In the eyes of DePaul coach Doug Bruno, Friday's Big East second-round game against Marquette was a must-win proposition if the Blue Demons want to make a seventh straight NCAA tournament appearance.

Bruno, one of UConn coach Geno Auriemma's closest friends and an assistant on Auriemma's U.S. Olympic staff, probably had a better idea of what makes the Huskies such a dynamic program and he knows this year's team is talented and deep.


"They are strong, they have strength at every position," Bruno said. "(Stefanie) Dolson is an All-American, (Kaleena) Mosqueda-Lewis is an All-American and Bria (Hartley), off an off year is still an All-American talent, and (Kelly) Faris is an All-American. They are all competitive, they are capable of scoring the ball, they are a great defensive team.They are unbelievably deep and are a great defensive team and what I like the most is that they are a little bit like us in the sense that they are still finding themselves. People  think it is too late to find yourself but it is not to late to find yourself, if you can do that and really find yourself right now it is a three or four week run. I like the fact that they haven't peaked yet and they are in a good place. This is a very talented top to bottom UConn group."

With DePaul among the Catholic 7 schools splintering off to form their own conference while keeping the Big East name, an obvious question is whether UConn and DePaul plan on setting up a non-conference series.

"Geno and I have not talking about it so we haven't really had one word of conversation about the breakup," Bruno said. "We don't talk that much during the season anyway, he is focused on his team and I am focused on our team so I am sure we will have some conversations when this is all over."