After their 39-0 championship season last year, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team brought back most of the team and kept alive the full-steam dominance. Their 32nd win tonight against Notre Dame let UConn set a new record for consecutive victories with 71. Like a clumsy vinyl collector, they broke their own record for a winning streak when they couldn't be stopped 70 times in a row between 2001 and 2003 during the Diana Taurasi era.
Usually with long streaks, one needs to happen upon a spot of good fortune (behind every perfect game is a great defensive play), but check this out: their "closest" game in this streak? 10 points. That was their "nailbiter." Of their 71 wins, 54 were won by at least 20 points. Their average margin of victory was 32.5. Against 22 different ranked teams, they still won by an average of 25.5 points. These are all ridiculous numbers that could be better explained if I had libelously concocted them. (Once they won by a jillion and a half points!)
They are fallible, though — they only notched 25 points against Notre Dame in the first half, which was their lowest halftime score during their winning streak. As a result, they "only" won by 15. How many can they win in a row? 80, 90, 100? If they repeat as champions, they will have seven more games this season before four seniors graduate, notably starters Tina Charles and Kalana Greene. But this is the one team that reloads so well, they might keep winning until record players come back in style.
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