The young UConn women's basketball team spent months exceeding expectations and distinguishing itself as the best team in the country.
Now, the Huskies have three weekends to prove it again. The NCAA Tournament begins this weekend and UConn's road to fifth consecutive national title starts at Gampel Pavilion.
The first opponent for the overall No. 1 Huskies: Albany, the 16th seed in the Bridgeport Regional. Albany secured a tournament bid by winning the America East title for the sixth consecutive year.
The Huskies (32-0) and Great Danes (21-11) will meet Saturday. UConn enters the tournament unbeaten for the eighth time in program history.
The other first-round game in Storrs on Saturday pits No. 8 Syracuse (21-10) against No. 9 Iowa State (18-12). Syracuse, a former Big East foe, lost to UConn in the national title game last year.
UConn will move to the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Conn., with two wins this weekend. The Bridgeport Regional includes No. 2 seed Duke (27-5), No. 3 Maryland (30-2) and No, 4 UCLA (23-8).
Albany has been a dominant program in America East, as former coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson built a perennial tournament team in recent years. Abrahamson-Henderson left for UCF after last season, but the Great Danes are back in the tournament under first-year coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee.
Albany qualified with a 66-50 win over Maine in the conference title game. Albany has won six in a row and 12 of 13 after losing three of four in January, but the Danes finished second to New Hampshire in the regular season standings.
Maine, though, beat New Hampshire in the conference tournament semifinals and second-seed Albany earned another NCAA berth with the win in the title game.
Senior guard Imani Tate (19.1 points) is Albany's leading scorer and scored 21 points against Maine, She has 1,743 career points, and averaged 4.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists this season.
Jessica Fequiere, a 5-foot-11 junior from Montreal, is averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds.
Bernabei-McNamee came to Albany from NAIA Pikeville (Ky.), where she won 63 games over three years. Before that, she spent one season as an assistant at West Virginia and four years as an assistant at Maryland under Brenda Frese.
Syracuse is coming off a 68-46 loss to Duke in the ACC tournament. The Orange are led by guard Alexis Peterson (23.3 points), a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award for the top point guard in the country.
The biggest surprise in the Bridgeport bracket? Maryland, ranked fourth in the Associated Press poll, landing as a No. 3 seed. The Terps' only losses came to UConn and No. 11 Ohio State in the Big Ten, but the selection committee punished Frese's team for its nonconference schedule.
UConn won 87-81 at Maryland on Dec. 29.
"At this point, (the seeding) really doesn't matter," Frese said on ESPN. "You put your head down and you're given the bracket that you have. And for us, it's the next opportunity. This is what we've been working so hard for in our season, is to be the most prepared team coming into tournament play."
