McGraw, Irish unable to break Husky curse for 11th time
By TIM CASEY
Sports Writer
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
This was going to be the year Notre Dame finally beat Connecticut, its archrival, for the first time in 11 tries. The Irish would win their regular-season finale, clinching their first-ever Big East regular season title.
From there, the script was set: head to the Big East tournament next weekend as the No. 1 seed, advance to the NCAA Tournament and host the first two rounds, then a couple of wins later compete in the Final Four at Philadelphia — head coach Muffet McGraw's hometown.
Notre Dame had won 20 in a row. Its confidence was sky high and the stage was set for the upset. A victory over the Huskies, the nation's top team, was going to position the Irish as a legitimate national title contender.
The perfect ending to a perfect regular season.
Then reality struck.
On Saturday, Connecticut proved once again that it has an edge on Notre Dame. For some reason, no matter the team's records, the Huskies always finds a way to ruin Notre Dame's hopes. Just like Ron Powlus always seemed to find the most inopportune time to throw an interception, Geno Auriemma's team always deflates the Irish bandwagon.
Maybe the crowd, the 16,295 fanatics in the Hartford Civic Center, chanting the annoying "U-C-O-N-N, UConn!, UConn!, UConn!" rattled the Irish. It was a far different world than the one-third full Joyce Center.
All the simulated noise from loudspeakers during practices can't adequately prepare a team for the atmosphere in the Civic Center.
Maybe it was a lack of confidence, of not truly believing they could win. The Irish may have won 20 in a row, the nation's longest winning streak, but no matter how many wins they get over Providence or Villanova or any other second-tier Big East team, they still hadn't beaten the Huskies. Granted, their 78-74 overtime victory over Rutgers gave the Irish a boost. But results lead to confidence. And the truth was that they still had never beaten UConn.
"I thought we panicked and were intimidated," said McGraw. "I thought we were past the intimidation stage; that was the most discouraging thing.''
Maybe it was the depth of the Huskies. Their starting lineup is solid, but not any better than the Irish's first five. From six to 10, though, the Huskies have an edge over any team in the country. Connecticut is two-deep at every position. Its star, last season's Big East Player of the Year, Svetlana Abrosimova, shot 1-for-7 from the field for five points on Saturday, fouling out with 6:47 remaining. Yet the Huskies had the luxury of replacing her with one of four former first-team All-American high school players off the bench, including 1999 Big East Rookie of the Year Tamika Williams.
It became clear on Saturday that the margin of error for the Irish is smaller than for other top teams. Notre Dame can't afford for Ruth Riley to play just seven minutes, shoot four times from the field and foul out with nearly seven minutes to play. If the Irish don't receive a strong effort from their three stars — Riley, shooting guard Alicia Ratay, and point guard Niele Ivey — it'll be tough to contend with the Connecticuts and Tennessees of the world. Flashback to a year ago March when Ivey went down with an ACL injury in the Big East semifinals against Rutgers and you'll find our why.
"When you play only seven players, and only two of them play well," McGraw said, "you aren't going to beat No. 1."
Nevertheless, the Irish proved that they have the talent to compete for a national title. That can't be said of many other teams in the country. Despite Riley's sub-par performance, an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers and shooting a dismal 40 percent from the field, the Irish were only down six, 58-52, with 4:46 left.
When you've got the best center in the country, a talented, veteran point guard, a shooter who can quickly reduce a lead (see the Rutgers game), and several other players who are content to fill roles, there's a shot.
Up to this point in the season, everything was perfect — or at least close to perfect.
After winning 20 straight, maybe the Irish were becoming a bit complacent.
Not anymore. Not after Saturday at least.
Now the Irish have a week to regroup before heading to Storrs, Conn., for the Big East tournament.
Round 1 went to Connecticut. But the fight's not over. The two teams could meet again a week from Tuesday on Connecticut's home floor for the Big East championship. There may even be a third encounter sometime in the NCAA tournament.
The script may have been altered, but it's far from ruined.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 28, 2000
