I'll have to say that covering these last two UConn women's games has been, let's see what's the word ... "interesting" to say the least.

There are so many layers to this streak. There has been the absolute class in which those associated with UCLA including John Wooden's grandson, who made Tuesday's win over Florida State the first women's college basketball game he has attended, and former players like Andre McCarter and Pete Trgovich who had nothing but gracious things to say about UConn and its pursuit of the streak.

There have been the jam-packed media rooms at Madison Square Garden and XL Center featuring such innocuous questions as "what would you be if you weren't a coach" to Geno Auriemma and after scoring 41 points (the second-highest total in UConn women's basketball history) and helping the Huskies to their 89th straight win there was the long, thought out injury "Maya, how do you feel" from a talking head directed at Maya Moore.

There has been chirping from media, especially those in New York, who don't value women's basketball coverage as being worthy of their time. I ever overheard one reporter say that "Maya Moore wasn't as arrogant as I thought she was." Even in the midst of writing my story, I almost fell out of my chair when I heard those words. "Maya Moore, arrogant?" Maya Moore is a lot of things and arrogant is not one of them. This is a bit of a tangent but the way she handles the media reminds me so much of former tennis star Lindsay Davenport who was charming, personable, generous with her time all the while never letting the media get too close to her. Maya has many of those same attributes, a way of making people in the media feel like they are close to her but not letting them closer to her than she wants them to be.

There has been the wall to wall coverage by ESPN that reached Super Bowl levels in terms of overblowing an event with pre-game publicity.

There has been the always thoughtful and articulate answers delivered by Moore as she, still just a college senior, is being asked to put her team's accomplishments in historical perspective.

Then there was Geno Auriemma's press conference being interrupted so he could take a call from President Barack Obama which was good theater for sure.

Of course there has been the backlash. When I got home from the XL Center this morning around 1:30 or so, the first e-mail waiting for me was titled "you're making a fool of yourself." The contests of the e-mail are not anything different than what could be found attached to the comments section of any story documenting UConn setting the NCAA Division I basketball record with its 89th straight win. UConn couldn't beat the UCLA men. No kidding. UConn doesn't play the same teams or competition. Wow, what a startling revelation.

I'd like to see one story where somebody said that this UConn women's basketball team could beat the UCLA men. If it gets written, that person should find a new assignment. The comparison is the UCLA men against the competition they faced and UConn against the rest of the field and the dominance of both teams is quite remarkable and worth celebrating.

Had Brittney Griner made a couple more free throws and Baylor had snapped UConn's winning streak at 79 games earlier this year, I think UConn's accomplishments would be just as worthy of recognition. However, there would not have been 16,294 fans at the XL Center last night, ESPN would not have provided wall to wall coverage including an on-site pre-game show and the number of media who would have showed up last night probably would have been cut in third. Regardless of how much you follow women's college basketball, men's college basketball or sports in general there is no mistaking that there are certain magical numbers in sports. UCLA's 88-game winning streak is one of them and if UConn wins another 89 in a row, it will not diminish the incredible exploits of those UCLA men's teams of the 1970s. Tuesday night was a historic one and that point can not be debated.

I do believe it is important to address Auriemma's response when he was asked to clarify his comments on Sunday.

First, here are the comments which seemed to create such a strong reaction from the national media.

"I am not bright enough to explain all the sociological things that are going on, I just know there wouldn't be this many people in the room if we were chasing a women's record. The reason everybody is in this room, the reason why everybody is having a heart attack these last four or five days is a bunch of women are threatening to break a men's record. Everybody is up in arms about it, all the women are happy as hell and they can't wait to come in and ask questions. All the men who love women's basketball are all excited. All the miserable bastards that follow men's basketball and don't want us to break the record are all here because they are (ticked off). That's just the way it is because if we were breaking a women's record, everybody would go 'aren't those girls nice. Let's give them two paragraphs in USA Today, given them one line at the bottom of ESPN and let's send them where they belong, in the kitchen. But because we are breaking a men's record, we have lots of people paying attention."

In a normal post-game press conference, Auriemma would have been asked to clarify those comments within minutes of making them. But not at MSG when a public relations member felt it necessary to start pointing to people to ask questions I guess because the poor, meek New York media members weren't able to get questions in because of us pushy members of the Connecticut media. Instead that question had to wait until after Tuesday's game.

Here is Auriemma's response.

"I think if you read the whole thing, it was pretty self-explanatory in one sense," Auriemma said. “I think the question that I was asked was in the big world of sports and what we’re doing what does it signify if we were to win 89 games? And I said it could signify whatever you want it to signify. People that love women’s basketball are thrilled to death about it. They couldn’t be happier. Sports fans that appreciate something that’s really unique are thrilled. Those people that love men’s basketball and don’t give two rips about women’s basketball, we aren’t going to change their mind and I don’t care. Then there’s a bunch of people that are being forced to cover it now. The reason they’re being forced to cover it is because it’s a team that’s breaking a men’s record.

“When we won 70, and we won 71 and 72 and 73, there wasn’t all this because it was just a bunch of girls beating a bunch of girls. And let’s just do what we always do and treat it like ... I was fine with that. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t criticizing anybody. I wasn’t demanding more recognition. I wasn’t demanding more coverage. I never said that. All I said was I’m amused that it takes a men’s record to get this kind of attention. I’m OK with it. I wasn’t bitter about it. I was just commenting on how many people now are forced to cover this event. Then after tomorrow they can go back to doing what they were doing and I’m OK with that too. That’s all it was.

“It wasn’t an indictment of anybody. It was just I’m amused that it takes something like that after all these wins, after all this time. And what normally happens in those situations is exactly what happened. Everybody that had an opinion weighed in. I can’t tell you what I’ve been called in stuff that’s been sent to me or stuff that’s been written. I get a kick out of it. But, again, like it or not like it we made you pay attention. If you want to go back, go back. But for this little time you paid attention. You didn’t have to, but you did. It’s not my fault that ESPN decided to do a 10-hour ... It felt like the Kennedy assassination. People in my family are like `turn the TV off, would you?’ I didn’t do that. They decided to do that. They know how to make a buck. They’re as good as anybody else. So don’t blame me. I’m just the messenger. We’re just out here trying to win games. What can I tell you?"

Those last 13 words says it all about not only Auriemma's UConn teams but Wooden's UCLA squads as well.

"We're just out here trying to win games. What can I tell you?"

It was never UCLA's goal to win 88 games in a row but during the journey to an unprecedented seven straight national titles, that is exactly what happened. UConn's goal was never to win 89 games in a row. If it were, the Huskies would have pushed the Baylor and Ohio State games to later in the season if there play them at all. The Huskies ultimate goal is a third straight national title. If they lose a game and still win the title, you will hear no complaints from the UConn camp. Do you think the 1999-2000 and 2002-03 national titles are held in lower esteem because UConn had one loss during those seasons? Well, they are not.


I will leave you with this link of UConn's accomplishment being the focus of an entry on the White House blogThe Huskies are just out there trying to win games and as this streak has proven, it is something they are rather good at.