TAMPA, Fla. -- When you've won 908 games and nine NCAA titles, you don't have many towns that hold bad memories. But you could say Tampa is such a place for UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
Not in regard to Monday's game, of course, in which his Huskies finished off another undefeated American Athletic Conference season with an 88-65 victory over South Florida.
This was exactly the kind of game the Huskies wanted to start March: reasonably competitive by UConn-vs.-the-rest-of-the-world standards. South Florida is a talented squad and played the Huskies closer than any other league team has this season. Bulls guard Courtney Williams had 26 points and shot 50 percent from the field against a defense that usually specializes in deflating opposing stars.
South Florida -- a team that could make some noise in the NCAA tournament -- really did make UConn work for this victory, and that's exactly what Auriemma was hoping for. The Huskies starters, who for much of the conference schedule don't get to show their stuff for extended minutes because of Auriemma's sense of mercy, got to play a lot Monday. And they enjoyed it.
"I'm just trying to do as much as I can out there," said Breanna Stewart, who is clearly in March mode, right on time. She had a season-high 29 points, plus 11 rebounds, seven blocked shots and three assists. Auriemma, a master at finding flaws, had nothing but praise for Stewart.
"She was unbelievable tonight," he said.
In all, the Huskies shot 57.1 percent -- Morgan Tuck and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis were a combined 15-of-22 from the field -- and this is a team that looks to still be on the ascent, as terrifying as that might sound to everyone else.
But ... back to the bad memory. In 2008, when the Final Four was here in Tampa at what was then known as the St. Pete Times Forum, Auriemma had one of his very rare major disappointments. Stanford played just about a perfect game and defeated UConn 82-73 in the national semifinals.
That was Maya Moore's freshman season. Then she, Auriemma, and the Huskies had a staggeringly awesome answer to that loss: a 90-game winning streak that included the next two NCAA titles.
Still, that April night seven years ago might stick in Auriemma's craw a little, just because UConn is a program that measures itself against the standard of absolute perfection. With the Final Four here again in Tampa this season -- in the same building as '08 but now called Amalie Arena -- Auriemma has a chance to exorcise whatever wispy remains there might be of the ghost of that 2008 loss.
A month from now, UConn is expected to return to Tampa with NCAA title No. 10 in its sights. At this point, how many people think the Huskies won't be taking part in their eighth consecutive Final Four?
Still, Auriemma said that there wasn't any discussion on this trip about Tampa being the final-destination goal for this season, as that would have taken away from the task at hand.
"Nobody really mentioned it," he said. "We might talk about it when we get back home, but it wasn't something -- we try not to do that. We came down here to play South Florida. We knew the game we played at our place against them [a 92-50 win Jan. 18] wasn't really indicative of their team. We came to play these guys and take care of that. I don't want my players thinking ahead more than that."
However, Auriemma acknowledged that to some degree, every coach and player everywhere does look a little bit ahead -- it's human nature -- and Stewart agreed.
"We know where the Final Four is going to be," she said. "We know what we want to do as a team."
The Huskies go into the postseason 29-1. In November, they lost in overtime to Stanford in their second game of this season, but UConn has been making everyone practically forget that even happened ever since.
The Huskies now head back home to Connecticut, where they'll play in the American tournament at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville and then host the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament in Storrs.
They will almost certainly be assigned to the Albany Regional in New York, a little more than a two-hour drive from the Huskies' campus.
So it should be a pretty nice and cozy, feel-the-love-from-the-fans next couple of weeks for the Huskies. Which they will relish. Being in the American conference means some far-flung travel for UConn, not that it seems to have taken any toll.
"This has been a long season for us," Auriemma said. "Our first two games were in California, and we end in South Florida. And we've been everywhere in between, it seems like.
"Our players all got better; they all improved from the time we played on the West Coast 'til today. We're a much better team than we were. The players are excited about next weekend and what comes after that."