UConn crushes Irish in second half for 9th NCAA title

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Connecticut women's basketball team follows the script from a movie epic.

They are the Empire, with Darth Vader as coach.

Except the Huskies have rewritten the ending so it makes winners of the side for which the rest of the nation has adopted a mantra as simple as ABC.

Anyone But Connecticut.

'It's something you get used to and you definitely embrace because we know no one wants to see us win, so we're going to win anyway,' UConn senior center Stefanie Dolson said.

That applies even when its opponent in the NCAA title game is an equally polarizing school, Notre Dame, as it is in Tuesday night's unprecedented matchup of unbeatens at Bridgestone Arena.

A victory means Mr. Vader, coach Geno Auriemma, is undisputed leader of the women's basketball galaxy. It would be the Huskies' record ninth NCAA title, breaking a tie for that distinction with former Tennessee coach Pat Summitt.

The defending champion Huskies also won in 1995, 2000, 2002 through 2004, and 2009-10. Four of those previous teams also went undefeated.

Auriemma, 60, insisted he long ago reached the point where winning titles no longer was about him at all and completely about having his players experience the triumph.

'Ever since maybe the second or third one, it's just like, `Yeah, it's great, but it's not going to change my life,'' Auriemma said. 'At one time, I did want to win championships because it was going to change my life because I thought I wasn't getting paid enough. But now that I am, I don't care.'

Notre Dame (37-0), NCAA champion in 2001, was trying to become the first to defeat UConn (39-0) in the title game. The Irish beat them in the 2001, 2011 and 2012 semifinals but lost in that round last year.

'I think a lot of people go in playing UConn, they see their jerseys, and they've already lost,' Irish senior Kayla McBride said. 'I don't think they are like that. I think we have a certain swag to us.'

This was the fourth straight Final Four appearance for Notre Dame, the seventh straight for Connecticut.

It would not be a surprise to find both teams back in the Final Four next year, even if both lose two key players: McBride and Natalie Achonwa of the Irish, Dolson and Bria Hartley of the Huskies. In the past five years, both have had a stockpile of talent.

'You know which teams are going to win pretty much all the time,' Auriemma said. 'There's a reason for that. All our players stay pretty much four years.'