The 5 teams that stand a chance to beat UConn women’s basketball

The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team is once again dominant, and the favorite to win the NCAA tournament. It feels like we say this every year, but this seriously may be head coach Geno Auriemma’s best team ever.

Folks, This Is March though, and anything is possible. There is must-see talent spread across all four regions of the women’s bracket. The UConn Huskies could go down, just like in last season’s Final Four. It’s just not likely.

Let’s take a look a back at UConn’s 2017-2018 season as well as some of the other top contenders to cut down the nets in Columbus.

This Connecticut team has the highest net rating (71.3) of ANY team in the last five seasons that HerHoopStats has tracked. Net rating takes into account how many points a team scores per 100 possessions and how many points a team allows per 100 possession. The top five ratings in the last five years go as follows: 2018 Connecticut, 2016 Connecticut, 2015 Connecticut, 2017 Connecticut, and, you guessed it, 2014 Connecticut. (They won four championships in that span.)

This year’s UConn team scheduled four ranked opponents to start the season and won each matchup by at least 18 points, and by as many as 35 points. They’re 32-0, with just two single-digit wins. They have one of the best do-it-all players in the country: Gabby Williams, who is expected to be a top-five pick in the WNBA Draft.

Don’t forget they also have two of the most accurate shooters in the nation in Katie Lou Samuelson and Kia Nurse. Also, UConn has a rebounding and scoring machine in Napheesa Collier. They’re loaded.

Another No. 1 seed, Notre Dame, came within nine points of upsetting the Huskies in December. No. 2 seed Texas was even closer in a four-point loss in January.

So kinda!

Not to take too much credit away from Notre Dame, but Williams played through a migraine in the first half, and didn’t return for the second. Samuelson also injured her leg and missed the fourth quarter. The Irish had a double-digit lead going into the final frame, but an injured Huskies team still battled its way back.

Texas had the comfort of playing at home, and was able to contain Williams enough to make things close. She only had nine points on nine shots, 11 rebounds, and six assists. She did turn the ball over five times though, and UConn coughed it up 13 times as a unit. That’s why this game didn’t really end until the final ticks.

UConn wouldn’t have to see Notre Dame until the Final Four, and Texas until the championship game.

Well, the teams played against each other already, and South Carolina lost at home by 35 points in February.

Nurse, Samuelson, and Collier went off for 23, 20, and 19 points, respectively, and the Huskies’ defense even limited the Gamecocks to eight points in a quarter. A repeat isn’t looking likely for No. 2 seed USC if they have to face the Huskies in the Elite Eight, even with A’Ja Wilson, probably the best player in women’s basketball this year.

Mississippi State, Baylor, and Louisville.

The Bulldogs lost one game all year, and it was in the SEC tournament final. They’re 36-1, having returned four of the five starters that took them to the championship game a year ago. That includes Morgan William, whose fame rose to another level when her buzzer-beater knocked off the Huskies in last year’s tourney.

Mississippi State is elite. According to HerHoopStats, it has the third-best overall net rating behind Connecticut and Baylor.

Baylor’s net rating is still 15 points below UConn, but also with only one loss, they’re dang good. Kalani Brown is a 6’7 center who shattered the Bears’ single-season efficiency record last season, and is close to it again at 66.3 percent this year. She’s scoring 20 points on that crazy high efficiency, and grabbing 10 boards too! She’s nearly impossible to stop, and the Huskies will struggle to handle her size.

The Bears also shoot the second-highest field goal percentage as a whole (51.2 percent), and are 15th in three-point percentage. Baylor’s the real deal with a true center nobody can contain. There’s a reason they haven’t lost since November.

Louisville played UConn to an 11-point loss last month, but had no answer for Samuelson, who dropped 26 points on 17 shots. Still, the game was close by Huskies’ standards, and they crept back from a 24-6 opening quarter deficit.

UConn couldn’t contain ACC Player of Year Asia Durr, who scored 20 points, and if she’s able to go off again, Connecticut could be in trouble.

Besides the obvious fact that Connecticut is REALLY good, No. 1 seeds almost always win the tournament. In the last decade, eight top seeds have won it all, and the two upsets were No. 2 seeds.

I wouldn’t bet money against the Huskies — come on, I’m not that daring — but they might not have such an easy route to Columbus. They have competition.