UConn's 87-53 victory over Cincinnati in the American Athletic Conference championship game on Monday sealed what was a perfect run in the league over the past seven seasons. The Huskies won every game they played against AAC competition, finishing with a 139-0 record. The school will rejoin the Big East for the 2020-21 season.
After the game, head coach Geno Auriemma reflected on what that meant to both him and the university.
"It means we didn't lose," Auriemma said. "We won them all. The object was to just play. The object was to keep doing what we were doing before. Don't change anything and see where that all takes us. It ended up being not that much different than what we were doing before [UConn joined the AAC]. The only difference is that there were six or seven top-15, top-20 teams back then. It was really hard. But anytime you're able to win a championship, it's quite an accomplishment.
But to be able to do it seven out of seven times, that's actually pretty cool."
After going 16-0 in regular-season conference play this year, the Huskies coasted to a conference tournament victory, winning their three games by an average of 36 points.
And though they've had seasons in which they dominated nearly every opponent from start to finish, this year's team did hit some relative bumps in the road in non-conference play, with losses to Baylor, South Carolina and Oregon, currently the top three teams in the AP Poll. UConn came into Monday's game ranked fifth.
"Every team is different," Auriemma said. "Some years it starts really, really good on Oct. 15 and it just gets better and better and you're on cruise control until March. This year, that wasn't the case. We had to work really, really hard. We had to overcome a lot things on the court, off the court, whatever the case may be. That's the reality of it. So for us to be in the exact same spot as last year's team, that's pretty good. Nobody's going to remember how you got here. We won, and that's all that matters."
