Fielding phone calls from dignitaries, like President Barack Obama, and with a crowd of important people on hand, including some of the late John Wooden’s family, the Huskies of the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team were able to ignore the distractions and hoopla and just win the game, like they did 89 times previously. Last night, the UConn Huskies broke their tie with John Wooden’s legendary UCLA Bruins and won their 89th game in a row, setting a new NCAA record.
Like most of the previous 88 games, win number 89 wasn’t close for very long. The Huskies had two 9-0 runs in the first half, then held Florida State without a field goal for 6:39 on their way to an easy 93-62 win. Huskies All-American Maya Moore scored a career high 41 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
“[Former UCLA Coach John Wooden] came out publicly and said he liked the way our team played. He enjoyed the way we played, unselfish. And Greg [Wooden, John’s grandson] said the same thing — we reminded him of the way his team played. It wasn’t built around one individual and was team-oriented, that’s the comparison I like,” said UConn coach Geno Auriemma. “I’m not telling you to make any judgments about who’s better and who’s not. I’m talking about the actual journey and how it’s done and what these kids did. If you say anything less than that you’re telling them all these 89 wins are insignificant. For anybody who’s done significant things, that’s hard to do. That’s appreciated. And that’s all I ever wanted. It’s not comparing [them] to Bill Walton and Jamaal Wilkes, that’s not the point. I never asked for that. I asked you admire what these kids do and how hard it is to do it.”
Tags: UConn Women’s Basketball, NCAA women’s basketball, UConn Huskies, Lady Huskies, Geno Auriemma, UConn women win 89th game in a row, 89-game winning streak, UConn winning streak, UConn Lady Huskies win 89 games in a row, regular season winning streak, NCAA basketball, longest winning streak in basketball, Greg Wooden, Maya Moore