UConn Wins 100th Consecutive Game

A scenario in which the Connecticut women's basketball team loses a game does exist, somewhere in the hazy world of the hypothetical future. In this world, though, they just keep on doing what they do. Their wnning streak reached 100 consecutive games Monday night with a 66-55 victory over South Carolina. It was a tough game against a powerful adversary that entered the game with a 21-2 record, but in the most basic sense it was just like the 99 victories that came before. That scenario in which the Huskies lose would have circumstances that look a lot like last night's, but when it comes to writing the ending we are still in the realm of speculative fiction.

These Huskies are not deep, so any injuries or uncharacteristic struggles create potentially insoluble problems for Connecticut. And Monday night, they faced both of these issues: leading scorer Katie Lou Samuelson missed all seven of her first-half shots, while guard Kia Nurse headed to the locker room in the second quarter to get treatment on a tender ankle.

Add in a remarkable first half from South Carolina's best player, A'ja Wilson, along with threes from three separate perimeter scorers, and it wasn't any wonder that the Huskies looked vulnerable. Yet, for all of those factors going against them, a quieter-than-expected sold-out Gampel Pavilion saw the Gamecocks lead… 29-28 late in the first half.

All that had to go right just for the challengers to hold the slimmest of leads.

"They are opportunistic," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said following the game. "They wait for you to make the mistakes and don't foul a whole lot…You have to execute it for 40 minutes. If you don't they'll make you pay."

And so they did. Connecticut's 7-0 run gave them a lead they would never relinquish. The Huskies managed to hold Wilson without a field goal for most of the second half. Worn down, the perimeter shots stopped falling for the Gamecocks. Even with a compromised team, Gabby Williams and Napheesa Collier stepped forward to more than bridge the gap for UConn.

There's never really been a women's player like Williams—she's 5'11", but capable of guarding posts given her athleticism, an elite rebounder who also happens to lead the Huskies in assists. And Collier's efficiency, with a true shooting percentage now up over 70 percent, is impossible to stop.

So a different, more concerning reality appears to have presented itself to those hoping to end the Connecticut streak: while the group only goes seven deep (and the seventh, traditional post Natalie Butler, played just seven minutes Monday night), the fact that everyone in the Huskies rotation is capable of doing so many things on both ends of the floor makes stopping them impossible, no matter what plan opposing coaches employ.

This is likely as beatable as they'll be for a while. Of the seven Huskies who play, only guard Saniya Chong is a senior. The remaining players should get even better—no one regresses playing for Geno Auriemma. Transfer Azura Stevens is eligible in the fall, and ESPN's Doris Burke believes she may be the best player in the country next year. Nor is she the only reinforcement. Megan Walker, a 6'1" wing and best senior in the country, per ESPN, is heading to Connecticut. So are guards Mikayla Coombs and Andra Espinoza-Hunter, along with wing Lexi Gordon. That's four of the top 37 players in the freshman class.

So for teams that have played Connecticut close—a Baylor group that offers interior challenges, a South Carolina team that is certain to relish another shot at the Huskies on a neutral floor, a Florida State team that nearly upset Connecticut back in November, and a Maryland squad that looms as the biggest threat of all—there's an added incentive to seal the deal. March and April aren't just circled on the calendar because the team that finally beats the Huskies will experience a program-changing moment no less significant than when Digger Phelps's Notre Dame upset Bill Walton's UCLA.

It's because if it doesn't happen this year, we may not see it happen again for a long, long time.