If you've read "The Martian" or seen the movie, you marveled at how fictional astronaut Mark Watney, alone and presumed dead on the Red Planet, ingeniously works to survive in the hope of rescue. A kind of MacGyver in space, he figures out solutions to every problem he encounters, and suffice to say, there are plenty of them.
We won't tell you how it ends. But keep that theme -- finding an answer to any and every question -- in mind when we look at No. 1 UConn as the Huskies head into conference play and the stretch run toward what they hope is another championship.
Spoiler alert: Barring unforeseen calamity, UConn will win the 2016 NCAA women's basketball title. Gee, no kidding, you may say. But I'm not "announcing" this to be snarky, or to somehow jinx the Huskies. And it's certainly not what you'd call expert analysis. It's just observing the obvious.
The thing is, both the people who follow women's basketball and those who don't follow it expect the Huskies to take the title again in the spring. But they think it for different reasons.
Those who don't follow the sport assume it's because nobody except UConn is any good. Those who do follow know that there are several good teams. In fact, it would be one heck of a wide-open NCAA tournament if UConn were sitting it out. Actually, it still will be an exciting and difficult-to-predict Big Dance ... except in regard to who is left standing at the end.
Many good teams have, so far, proven unable to topple the Breanna Stewart- and Moriah Jefferson-led Huskies, whose last loss came in November 2014 at Stanford.
This season, ranked teams Ohio State, DePaul, Notre Dame, Florida State and Maryland have fallen to the Huskies (most recently the No. 6 Terps on Monday at the Maggie Dixon Classic in New York, 83-73). The Buckeyes were overwhelmed and never made it a game; the other teams all pushed the Huskies to varying degrees.
That was especially the case for Notre Dame and Maryland, although both ended up losing by 10 points. It's probably not coincidental that the Irish and the Terps also were Final Four teams last season, played UConn in Tampa and have come back strong again this season despite personnel losses. Both Notre Dame and Maryland believed they could win against UConn, and that's half the battle. But not all of it.
Notre Dame is relying heavily on its guards. Center Brianna Turner -- who missed the Dec. 5 UConn game -- is playing now despite shoulder issues, while forward Taya Reimer has left the team, at least for the rest of this season, for personal reasons. Led by its perimeter players, the Irish still shot nearly 50 percent from the field and were able to stay close on the boards with the Huskies.
Maryland, which has more size to throw at UConn and is always one of the nation's best teams on the boards, got 24 points from forward Brionna Jones on Monday and out-rebounded the Huskies 36-35. The Terps shot 47.7 percent from the field. And you can imagine how that game at Madison Square Garden might have been even tighter if Maryland could have cut down on its 22 turnovers.
But was the Terps' ability to keep it close really an indication that UConn is not the cinch that most believe it is for title No. 11 in April in Indianapolis?
"There's still some things that we need to figure out." UConn coach Geno Auriemma
Actually, it might be just the opposite, which I admit almost nobody really wants to hear. But the fact is that the Huskies still won at a neutral site in a game where Stewart was returning after an ankle injury (she had 23 points) and despite the Terps playing fearlessly. That may be an even stronger indicator that UConn isn't going to fall short of the finish line in 2016.
"There's still some things that we need to figure out," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said Monday. "And it's games like this that help us do that."
Like Watney's ingenious potato-growing and duct-tape engineering, the Huskies always find answers to every problem. You could say the analogy is flawed because the Huskies don't really face much peril. But the point is that no matter what they need to do to win, they do it.
Sometimes, that's about making in-game adjustments. So what about when a confident freshman like Notre Dame's Marina Mabrey starts lighting up the Huskies offensively, as she did earlier this month? Jefferson becomes a highly effective defensive shadow in the second half.
What about when the Huskies needed a dagger to close out Maryland? Would you believe a 3-pointer from reserve guard Saniya Chong -- who also is dealing with injury and whose playing status was a game-time decision -- with under a minute left? Of course you'd believe it, because even a Huskies player who saw just 10 minutes of action and took two shots would make both of them, one at crunch time.
Then there's the kind of underrated skill of being able to stay engaged and focused no matter the quality of the opponent. There is no letup from UConn. If there were a chance of complacency setting in, it would be during American Athletic Conference season, which begins Wednesday at Cincinnati. But it really just doesn't happen.
In the Huskies' previous runs toward perfection -- which they're trying to do for the sixth time -- you could at least envision a few plausible scenarios in which they potentially could be upset.
Stuff like: What if multiple Huskies get in serious foul trouble? (They almost never do.) What if there are injuries? (UConn has proven able to overcome those.) What if an opponent is able to push the game to the final minute and still be in striking distance? Might the Huskies panic? (Not likely; see Chong's 3-pointer.)
UConn has one more nonconference game remaining, Feb. 8 at No. 2 South Carolina. That's probably the biggest threat to the Huskies finishing the regular season unbeaten. Although No. 20 South Florida, which faces UConn twice in conference play, hopes it can be a giant-slayer.
Despite what it may seem, none of this is meant to discourage any UConn foes. To the contrary, if it fires them up, ticks them off, and makes them extra-determined to pull an upset, that's good for the sport.
It's also notable to look at several other teams that are trying to make an impact this season -- including still-undefeated South Carolina, Baylor, Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Southern Cal, and Oregon -- and realize that they are all on their own journeys to maximize their potential.
Conference play is about to get underway all across the country, and that's going to be great fun to watch. We're not saying UConn is the only story. But the Huskies winning the title is the way the overall story will end ... unless some team presents them a problem that they can't solve.