STORRS, Conn. _ It was 9:30 a.m. on the first day of the new year and new decade, and things are business as usual for the UConn women's basketball team at Werth Champions Center.
UConn, which started the 2010s as the No. 1 team in The Associated Press poll, enters the 2020s with that same distinction. In fact, 111 of the 244 weeks that UConn has been ranked No. 1 in program history came in the last decade alone.
Geno Auriemma was back on the practice court as well. The 11-time national title-winning coach spent the last two weeks of 2019 recovering from a Dec. 18 surgery to alleviate symptoms of diverticulitis. He resumed his head coaching duties when the team reconvened on Saturday following a short break for the holidays.
But UConn's first game of 2020 _ a matchup against Wichita State Thursday night at the XL Center _ will mark the beginning of the end. The Huskies now delve into the bulk of conference play in their seventh and final year in the American Athletic Conference before officially rejoining the Big East this summer.
"We've just got to keep pushing ourselves every single day," Kyla Irwin said. "I think that's definitely been a focus where we've got to keep going hard in practice. Having those days off, it's always nice for our bodies to relax and have a good time at home, but now it's business."
After a one-off early conference game against Temple in November (to accommodate this month's exhibition against the U.S. national team), the Huskies are 121-0 in the AAC, a perfect record they'll look to maintain over the next three months.
"We want to leave a big mark," Megan Walker said. "It just shows what kind of program that we're a part of, just to be in this conference, to dominate."
There is no better word than "dominate" to describe UConn's time in the AAC. The Huskies claimed the regular-season and conference tournament titles each of the last six seasons. Only one of their 121 games against American opponents was decided by single digits (UConn's 63-60 win over Tulane in February 2017). This year's conference opener at Temple _ the Huskies' third game of the season _ went smoothly, too, ending in an 83-54 blowout for UConn's most comfortable win up to that point.
"(We want to) definitely finish out like how we've been every year," Olivia Nelson-Ododa said.
UConn will have two AAC matchups (Thursday and Sunday at SMU) before its toughest test to date this season: No. 6 Baylor. The defending national champions come to town next week for UConn's second matchup this season against a ranked team.
Things will only get more difficult from there, as UConn has 11 games (including the exhibition against the U.S. national team) this month alone. The end of the month will feature a stretch of five games in 12 days.
"A lot of it is mentally just staying focused and knowing what we have to do," Irwin said, "and come into practice every single day with the mindset that we might be tired, we might be sore but we're here to do something."
The Huskies have a good jumping off point to work from after crushing Oklahoma, 97-53, on Dec. 22, their final game before break. Associate head coach Chris Dailey, who coached in place of Auriemma, called it the team's most complete outing of the season.
"I feel like we're in a good place right now," Walker said. "We just have to be consistent, come out with the same team as we did in the first half, in the second half as well."
That quest for consistency also applies to Walker individually. That hasn't been an issue so far (she has six 20-plus point games), but she knows she now has a target on her back.
"I have more pressure on me, more face-guarding, but I'm finding new ways to score, back-cutting a lot," Walker said. "Coach has emphasized that I have to cut and be a better screener, and I'll be open."
