National title or not, this UConn women’s basketball team has reinvigorated the program — and Geno Auriemma

For better or for worse, the success of any given UConn women’s basketball team tends to be measured by whether it wins a national title. Final Fours aren’t enough, as UConn’s recent three-year skid in the national semifinal showed. Anything less than that? Barely fathomable.

The 2020-21 Huskies will be judged externally as their predecessors were, but the depth of their postseason run shouldn’t be the only thing that defines them. Regardless what happens in March or April, UConn’s Big East tournament championship win Monday night made one thing abundantly clear: UConn’s newcomers have revitalized the program.

You could see that as the Huskies celebrated their championship, drenching freshman phenom Paige Bueckers, the Big East player of the year and Big East tournament’s most outstanding player, in water during her postgame TV interview. You could see that as the Huskies gathering in a circle, took turns dancing and ambushed coaches, program administrators and even Kathy Auriemma, the coach’s wife, with confetti showers. At one point, the juniors were making confetti angels on one side of the court while the freshmen piled on top of each for a photo on the other.

“The celebration that the kids had after they won,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said, “we won a lot of these. I don’t remember quite a spontaneous and joyful celebration like these kids had.”

Auriemma couldn’t contain his happiness about how far this team had come and that his young players could finally enjoy the fruits of their labor.

“I’ve never been more proud of any team, to be honest with you,” he said. “All these young kids and how much they’ve grown up over the course of four or five months, it’s really been refreshing to watch.

“These young kids that have come in and really they’ve reinvigorated everyone associated with our program. They are just really unique kids. And I’m really happy for them.”

Auriemma’s comments weren’t merely a product of a championship high. He told media in August that his six freshmen were “like a breath of fresh air.” Even as the team took time to find its identity, the Huskies regularly demonstrated a competitive edge that UConn hasn’t had for some time — a toughness set from the top (redshirt junior Evina Westbrook) down (freshmen Aaliyah Edwards and Nika Muhl) that helped compensate for their lack of senior players.

Despite having eight newcomers (including an early enrollee), the team developed a closeness, a “tremendous chemistry” as Auriemma put it, that transcends basketball and helped them push through the coronavirus pandemic-riddled year.

After the shortened 2019-20 season when the basketball didn’t come together until the end of February and off-court issues like Westbrook’s denied transfer waiver, Kobe Bryant’s death and COVID-19 caused disruptions — things were looking up in Storrs.

That’s not to say it’s been completely smooth sailing. Getting the on-court product to where Auriemma wants has been “challenging,” he said last week.

Some days the soon-to-be 67-year-old coach is awed by the mistakes they make on the court — he insisted Monday he’s seen this team miss more layups in five minutes than his teams had missed in the last 30 years — other times it’s their moxie.

When asked Friday how Bueckers ranks among his all-time great players, Auriemma said: ”I would say that of all the players that I’ve coached at UConn over the years, I would say Paige is in the top three all-time freshmen of guys who bitch about playing time, that no matter how many minutes she plays she’s not happy. And when I take her out, she has something to say all the time and complains every single time she comes out. And she does it in a way that I want to put her back in, but it just drives me crazy.”

On Monday, Bueckers had some more thoughts for Auriemma. “You know what [Bueckers] told me? She said, ‘I’m the best defensive player in the country.’ My players don’t talk to me like that. So they make me shake my head, you know?”

It’s not just Bueckers, either. Muhl tells Auriemma he’s her “slime,” a slang term for “buddy” — not that Auriemma has any idea what that means.

“Nika looks at me sometimes and I almost feel like, what are you looking at? I start worrying about me, like is there something wrong with me?” Auriemma said Monday. “These guys have my head spinning, all these freshmen.”

For all the banter, there’s an underlying appreciation of how those kids poke at him and back it up on the court with their hard work and fierce play. And for all the head-spinning, there’s finally clarity for someone who’s constantly learning how to evolve his coaching style and get the same results with younger generations of players.

As much as he may want to pull his hair out at times, no one has been reinvigorated by this freshmen influx more than Auriemma.

“I just stopped trying to figure out how to help them at things that I just can’t help them with. They’re going to be what they’re going to be, and I have to look at all the positives,” Auriemma said. “It’s made me change the way I coach. And for the better, I think.”

Winning a title this next month would add a 12th trophy to UConn’s trophy case, its first since Breanna Stewart’s departure. Regardless of whether they win it all or fall short, this team’s legacy will be in large part that they’ve given renewed life and meaning to what UConn basketball can be.

And, perhaps, most astonishingly, this is just the beginning.

Alexa Philippou can be reached at aphilippou@courant.com