A UConn Victory

The facts and figures speak for themselves. They’re remarkable, unprecedented, stunning.

The University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team closed out an undefeated season on Tuesday with an 82-51 rout of Syracuse in the NCAA women’s tournament final. And it wasn’t even that close. UConn had 50 points by halftime and could have scored another 50.

The Huskies (38-0) won their 11th national title and Breanna Stewart her fourth consecutive Most Outstanding Player Award. Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck became the only players in NCAA college basketball history, men or women, to win four titles. That 11th title for coach Geno Auriemma moved him past legendary men’s coach John Wooden of UCLA for most all time.

In their four years together, Stewart, Jefferson and Tuck compiled a 115-5 record. Not a single one of their victories this season was by less than double digits.

Much of the argument lately has not been about how good UConn is, but how good (or bad) UConn is for the women’s game. Match the thrilling men’s final from Monday night against this and ask yourself, ‘Which is more watchable? Which game would hold my interest?’ UConn scored the first nine points against Syracuse and was up 50-23 at halftime. Even true sports fans were looking for reruns of Full House by the time the lead got to 33 in the third quarter.

Whether UConn makes the game more appealing or not, the coach and the players deserve full credit for an unending and successful pursuit of excellence. The team wins, it wins by a lot and it plays with its own type of fury. Congratulations to the Huskies on this title and a remarkable four-year stretch of dominance and superiority.

Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman