an 85-51 Final Four loss. That would be the overall No. 1-seeded Bruins, mind you. Or Oklahoma, which is still licking its wounds from the 40 points Bueckers dropped on the Sooners a week ago.
Ask South Carolina, which headed for the exits at halftime of UConn’s beatdown of UCLA, having experienced this nightmare once already. UConn shellacked the defending champion Gamecocks on their home court less than two months ago. They didn’t need to watch UCLA get picked apart to know what awaits them in Sunday afternoon’s title game.
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Heck, ask UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, who has seen pretty much everything in his illustrious career and, as such, isn’t one for empty praise.
‘You always go into these games this time of the year expecting it to be incredibly, incredibly difficult. Not that it wasn’t, because I think our guys played about as hard as any group of kids can play,’ Auriemma said. ‘But I don’t think we made a mistake the entire evening, especially on the defensive end.’
There were, oh, three decades or so when everyone hated the Huskies because they were just better than everyone else. They collected titles like European royalty — 11 so far, for those counting — and the Final Four might as well have been a scheduled game.
But the competition had seemingly caught up to UConn these last few years. The Huskies haven’t won a title since 2016, and have made only one appearance in the title game since then. South Carolina is the team to beat now, reaching the title game for the third time in four years after routing Texas in the other Final Four game.
We all should have known better.
Since a loss to Tennessee on Feb. 6, no team in the country is playing better than UConn. And the Huskies haven’t just been good. They’ve been ruthless, snatching the very souls from their opponents.
‘You can tell there’s a level of connectivity and purpose. So many players are being stars in their roles,’ UCLA coach Cori Close said. ‘Obviously we talk about Paige and Azzi (Fudd) and Sarah (Strong), but the reality of how the whole team is contributing in different ways, it’s a credit to them.’
The win over UCLA was UConn’s 15th in a row, all but two of which were by at least 20 points. They’re outscoring their NCAA tournament opponents by 30-plus points, and the 34-point win over the Bruins was the largest ever at the Final Four.
That’s right. All those previous UConn teams, Pat Summitt’s Tennessee juggernauts — none of them did what these Huskies just did.
Against UCLA, they had a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter. They’d harassed UCLA into 10 turnovers midway through the second, two more than the Bruins had field goals.
In perhaps the most audacious moment of the entire night, with less than two minutes left in the first half, Azzi Fudd stripped Elina Aarnisalo and whipped the ball to Bueckers. Bueckers, spotting Kiki Rice at her side, shoved the ball to Kaitlyn Chen, who scored on a layup that put UConn up 39-22.
Bueckers and Chen burst into laughter. UCLA had to want to cry.
‘She sees everything and she has the skill to go with it, to be able to make those passes,’ Chen said. ‘And she’s so smooth with the ball. She just does a great job of finding her teammates and finding her own shot.’
That’s what makes this UConn team so dangerous. Yes, Bueckers averaged 29 points on 58.7% shooting her first four NCAA tournament games. But unlike other UConn teams in her previous seasons, she no longer has to do everything. This group has Bueckers, Fudd and Strong.
That follows the mold of Auriemma’s previous championship teams, ones that boasted multi-headed monsters. Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Shea Ralph. Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Renee Montgomery. Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson, Stefanie Dolson.
‘Going into this weekend, we felt we had the best opportunity that we could have in the last five, six years, seven years … (because) it wasn’t relying all on one person and that person had to play exceptionally outstanding game in order for us to win it all,’ Auriemma said.
Strong was the Huskies’ leading scorer against UCLA — not Bueckers — finishing with 22. Fudd had 19, all in the first half when UConn set an unforgiving tone.
‘If Paige had 16 last year, we wouldn’t have made it to the Final Four. If Paige has the kind of game that she had today in the previous couple of years, it would be almost impossible for us to win,’ he said. ‘And yet today, look what happened. So we have more pieces.
‘You have to come here with really good players and put yourself in a position to do it.’
Auriemma and Bueckers said UConn hasn’t talked about winning a national title — except, Auriemma said, when he wants to make Bueckers mad by pointing out she doesn’t have one. But the way they’re playing speaks volumes.
‘We hoped to be playing on the last day of the season,’ Bueckers said. ‘We got that opportunity. We don’t want to take it for granted.’
South Carolina knows what’s coming. It doesn’t mean the Gamecocks have any better hope of stopping it.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.