Dance with who brung ya!

So the Paige-JuJu matchup won't happen....

Not exactly sure where the old saying, “You can only dance with who brung ya” came from but the wisdom it contains says, in essence, you can only deal with what’s in front of you. Not what might have been.

Watching the 1986 Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics, the best all-around NBA basketball team I ever saw, romp through the regular season, I could not wait for them to play Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers and teach them a lesson. Except the Lakers were upset in the semifinals by the Ralph Sampson-Hakeem Olajuwon Houston Rockets in five games! The Celtics defused the Rockets, won their title but it wasn’t what the world wanted to see. The Bird-Magic showdown was delayed.

As a fledgling boxing fan as a teenager collecting fight films, when I saw “Ring Classics” offered the great Joe Louis vs. Rocky Marciano, I couldn’t wait to get it. The matchup wasn’t what I hoped for. Louis was old, had a bald spot, not the fighter of old. Marciano, young and crude and strong, knocked the old guy out. That wasn’t the matchup I hoped for.

For those who have followed the ups and downs of UConn’s brilliant Paige Bueckers’ career and took a close look at the NCAA Women’s Basketball bracket, the matchup that seemed irresistible was between USC’s fabulously talented JuJu Watkins and Bueckers down the line. You couldn’t help but look ahead.

Surely, UConn going to get by Arkansas State - they squeaked past them 103-34. and last night were able to rout South Dakota State 91-57, Bueckers saying goodbye to Gambel Pavilion with a brilliant 34-point performance.

Paige Bueckers gets the high five from Azzi Fudd and Ashlynn Shade

But the matchup won’t happen. Not until the WNBA. Sadly, poor Juju Watkins went down in a heap last night, a torn ACL ending her season. The timing, of course, couldn’t have been worse, from the NCAA’s and maybe the network’s perspective. But Paige has been there, injuries fouling up her career, too. It’s a shame, of course.

As basketball fans, we love to see those top players go head-to-head. I still remember watching Magic Johnson’s Michigan State team play Larry Bird’s Indiana State in the NCAA title game, disappointed that Indiana State and Bird fell short. But knowing they had seasons ahead of them, competing in the NBA. And they did.

For Geno Auriemma and his UConn Huskies, they can be sure that they’ll have plenty of challenges ahead of them from here to the NCAA title game on April 6, starting with Oklahoma. Auriemma never lacks for ways to motivate his team but he could do worse than remind them of those 1986 Lakers, who might well have been thinking of a rematch with the Boston Celtics when the Rockets snuck in and sent them home early.

But should they be excited about their No. 12 title chances? For crying out loud, the way they’re playing, why not? For the first time in a long time, after the game, Geno was actually, momentarily, at a loss for words (somebody write down the time) when Rebecca Lobo asked him about the last time he could go to a deep bench and find all kinds of help and he was stumped trying to remember the time.

After a 2024 season where the scorer at the scorer’s table at UConn games always felt neglected, this time, he has reserves to spare, although calling them that isn’t really accurate.

K.K. Arnold, for example, would be better termed “an official nuisance” for the way she came tearing off the bench as if someone had stolen her lunch money and made life miserable for the ball handlers for South Dakota State, who weren’t used to such rude, pesky behavior.

When Azzi Fudd isn’t hitting her outside shots, unlike Saturday, Sarah Strong can — and will — pick up the slack. Or maybe the dagger-thrower Ashlynn Shade could throw in a few bombs. Or Kaitlyn Chen might stir things up. Or Ice Brady.

The point is, Auriemma now, for a change, has choices. He has his knights, his rooks, his bishops AND his queen (Bueckers) to screw with other teams. And maybe it’s me, maybe it’s Geno turning 71 in his 40th season, but defense, the UConn defense, is more annoying than spam calls. That was what turned last night’s game around and what may be the difference between this team getting all the way to April 6 or falling short.

You don’t know what lies ahead. There’s Texas, there’s the blue-sequinned queen of LSU basketball Kim Mulkey’s team who dispatched our Florida State women last night in a ridiculous second half (it was a one-point game at intermission!) and of course, South Carolina, who has probably watched that UConn rout earlier in the year so many times, even Dawn Staley would prefer to watch “Naked and Afraid” instead.

As we know and have learned over the years, you can only play who they put in front of you. And if you wanna win a championship, there’s just one thing you have to do. Beat ‘em all. Juju or no Juju, the Huskies still have a lot of work to do and Geno now can show off his coaching experience, he has choices. Lots of ‘em. Let’s see if he makes the right ones.