UConn one win away from perfect season

April 7, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

The Huskies play Big East rival Louisville in the women’s title game tonight.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Even though his team has been mowing down every team in its way, Geno Auriemma wants you to believe UConn could lose the national championship.

To a team it’s beaten twice — by 28 and 39 points.

“It’s way too much familiarity for both teams,” the Hall of Fame coach said. “A lot more than you’d like to have this time of year.”

Auriemma insists he has reason to worry about tonight’s title game against Louisville. He’s seen a big difference in the Cardinals from the team UConn dismantled in the Big East championship a month ago.

“What we did in the second game, I don’t think it has any effect on today,” he said. “Different environment. Different day. Different attitudes among the players.”

UConn (38-0) stands on the doorstep of the third undefeated season in school history and just the fifth ever in women’s basketball.

Louisville (34-4), which is looking to become the fourth team to knock off three No. 1 seeds on its way to a title, will have to have a new game plan against Connecticut. Second-year coach Jeff Walz was hard-pressed to find a weakness with the Huskies last time out.

“I think I saw their manager drop a bottle of water,” he said laughing. “That’s the scary thing about them. They’ve got three of the top 10 players in the country. Then you’ve got Tiffany Hayes who’s shooting the ball extremely well. We’re going to have to try and control the tempo of the game.”

Walz knows that his team can ill-afford a similar start to the semifinal game when they missed their first 13 shots before rallying to beat Oklahoma.

“If we come out and play the first five minutes the same way tomorrow night, instead of losing 11-0, it’s 25-0.”

The Cardinals feel no pressure, though, and Walz likens his undersized, overachieving team to the lovable Bad News Bears.

“We might not have been the most talented team on the floor the last few games. We’ve been the tougher team and the team with more heart,” he said. “We have a group of players here that are buying into a system and buying into a role.”

Like the fictional Bears, the Cardinals relish the role of being the underdog.

Louisville players want the media “to keep saying the other team’s going to win,” star Angel McCoughtry said. “I hope they wish Connecticut wins tomorrow. That’s what we’ve been thriving off of, so we don’t want that to change.”