Geno Auriemma seemed both amused and bemused.
The legendary Connecticut women’s basketball coach described himself as “shocked” after ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt jokingly referred to the Huskies as “pesky underdogs” following their 78-64 victory over USC on Monday night.
With the victory, Auriemma and UConn advanced to the Final Four of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament for the 24th time since 1991 and the 21st time in the last 22 years in which the tournament was held (it was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19). The Huskies, who will face UCLA on Friday in a national semifinal, have won the NCAA title 11 times, most recently in 2016.
Van Pelt knew all that when he made what was clearly a tongue-in-cheek reference to Connecticut being the only remaining team that didn’t enter the tournament as a No. 1 seed.
Still, Auriemma seemed to be caught a bit off guard by the SportsCenter anchor’s comment during a postgame interview that took place with him on the court in Spokane, Wash., and Van Pelt in a Washington, D.C., studio.
“I was just calling you guys the ‘pesky underdogs,’ the only two seed,” Van Pelt said to start the interview. “Twenty-four of these, man, you’ve done it so often. What do you appreciate most about this team and this journey you’re on?”
Auremma paused and chuckled slightly.
“Well, you know, um, we’ve been, um,” the coach said before chuckling a bit more. “I’m still shocked at the word ‘underdogs’ and UConn coming out of your mouth at the same time.”
Van Pelt answered: “I’m joking, Geno, I’m joking. You know me better than that.”
“I know you are,” Auriemma said. “I just don’t hear that [very often], you know? It’s just funny.”
It’s difficult to imagine a world where Auriemma, the winningest coach in all of college basketball, and UConn are truly considered underdogs. UCLA might be the top-seeded team in the entire tournament, but DraftKings and FanDuel each have the Huskies as 8½-point favorites over the Bruins in the teams’ Final Four matchup.
Both sites also have Connecticut as the favorite to win the national title (-165 odds on FanDuel, -150 on DraftKings), beating either Texas or South Carolina in the final.
The Huskies finished the regular season at 35-3 and 18-0 in the Big East, then won their conference tournament and claimed the No. 2 seed in the Spokane 4 regional.
The top-seeded Trojans lost one of the nation’s top players, JuJu Watkins, to a torn ACL in the second round. USC was able to overcome Kansas State in the Sweet 16 but was met with such headlines as The Times’ ”Here is what USC needs to do to upset UConn, reach the Final Four” going into their matchup against the Huskies.
And for the second straight year, the Trojans were outmatched by Paige Bueckers and UConn in the Elite Eight.
“Today was a real challenge, playing against a team that was obviously missing a great, great, great, great player, JuJu,” Auriemma told Van Pelt. “It’s just a Connecticut thing, I hope, that when we get in these situations, we know how to win. And I’m really proud of that.”
