Dom Amore: For UConn women, another trophy for the collection, a first milepost on the longer journey

Somewhere on campus, dozens of these trophies are tucked away.

At least, thats what Geno Auriemma thinks, hopes.There were regular-season Big East trophies scattered all over Gampel Pavilion that I have no idea where they are, Auriemma said, after the UConn womens basketball team clinched the programs 31st regular-season title with a 72-53 win over Creighton.The first one, I know where that one is, the coach said.

But some of the others, it became, Now its about the tournament.

If you dont win the conference tournament, youre not the Big East champion.

Even that sometimes gets overshadowed.

I dont want it to happen where its diminished.

What happens on the outside, I cant control.

What I can control is that we appreciate it.UConn womens basketball clinches Big East regular-season championship in 72-53 victory over CreightonIts a flattering, yet in some ways a melancholy thing that dominating conference play has become so commonplace for the Huskies that nights like Thursday are considered matter-of-fact for all but those experiencing it for the first time.

Even freshman Sarah Strong, who scored 22 points to help nail this one down, was surprised, and delighted, that she got a T-shirt to mark the occasion.I thought it was like, after Mohegan, Strong said, referring the Big East Tournament next week.When Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey began in 1985, UConns goal was to escape the Big Easts basement.

That didnt take long.

By 1989, the Huskies rose to the top and stayed.For the next 20-plus years, UConn was the most successful team in one of the sports most formidable leagues.

Notre Dame, Rutgers, Louisville, Syracuse made it far more of a grind, even for some of the best UConn teams ever assembled.You cant dictate whos in your league, what the schedule is, Auriemma said, All you got to do is play the teams they put in front of you.

Did it have a certain aura to it when we were in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament and there were four of the top 10 teams in the country? Yeah.

I think its lost a little bit of that luster, that aura that it had.(Aura was apparently the players word of the night in the giddy postgame pressers.

That its the name of the coachs restaurant was probably, you know, a coincidence.)Geno Auriemma, left, and Chris Dailey, second from right, pose with the 1988-89 UConn womens basketball team, the first to win a Big East regular-season championship.

The group would go on to win their first conference tournament title as well.

(Courtesy of UConn)When the original Big East conference broke up in 2013, at which time Auriemma shouted out at the presidents for breaking up the greatest basketball league that ever existed, the regular-season challenges for the Huskies melted away.

UConn went undefeated in regular-season and conference play during its seven years in the American Athletic Conference, 136 in a row with one game within single digits.

With the move to the smaller, newly configured Big East in 2020, it has continued almost unabated.

During periods in which the team was shorthanded, due to injuries, it lost a game here or there, but this marks the 12th conference regular-season title in a row, with a record of, checking notes, 215-3.We were talking about it in the locker room, were trying to win three championships, Paige Bueckers said.

The first one is the Big East, so trying to prove throughout the whole, entire season that were the best team in the league regardless of who were playing is always something we want to strive for.

We want mini milestones, we want to check those off, and obviously there is the end goal at the end of the season, but to be able to celebrate this, being able to do it throughout the entire season, and be proud of it.Dom Amore: Geno Auriemma knew at first glance; Diana Taurasi had it allThe Huskies are 17-0 in conference play this season, with an average margin of victory of 33 points going into the last game Sunday against Marquette.

Second-place Creighton (15-2), despite beating everyone else, didnt come within single digits either time.

The Bluejays jumped out to an 8-0 lead Thursday, then UConn quickly caught up and blew past them.So the first mini milestone was accomplished with on-brand efficiency, but there is a downside.

There were, as distant as those days seem today, March Madness episodes where UConn didnt win the conference title, but, battle-hardened, went on to the win the national championship.The Huskies have not reached the final milestone since 2016, and the years of unchallenging conference play could be a factor as much as ever stronger coast-to-coast competition.

This season, UConn has lost three games to top-level teams out of conference, but put itself back in the middle of the championship conversation with its emphatic win at South Carolina Feb.

16.

Still, the latest NCAA bracket reveal has UConn (27-3) as a No.

2 seed.At the moment, Auriemma has the talent, depth and, more importantly, depth of talent, to effectively adjust to any opponent.

On Thursday, he went with his smaller, quicker lineup and harassed Creighton out of the game with pressure defense, getting 15 steals.

Coaches have determined things look better with Bueckers bringing the ball up court.

These are the ways Auriemma and his staff can fine tune for the formidable opponents that come deep in the NCAA Tournament, but its still hard to tell from conference play just how good, in any given year, a UConn team is.Dom Amore: Hassan Diarra soldiers through pain, puts UConn men back in attack modeThere were T-shirts, trophies, confetti, photo opportunities, all the things that come with winning a championship Thursday night at XL.

But soon enough this one, too, will be stashed away, just the first mile-marker on a much longer trek.

Pause to celebrate what it represents for just a moment.Its a different time, different era, there are different factors involved, Auriemma said.

But the one constant when you have longevity is to get the right kind of players, who can play at a high level and fit in here, want to play in this kind of environment, this style we play.

We havent varied from what we started with in 1985.

If you watched our first Big East championship team in 1989, those players didnt look like these players, but they had very similar characteristics..

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