INDIANAPOLIS — Geno Auriemma answered the questions.
His players, too.
The debate over Connecticut’s dominance and subsequent impact on the women’s game is the theme of the Final Four. But it reaches beyond the three-time defending champions.
When this topic was directed at Washington coach Mike Neighbors, he had an interesting perspective.
“It’s been great for the game,” he said. “It’s raised everybody’s level up to where we have what we have this year — three new people in the Final Four because we’ve all been able to use their success as a little part of the formula to get there.”
Despite what outsiders think, those directly affected by UConn — its opponents — say the program has inspired them.
Oregon State coach Scott Rueck has been eyeing UConn for years. From the time he coached at George Fox University in Newberg, Ore. — he was an assistant from 1993-96 and head coach from 1996-2010 — to the last five years in Corvallis, he knew the Huskies were the standard and has used them as an example.
“I think one of my favorite statistical web pages is the NCAA site that has the rankings of every statistical category for each team,” Rueck said. “It ranks you in every category. And so we don’t get a lot of steals, we’re like 300th in steals out of 344 teams. And yet we’re first in defensive field goal percentage and I think fourth maybe in points against or something like that. And I’ve used that forever. I would look at Division III back in the day and I’d look at Division I.
“I’m like, OK, Connecticut is the first in all of these. They’re the best team in basketball. And I wanted to be the best team in Division III at the time. And where are our weaknesses? We’ve got to get better in these categories.
“So that’s been the bar that they’ve set.”
UConn is No. 1 in nine of 32 statistical categories -- more than any other team -- including scoring margin at 40.3 points a game.
Neighbors is in his fourth year at Washington. After finishing fifth in the Pac-12, he led his improbable No. 7 seeded team to wins over No. 2 Maryland, No. 3 Kentucky in Lexington, and No. 4 Stanford on the way to its first Final Four.
“What we use (UConn) for is how hard they work,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to watch them practice a couple times, and it is absolutely incredible how much (Auriemma) gets out of that team and his staff get out of that team on a daily basis. Their attention to detail, their singular focus on what’s important now.
“And we brought that back to our team. Our win motto is, ‘What’s important now,” and it’s been a huge part of what we do, trying to win the next thing. And I think when he — their culture just oozes hard work. .... they police each other. They don’t have to as coaches say anything. Those players are doing it. And if you walk into that program with anything less than your absolute best effort, it’s a problem.
“And that’s a great thing. That’s what we’re starting to get in our program. And now with this next class coming in, we will have that. Now, obviously getting the talent there with that is what he and they have done over the period of time. And when you’ve got some of the most talented kids working their hardest, they’re pretty unbeatable.”
Rueck’s team gets a shot at UConn on Sunday night, and he’ll be able to see how far Oregon State still has to go to catch them, NCAA stats aside. But no matter the outcome, it won’t change his mind about the Huskies being the blueprint.
“I mean, who doesn’t want to do what they’re doing?” Rueck said. “We’re all striving for that. I think parity could happen as we grow. And I think that’s what this tournament this year is showing. I think there’s a lot of programs and a lot of coaches that are striving to achieve what they’ve accomplished over this stretch.
“I know I’m one of them.”
