STORRS, Conn. -- Coach Geno Auriemma has one question for people who are picking his UConn Huskies as preseason No. 1: What the heck are you thinking?
Sure, the Huskies have won the past four NCAA titles and are currently on another epic winning streak at 75 in a row. But with Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck all in the WNBA, the Huskies quite obviously are not the same group that went 38-0 last year and won by an average of 40 points.
"I never said, 'Well, I think a lot of teams have a chance to win the national championship, and we're just one of them,'" Auriemma said of his preseason stance for the past few years. "We knew we were favorites, and we knew why. But now, anyone that picks us No. 1, my first question is 'Why? Give me your rationale.'
"'Well, you've always been No. 1.' OK, that's a lazy answer."
Uh-huh, it's always something with this guy, the master motivator. The Huskies were No. 1 in the WBCA poll and in the espnW preseason poll. They were No. 3 in the Associated Press rankings, getting six votes at the top, behind Notre Dame and Baylor.
"I wish we were 33," Auriemma said.
As if. But if he wants to hear why some of us are voting UConn No. 1, it's not out of laziness. It's out of experience. As the saying goes, we've seen this movie before.
UConn won three NCAA titles in 2002-04, and then Diana Taurasi went to the WNBA. After that, admittedly, came three years of falling short of the Final Four. But those were still very good UConn teams.
In 2004-05, the Huskies went 25-8 and lost to Candice Wiggins and Stanford in the Sweet 16. The next year, UConn was 32-5 and fell to Monique Currie-led Duke in the Elite Eight. Then in 2006-07, the Huskies were 32-4 and lost in the regional final again, this time to Sylvia Fowles and LSU.
That 2007 season was the last time the Huskies didn't reach the Final Four. Even in 2012 -- a year after losing Maya Moore and two years after the graduation of Tina Charles, a duo that had led the way in UConn's 90-game winning streak of 2008-10 -- the Huskies still got to the national semis.
And from 2013-16, they were NCAA champions again. So why are we picking UConn No. 1? Because even without the obvious star right now, the Huskies still have some very talented players and a coaching staff that has more championship experience than you can find almost anywhere in any sport.
What the Huskies don't have are all the answers. Who is their emotional leader? Who is the player who gets on everybody's case when it's necessary? Who can keep everyone calm? Who will stand tall when they face on-court challenges? Because, unlike recent years when that virtually never happened, it probably will this season.
And that includes during their first two games: at No. 12 Florida State on Nov. 14, and at home against No. 2 Baylor on Nov. 17.
"You can't force leadership on people," said Kia Nurse, one of the most obvious candidates for that role. "What happens is the upperclassmen all step up together, and we develop our own leadership traits. We have to figure out how to work together, and make sure that's a presence all the younger guys hear every day."
It actually isn't just older players like Nurse, who averaged 9.3 points per game, and fellow junior guard Gabby Williams (8.8) in that role, though -- sophomores Katie Lou Samuelson (11.0) and Napheesa Collier (6.8) need to do it, too.
"We're trying to do the things we learned from the seniors last year," Samuelson said. "All four of us know we have to be really solid every single day we practice or play. We're going to be the ones that disperse the energy throughout the team.
"All of us knew coming here we would eventually be in this situation. We were fortunate to learn from the three best leaders in the country, I would say. I think it's going to keep getting better."
The Huskies have three freshmen -- guards Molly Bent and Crystal Dangerfield and forward Kyla Irwin -- being immersed in UConn culture, along with transfers Azura Stevens (Duke) and Batouly Camara (Kentucky). Asked if she could pinpoint what leadership trait from last year's seniors that she most wanted to pass on now, Samuelson didn't hesitate.
"Just how much we all trusted them," she said. "Every single day we knew what we were going to get from them in practice. Stewie, Morgan and Mo were just consistently solid every day. We've been trying to be that same kind of core group to rely on."
Samuelson, who sustained a broken bone in her foot in the national semifinal game against Oregon State last April, had to watch the second half of that game and then the championship from the bench. She said she's now at 100 percent.
And some classic Auriemma sarcasm was directed her way after the Huskies' first exhibition game Tuesday, a 111-39 victory over Indiana of Pennsylvania, so you know she must be doing OK.
"I'm sure any day now, sometime within the next four or five months, Lou will throw a pass," Auriemma said. "And we'll have made some progress."
He also joked about whether some magical force had taken over the body of senior guard Saniya Chong because, "Right now, she's in a really good place. You got to remember, this kid was really, really good coming out of high school. It kind of got away from her. Hopefully she's got it back a little."
It might be fair to wonder if Chong perhaps was just swept along in the tide of greatness that dominated the Huskies. Maybe this season, finally, she -- along with everyone else on the team -- knows that they really can be difference-makers. In fact, they will have to be. Stewart, Jefferson and Tuck can't come to the rescue and take over.
Auriemma is intrigued by how his Huskies will deal with that realization.
"It's hard to know how some people will perform when there's no safety net," he said. "And until they've been in that situation, maybe they don't know. And it's our job to help guide them through it."