By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
            STORRS, Conn. – Looking up at the banners hanging in Gampel Pavilion – 11 national championships, a combined 57 conference titles and 14-straight Final Fours – a lot of visiting teams lose before the opening tip. 
            Seeded seventh and coming off a game when they rallied from 18 down to beat Alabama, 78-74, the Baylor Bears (20-12) will take on the "beast from the East" in Monday's NCAA Tournament second-round matchup against the second-seeded and sixth-ranked Huskies (30-5) on their home floor. 
            "I saw there's six perfect brackets left. I'm sure none of them have us beating UConn," said second-year Baylor head coach Nicki Collen. "What we have to do is prepare and believe, and then own the underdog role, because we have nothing to lose. It's going to be a packed house against a really good team that's expected to win. I haven't looked at the spread. I'm sure it's not close."
            It's hard to imagine the Bears being able to come back from an 18-point deficit against UConn the way they did in Saturday's first-round game against Alabama. Trailing 22-4 after the first period, they scored 74 points and hit 14-of-21 from 3-point range over the last three quarters in outscoring the Crimson Tide by 22 points.
            "The way they shot it (Saturday), they could probably beat anybody," said Hall of Fame UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who is 370-21 at Gampel and 1,268-317 overall. "This time of the year, prepare for everything and expect anything."
            Collen said the Bears have to carry the "momentum from how we played three quarters . . . but we've got to be better."
            "You can't spot UConn 10 points, let alone 18. We know that," she said. "That's no disrespect to Alabama because I thought they were fantastic. But this is UConn's home court. You certainly can't spot them points. We have to be ready from the beginning and really be focused on personnel, because in one day you're not going to get all their elbow-action stuff done, their isolation stuff, their back screens. You just have to take away the simple things."
            Other than the one-sided crowd of 10,000-plus that will be packed into Gampel Pavilion, Baylor's biggest challenge is probably UConn's size. 
In addition to a frontline of 6-5 forward Dorka Juhåsz (14.3 ppg, 10.0 rebounds) and 6-3 forward Aaliyah Edwards (16.9 ppg, 6.7 rebounds), the Huskies have big guards with 6-1 Lou Lopez Sénéchal (15.5 ppg), 5-11 Azzi Fudd (14.7 ppg) and 5-10 point guard Nika Mühl (7.3 ppg, 7.9 assists). And for good measure, they can bring 6-5 Amari DeBerry and 6-1 Aubrey Griffin (11.9 ppg, 6.6 rebounds) off the bench. 
"We have to use our speed, we have to box out early, we have to pursue the ball off the rim," Collen said. "We're maybe quicker on the perimeter. We're going to have to hit and hold Aaliyah, we're going to have to try to be quicker on Dorka, and then we're going to have to really use our guards to be scrappy and run down long stuff."
Despite a starting lineup that doesn't have anyone over 6-1, freshman forward Bella Fontleroy (8.7 ppg, 5.1 rebounds) said the "size matchup will be just fine."
"Even though we have a few people who aren't on the tall side," said Fontleroy, looking at 5-8 senior guard Jaden Owens, "they still come out every single game and give their best effort. Whenever we have switches and (the guards) have to battle in there with the posts, we're coming in and helping them and they work their tail off to make sure there's no true mismatch."
Baylor's shortest starter, 5-6 junior guard Sarah Andrews (15.0 ppg, 4.4 assists) has certainly played bigger than her size. She is second on the team with 19 blocks and had four against 'Bama, including swatting one away from 6-4 center Jada Rice. 
"I don't even know, that girl's been going crazy," Owens said of her backcourt mate. "Sarah's what, 5-6, 5-7? But the way she rises up, that's Brittney Griner!"
Collen said blocking shots is just something Andrews has "figured out she can do."
"Certainly, people have been frustrated, thinking that she's fouling," Collen said. "But if you see any of them on replay, there's tons of space. She's just running people down from behind, waiting for them to go up and blocking it from behind when the ball's exposed. . . To go get Rice's shot last night, she's not even one of our best verticals on the team, but there's a difference between IQ and timing and all of that on blocks."
While Baylor lost 72-61 to a third-ranked UConn team in 2016 in the only previous meeting at Gampel, the Bears are 4-5 all-time against the Huskies and won two of the three matchups at the XL Center in Hartford. During a 40-0 season in 2012, a top-ranked Baylor team beat No. 2 UConn, 66-61, before a then-record crowd of 10,627 at the Ferrell Center. 
"It seems like every time we do play them there's a lot at stake," Auriemma said. "Every game was a classic in its own way. And I really like the people down in Waco, they were always great to me. I remember one time I walked in there, and I thought it was a home game for us. I wanted to see if I could charter a plane and bring them all back here. They bring back great memories, but this is a different time now."
            Two years ago, a No. 1-ranked UConn team rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat the fifth-ranked and second-seeded Bears, 69-67, in an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game in San Antonio. In a controversial ending, Baylor guard DiJonai Carrington appeared to be fouled by the Huskies' Olivia Nelson-Obodo and then-freshman Aaliyah Edwards on a drive to the basket with one second left in a one-point game. 
            "If I remember correctly about that particular game, there were a lot of fouls," Auriemma said. "Some were called, some were not. Whether that one was a foul or not, I don't know."
            Senior forward Caitlin Bickle (12.2 ppg, 7.1 rebounds), one of just two players left from that Baylor team, said "it was a tough loss . . . but we have a lot of different players. They're missing a couple players that they had in the past. Their team's personnel is different. Our style is very different with a new coach."
            Collen, who was hired at Baylor when Kim Mulkey left after that 2021 game to take the LSU job, said the Huskies' "defense is underappreciated because their offense is so pretty."
            "I think over the years, people get hung up on whether it's (Auriemma's) chin action (play) or whatever," she said. "It's not always been the same for the last 20-some years, but it's always predicated on spacing and cutting and ball movement. So, they have always been pretty, but they defend the heck out of you, too."
            Monday's game will be broadcast by ESPN, with Beth Mowins and Christy Tomaskutty calling the action. The winner advances to the region semifinals in Seattle, Wash., to face either third-seeded Ohio State (26-7) or sixth-seeded North Carolina (22-10).