Why UConn won't slow down after making history

It was, without a doubt, a performance meant to remind the world that UConn women's basketball is the most dominant of its era and one that will go down in history.

The Huskies swept through South Florida, beating the 21st-ranked team 102-37, to tie the record set by a previous UConn squad for the most consecutive wins in college basketball history at 90. They'll go for a new record on Saturday against SMU.

That's right. They beat a top 25 team by 65 points. By the start of the second quarter, they were ahead 30-6. At the end of the half, it was 65-18. And they didn't let up.

Geno Auriemma took a moment after the win to say how proud he was of his team.

"Forget the 90 wins," he said, according to the Hartford Courant. "Tonight was like a perfect example of what Connecticut basketball is. I wouldn't trade what we have for anybody in America."

But all season, he's been downplaying the win streak and keeping his team focused on one game at a time.

"Whether we win tomorrow against South Florida or we lose, we got work to do," Auriemma said b efore the game (via ESPNW). It's a statement that mirrors what he's been saying for most of the season.

When UConn beat Maryland in College Park - a game that was thought to be the best chance for the Huskies' streak to be broken - Auriemma was asked if he thought his team would ever lose a game.

He immediately ticked off all of the team's problems: Not having a deep bench, not being able to match up easily in any situation, not being able to adapt.

"Come watch film, I'll show you why we should lose games and why I think we're going to lose," he said at the time. "You saw what happened (tonight): All we need is one of those kids to foul out earlier … we're one thing away. I'm sure most teams are."

Why?

Well for one thing, any coach in America will tell you it's a bad idea to look past any game.

But here's another simple explanation: In 2010, the Huskies set the record that the current team tied on Tuesday, before their then-historic win streak was broken by Stanford that December. Four months later, both UConn and Stanford found themselves watching the championship game from the sidelines after being upset by Texas A&M and Notre Dame in the Final Four. And that UConn team had Maya Moore, who in that season was a senior and would go onto win her third Wade Trophy as the nation's top player.

Don't let Auriemma's worries fool anyone. This is a very very good basketball team. It would be very surprising if this team didn't win the title. And the way they played on Tuesday night was more than a record - it was a statement. And he without a doubt was proud. Via the Hartford Courant:

"Any time you do something that's never been done before and you do something that's going to be in the history books, then you feel like very, very few people have ever been in this situation," Auriemma said. "And who knows if anybody will be in this situation again. I don't know. For us to be in this moment twice. … It's hard to describe."

It's unlikely that the Huskies will lose when they play SMU on Saturday (though maybe I just gave them bad luck). And that will mean they will set a new record, one that's unlikely to be broken - at least for a few years.

But Auriemma's been here before. And he's right. It's possible for a group of teenagers and 20-somethings to have a bad night and lose a basketball game, especially with the stakes at their highest. So to watch the Huskies come out in a game that no one expected them to lose and put on a dominating and nearly flawless performance was exactly what Auriemma ordered.

But it doesn't mean that he's laying back and celebrating now.

After losing to Notre Dame in the Final Four in 2011, a tearful Moore was asked about the winning streak that put her team in the history books.

"The bigger and bigger it gets, the more people want to take you down," she said. "It's incredible I've been able to be part of a team that realized that, worked hard and did everything it could to make sure that we could maintain what we had. I think that's one of the reasons why that record will be hard to touch."

It took only six years to touch it (though you could argue Moore impacted the current streak too).

And that's why Auriemma knows that whatever the feeling the team has now won't be as good as a win streak and a title.