Stewart drew the largest ovation from the CT fans when she came on the court and when they realized that the US starting five featured all former Huskies, they roared their approval.
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The crowd responded as the US breezed to an 83-43 victory.
Here are five takeaways from Friday’s action.
Auriemma had always seemed to shy away from playing all his UConn players at the same time during the 2012 London Olympics and the last two world championships. “We don’t get to play many home games as the USA national team and today felt like a home game”. That’s right, an all-UConn starting lineup.
There were actually six UConn products who started as current Husky guard Kia Nurse started for Canada.
Oh, and the coach making the decision on the American lineup tonight?
Auriemma gave those same fans an opportunity to cheer on their former UConn greats early on, starting the five of them. Unsurprisingly, the players enjoyed it as well.
Said Moore: “It’s a special moment. That moment of Stewie being young, Diana/Sue being older, me and Tina kind of in the middle, it is really rewarding”.
The latest Huskie to arrive on the National Team scene, Breanna Stewart, agreed. “It was really cool and really cool for the fans”. “That is the way I tried to make it from the time I started with this job”. And you heard the fans getting louder and louder and louder. “Coach obviously had his reasons for that but it was cool to see the reaction”.
The U.S. set the tone in the first quarter, limiting the Canadians to just six points in the first 10 minutes.
Team USA women’s basketball continued its impressive run through pre-Olympic warmup games, beating Canada 83-43.
“Fortunately, they’re a lot of the same players that played”.
“Defensively, we were about as good as we can be given the short amount of work that we’ve done”, Auriemma said.
The team will be going for their sixth straight gold medal. But while the score was more favorable, the United States’ start was still disappointing. She was scoreless in 25 minutes, missing all three of her shots.
The U.S.is also out for a little bit of revenge. With the men and women playing in different arenas until the quarterfinal rounds, teams can play on consecutive days. These games are as much a game, but they’re more a practice session. There are steps along the way where we are going to continue to get better. After noting the numerous events and packed schedule the team has to deal with, he added, “Little by little, we get caught up”. So we haven’t changed a whole lot.
“When we get to Rio, the best five players for that situation will be on the floor regardless of where they come from”, Auriemma said.
The advantage athleticism brings is obvious on both ends, but tonight it was especially so on defense.
Take this play for example, as Diana Taurasi gets burnt on a backdoor cut. She went 0-for-3 from the field and did not register an assist.
There’s no high-flying block, but it’s still an elite display of athleticism. She turned the ball over twice and grabbed a rebound as well.
With dominant post players such as Tina Charles, Brittney Griner, and Sylvia Fowles, the U.S.is sure to have the advantage inside against almost every opponent.
A long three-pointer by Taurasi as the shot clock expired?
The only potential thorn for the U.S.is lack of training time. Of their 30 made field goals, only 4 came from behind the arc.
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Taurasi expects the US team to be in tough against Canada, which has built on the momentum that began with a quarter-final appearance in London and continued with last summer’s thrilling and historic gold at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. While loaded with offensive talent, the team is just not full of sharpshooters; only three players are shooting over 35 percent from beyond the arc in the WNBA this season. Twelve years later, it still means the same and you still get the feeling, like, these people love UConn, they love the game, they respect it so much. It didn’t matter tonight, and it won’t matter in Rio.
