If the UConn women, currently 21-0 and seemingly unbeatable — they’ve beaten #2 Stanford by 12 points (in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated), #3 Notre Dame by 24 points, #7 Duke by 33 points, and #12 North Carolina by 41 points — keep winning, they’ll tie their own record for the longest winning streak in NCAA women’s basketball history (70 straight wins) in the Big East quarterfinals, and break it in the conference semis. When they cut down the nets in San Antonio, as national champions for the second straight season, they’ll be sitting on a 78-game winning streak.
More significantly, perhaps, they’ll be in position to shatter the all-time college basketball record, men’s or women’s, of 88 straight wins — held (of course) by the UCLA men’s team from 1971-1974, in John Wooden’s heyday — next season. (And with Maya Moore coming back for her senior year, who would dare bet against them?) The Huskies could tie UCLA’s record in their tenth game of 2010-11, and break it in their eleventh game.
Do the folks who do UConn’s scheduling realize this? I don’t mean to jinx anything, but it’d be great to see them play big-name opponents in those potentially historic games, like perhaps Stanford in game #10, and — dare to dream — a rebirth of the Tennessee series for game #11. Make it happen, Geno & Pat! (Or, failing that, how about an early conference tilt with Notre Dame for game #11? Imagine the hype as the Irish, whose men’s team broke that other 88-game streak, and whose football team ended Oklahoma’s record streak, try to stop UConn from notching consecutive win #89.)
P.S. On paper, at least, UConn’s remaining challenges this regular season would seem to be tomorrow’s game vs. #11 West Virginia, at #12 Oklahoma on February 15, and then the season-ending pair vs. #15 Georgetown on March 2 and — most notably of all — at #3 Notre Dame five days later, on March 7. They’re then likely to face two ranked teams in the Big East Tournament — some combination of the Mountaineers, Hoyas and Irish — and probably 3 or 4 ranked teams in the NCAAs. But until somebody proves they can actually play a competitive game for 40 minutes with UConn, let alone beat them, it seems reasonable to assume they’ll be 39-0, again, at season’s end.