UConn women's dominance only more impressive for the talent they've lost

The Huskies are undefeated despite losing the top three picks of the WNBA draft last year

Connecticut’s win streak continued Monday night, reaching 107 games with a 100-44 dismantling of a South Florida team that should easily make the NCAA Tournament field as an at-large entry when the field is announced next Monday.

The streak reached 842 calendar says thanks in large part to Katie Lou Samuelson, whose 10-for-10 shooting performance from three-point range set an NCAA women’s record for most makes without a miss, and whose 40 total points represented just the third time a Connecticut player has scored that many — joining program legends Maya Moore and Nykesha Sales.

That there haven’t been more individual performances like that reflects the breadth of talent that comes along with a streak like 107 straight, unprecedented for the men or the women, and part of an even longer period of dominance that precedes their last loss, to Stanford in November 2014. Prior to that, the Huskies had won 46 straight, so in their past 153 games, Connecticut is 152-1.

Consider that the current Huskies feature none of the top three players from last year’s team. Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck led the Huskies last year, and the WNBA rewarded them by selecting them with the first three picks in the 2016 draft.

So while Samuelson starred Monday night, it’s hard to argue that she’s Connecticut’s best player. She’s got a claim on the title, but so does Gabby Williams, who has managed the rare feat of leading her team in assist percentage while playing the post. She’s tied with Napheesa Collier in rebounding percentage, while Collier boasts a true shooting percentage of 73.9 percent, which also tops the entire country. And this doesn’t even include Kia Nurse, the team’s best perimeter defender and a creative scorer herself, nor Saniya Chong’s high-efficiency, low-turnover star turn at the point.

All of which is why Connecticut managed to lose three elite players this summer and return to win 32 straight, a continuation of the win streak that surprised even head coach Geno Auriemma.

“We just had something going on that’s kind of hard to capture,” Auriemma said Monday night, after the latest win. “We were able to capture it and hold onto it for a long, long time.”