UConn's toughest games are coming early. That's not ideal for March: Mike Anthony

HARTFORD - The UConn women's basketball team's non-conference schedule is unusually front-loaded this season.

No offense to the rest of the Big East, but it's safe to say the Huskies are unlikely to have a competitive game any time after Dec. 20, when they face LSU in Nashville.

This is not an ideal setup. You know what will happen. The Huskies - maybe with a loss or two, maybe with none - will come down the stretch undefeated in conference play and riding a winning streak well into the double-digits, cruise through three games in the Big East Tournament at Mohegan Sun and move deep into the NCAA Tournament needing to beat the type of teams it hasn't seen in months.

The type of team it faced on Monday in an exhibition at PeoplesBank Arena.

UConn, probably to be ranked No. 2 when the Associated Press poll is released on Tuesday, and Texas, certainly a top-10 team, were tied at halftime. The Huskies, behind Sarah Strong and freshman guard Jovana Popovic, pulled away in the third quarter and dominated the second half on the way to a 83-61 victory.

The play of Popovic was, once again, eye-opening. She finished with 22 points on 7-for-11 shooting, adding seven rebounds and five assists. Strong, last season's national player of the year, had 27 points on 12-for-21 shooting.

UConn looked good when it mattered, outscoring Texas 19-8 in the third quarter, and this was a healthy exercise on a couple fronts. The game brought in a lot of money at time when every college program needs to monetize everything it does, and it gave Geno Auriemma's team some experience against another with Final Four hopes. The final score painted a picture of an easy night on the job for UConn, but the Huskies had to gather themselves and respond to something in order to make it that way.  

One would hope the value of such games doesn't evaporate over the course of January, February and March.

There are plenty of good teams on the UConn schedule, as always. After finishing the preseason with an exhibition Sunday against Army at Gampel Pavilion, then opening the regular season Nov. 2 against Cornell in Hartford, the Huskies play Michigan Nov. 5 on the road, Iowa Nov. 8 in Storrs, Ohio State Nov. 8 on the road, Louisville Nov. 15 on the road, South Carolina Nov. 24 at Mohegan, Duke Nov. 28 in Boston, UNLV Dec. 2 in Storrs, Maryland Dec. 5 in Brooklyn, Notre Dame Dec. 9 on the road, Tennessee Dec. 12 in Hartford and LSU Dec. 20.

That is a loaded schedule. It is about as ambitious and creative as one can get with scheduling.

But usually, and ideally, a few of those fall on the schedule after New Year's. UConn will rely on the Big East to put up any sort of a fight over the final half of the season as it prepares for a run at Final Four No. 26 and national championship No. 13.

You should come down the stretch tested. It's too bad that UConn is unlikely to be. Villanova and Creighton are decent teams, sure, but on the whole UConn and the rest of the Big East are playing entirely different types of basketball.

Basically, UConn is squeezing into October, November and December all of what it would hope to experience pieces of in the January-on portion of a season. The Huskies beat Syracuse last week at Mohegan and emerged from a difficult game on Monday in Hartford.

With a potential first-team All-American (Blanca Quiñonez) and a key guard (Marine Dursus) still sidelined with injuries, it's impossible to look at UConn right now and know exactly what the team will be later - beyond knowing they'll be damn good. And, eventually, recently-untested. That could be a little dangerous.

So you appreciate experiences like Monday's even more. The uncomfortable ones. It's a heck of a lot better than seeing the Huskies beat a low-level team by 60.

Games against legitimate national programs are invaluable for new players like Popovic and freshman center Olivia Vukosa. Those players have to get used to the speed and physicality of college ball. They have learn that they're going to walk out of a lot of gyms with bruises and the like. They have to get used to facing brilliant players like Madison Booker, who had 23 points for Texas. They have to get used to games being close and games having to be won down the stretch, the heightened pressure of situations.

Monday gave UConn a taste of all that.

November will, too.

And December.

But not January, February or March.

You stockpile games like this, particular in this era, however and whenever you can.

This article originally published at UConn's toughest games are coming early. That's not ideal for March: Mike Anthony.