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What UConn wants to improve before the postseason
Just three games remain in UConn women’s basketball’s regular season. The Huskies are set to head to DePaul on Sunday, will return home on Wednesday against Villanova and will head into the postseason following a trip to Providence three days after that. March is just a week away.
That means time is running out for UConn to make any final tweaks and fixes. It’s too late to make any major adjustments, but the team can still improve over the next few weeks before the games really start to matter.
It helps that the Huskies are coming off their first real break since the New Year. UConn had five consecutive days without a game — its longest such stretch since the team went home for the holidays. It tried to implement some changes over the past week.
“We won't know until we play on Sunday but we spent time on some things that we thought we were struggling with and hopefully we got them fixed,” Geno Auriemma said on Friday.
Getting its offensive rhythm back
From mid-December to late January, UConn looked like one of the best teams in the nation. The Huskies won 13 straight games — all of which were by double-digits. Then they stumbled in a loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 27 and nothing has been as easy since.
“We went through that [13-game] winning streak where we really, really, really played well,” Auriemma said. “There were hardly any bad games during that streak and since then it’s been a little bit choppy.”
Case in point: UConn was up by just one at Villanova before pulling away in the second half for a 21-point win thanks to some crucial halftime adjustments. In the next game, the Huskies had to battle for all 40 minutes to beat St. John’s by 15 at home. UConn dropped a game to No. 1 South Carolina on the road, then found itself tied with Creighton at halftime in its last contest before dominating the second half.
Very few of the Huskies’ wins in February have been easy, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“I like that we've been in some games where we've had to figure things out,” Auriemma said. “The more of those that you're in, the better you're going to be going into the postseason.”
Those have proven to be valuable learning experiences that’ll come in handy. But for UConn to make a deep run into March, the offense has to return to the way it operated during that 13-game winning streak.
“I’d like to get us back into a nice rhythm and a nice routine and nice flow offensively,” he said. “That's probably the best thing you can do going into the Big East Tournament — any tournament for that matter: Feeling like you've got a good rhythm on offense.”
More scoring balance
Part of the reason for the loss of offensive rhythm is that the Huskies have relied heavily on just two scorers.
Over UConn’s last eight games, Aaliyah Edwards has been borderline unstoppable. In that span, she’s averaging a team-best 22.3 points and 11.6 rebounds. Paige Bueckers isn’t far behind with 20.3 points. Beyond those two, the Huskies have just one other player averaging double-figures in that same stretch: Ashlynn Shade at 11.1.
Auriemma wants a more balanced offense in the postseason.
“Right now, it seems like Aaliyah and Paige are really carrying the load for us,” he said. “When we were rolling during those [13] games, we had more people involved. More people were contributing offensively and I'd like to see us get back to that.”
Unlocking the depth
On most nights, UConn knows what to expect out of its starting five of Bueckers, Edwards, Mühl, Arnold, and Shade. The x-factors in March will be the two top reserves: Ice Brady and Qadence Samuels.
Brady has shown flashes of ability with 17 points at St. John’s, a three-block contest at Villanova, or an 11-point, 17-rebound double-double at Xavier. She can also be completely invisible.
“Ice has to be consistently able to contribute,” Auriemma said. “The more times that she can contribute and stay out of foul trouble, the more we can get from that. Obviously, that gives us a chance to rotate our players in and out and give us a rest when we need it.”
As for Qadence Samuels, she’s improved her shot selection and rebounding in recent weeks but still isn’t getting much playing time. Since UConn’s 13-game win streak ended, she’s gotten 10+ minutes just twice in eight contests.
“Q’s going to compete all the time, so I like that about her,” Auriemma said. “There's just sometimes things that happen on the floor that she's not ready to deal with yet. But she competes and she's a gamer. Depending on the game, I would like to get her more involved. Hopefully, these next three games will be an opportunity to do that.”
If UConn can get more out of those two on a regular basis, that would help ease the load on the five starters during the grind of the postseason.
“You really want to go into the (Big East) tournament with three games in three days feeling like you have options,” Auriemma said. “That would be ideal.”

Scouting the Blue Demons
DePaul comes in on a three-game losing skid with losses to Marquette, Creighton, and Seton Hall. Entering Sunday, the Blue Demons have attempted the third-most field goals in the nation with 1,852. Her Hoop Stats ranks them as the No. 112 team in the nation.
Geno Auriemma on DePaul: “Whenever we play DePaul, I'm always convinced that something will happen that I haven't seen. They took 35 3s against us here, we took 14. Luckily, they missed a bunch. But whenever you're playing teams like that, always in the back of your mind you're like, ‘What if this is the night when they all go in?’ Now obviously they're not going to go 35 for 35. Well, what if they make 15 of them? 17 of them? Who the hell knows? So when you play in a team like that, you don't assume anything.”
Statistical leaders
Points: 18.0 — Anaya Peoples
Rebounds: 8.0 — Anaya Peoples
Assists: 3.4 — Anaya Peoples
Steals: 2.6 — Anaya Peoples
3-point %: 42.4 — Michelle Sidor
Last meeting
UConn earned a comfortable 88-51 victory over DePaul on Jan. 20 at Gampel Pavilion. Ashlynn Shade had a team-high 21 points, though Paige Bueckers (20) and Aaliyah Edwards (18) weren’t far behind. As a team, the Huskies went 23-24 from the free-throw line.
By the numbers
30 — With a win, UConn will secure the Big East regular season championship outright. It’ll be the Huskies’ 30th conference regular season crown and the 23rd in the Big East.
4 — Paige Bueckers has scored 20+ points in four straight games.
1 — This could be UConn’s last road trip outside the northeast. Unless the Huskies make the Final Four in Cleveland or get sent to a regional in Portland, Oregon, their remaining trips will be to Providence, Mohegan Sun, and Albany.
29 — Sunday will be Bueckers’ 29th game of the season, tying a career-high that she set as a freshman.

Your mention of the 2013 team led me to do some research.

Of UConn's 11 National Championships, 6 were undefeated and 3 were one-loss teams.  The other two championship teams each lost 4 games.  To date, no five-loss UConn team, this year's total, has ever won it all.

The 2012-2013 four-loss champions lost to only 2 teams all year.  All of those losses, one of which came in OT, were by single digits.  This year's team has lost to five different teams.  Every single one of them has been by double digits too.  Those differences dilute the value of comparing the two team to each other in my opinion.

The other four-loss champions were the 2003-2004 Huskies.  They lost to four different teams - Duke (by 1), ND (by 15), Nova (by 3) and Boston College (by 3) - and are thus a closer comparison to the current team.  That was D's last season and she pretty much willed a young UConn club to the title, winning Tournament MVP honors in the process.  Back then, there were no way near the number of talented players and teams as there are today in the era of growing parity.  Accordingly, I am not at all sure one transcendent player can carry a team to a championship in 2024 like D did for us in 2004.   

I agree #12 is not outside of the realm of possibility.  However, even if we play a perfect game I still think we would need our opponents in the latter rounds of the tourney to play a subpar game for us to win.  That is too much for me to personally hope for.  I'm expecting only a BE trophy for the women this year and another loss in the second weekend of the tourney.  My expectations for next year, however, are much higher...IF we can stay healthy and pick up some post help via the portal.