The quest for perfection continues

The pressure to be perfect is real. Each day, the No. 1 women's basketball team deals with this fact: In order to win a national title, it has to continue being perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

Yet, for head coach Geno Auriemma, the record does not mean as much as winning the next game. As he said, the success in the regular season has set up just another opportunity to play once more.

That chance was also earned by the other teams - Louisville, Oklahoma and Stanford - that have made it to the Final Four.

"So, we try to keep it in those terms instead of, you know, what we're trying to accomplish big-picture wise or what it means cosmically," Auriemma said after Huskies' 84-63 win over Arizona State in the Sweet 16.

As an added bonus, the team just happened to win 37 straight games - all by at least 10 points.

Some on the outside call it arrogance. The team calls it confidence.

"You know, we're not shove it in your face," said small forward Kalana Greene. "But I think the way we play speaks for itself. You can mistake it for all you want, we're still winning games. And I think confidence is a whole different realm than arrogance. That confidence, you know, you need that."

"But at the same time, we're humble and we're level because we're never taking a possession off," she continued. "We don't look too far ahead in our future. The fact that we don't believe in losing helps us fight for our goal each time."

And the key for success? Chalk it up to chemistry, at least according to Auriemma, Greene and Maya Moore.

"[If] Tiffany Hayes shot the ball every single time down the floor that she was open, the happiest person on our team would be Renee Montgomery because she's convinced that whoever's open on our team should shoot it and that that's how we win," Auriemma said. "That we don't doubt anybody, you know, we don't have any questions about can so and so help us win the game. Can so and so be trusted? So what's made this team pretty special is they have tremendous amount of trust in each other, they believe in each other."

"I think last year, we were never in a position in practice sometimes we just gave up when adversity hit," Greene said. "We kind of gave up. This year, when we go through things, we bounce back. We don't panic. We stay calm, you know, take deep breaths and believe in each other. When things are going wrong in a game, we don't start bickering at each other. That's how we won games all year. The games don't start with us up 25, we have to start somewhere."

At the same time, the team acknowledged the media attention surrounding being perfect and where this season's squad stacks up against other great UConn teams from the past.

Tina Charles said she never grows tired of it, but added that she and her teammates try not to let it affect their games. Rather, she said, they need to take each game as it comes. Auriemma said he tries to keep the team level-headed.

And the players throughout the season have acknowledged the success of the coaching staff in making sure that happens. On-the-court, that has translated to each player knowing her responsibilities and being relentless in her effort.

"We don't seem to have a lot of peaks and valleys, you know?" Auriemma said. "We've pretty much stayed on the same plane. It's a pretty high plane, but we don't drop off that much. We've been able to hold on to what we have because there's no doubt among these guys up here that anything else is going to happen."

He added that Montgomery's leadership developed a team mentality of persistence and coming out on top as long as the Huskies do what is expected of them each game.

As for playing the perfect game, Greene said that though it may not be possible, striving for flawlessness starts with practice. Moore said that the pressure comes with the players themselves. It is the mindset that players need to have when they come to UConn, she said.

Battling out of a hole, she said, is what great teams do.

"To a certain extent, you want to come out and believe and strive for your perfect game, your best game," Moore said. "So whenever coach is getting on you about something, you know, there's a big game coming up, that's why you come to Connecticut, to play in those big games."

Perhaps it's incredible to some how the Huskies have managed to pull off this 37-0 streak this season: doing it with at most seven players in any given game.

Greene said that the additional stress of having such a short bench is not an issue because of the timing of Caroline Doty's ACL injury.

"It's not like all of it's being put on us at one time," she said. "We pretty much knew in the beginning of the season, especially after Caroline got hurt, that a lot of people have to step up, play a lot more minutes than they're used to playing."

Now, the Huskies are another step closer to 39-0, and more importantly in their eyes, a national title.

"I think everybody just wants it more," Greene said. "You can just tell, just the way preseason began. You know, everybody just has it in them that they know this team is special."