CLEVELAND (AP) — Geno Auriemma keeps waiting for it to all fall apart. Keeps waiting for the injuries that have shortened UConn's rotation and frazzled his nerves to become too much. For the Huskies to falter under the weight of it all.
Only, it keeps not happening.
Not during a regular season in which do-everything guard Paige Bueckers looked — and more importantly, played — injury-free for the first time in three years. Not during a Big East Tournament that ended the way they almost always seem to end when the Huskies are involved: their Hall of Fame coach and his perpetually star-laden roster cutting down the nets.
And certainly not during March Madness, where over the course of two weeks a powerhouse curiously rendered an afterthought has provided a reminder — to Jackson State, Syracuse, Duke and Southern California — that for all the parity pervading the women's game, UConn remains UConn.
And the biggest star in the women's game knows it.
“It's not like I wake up every morning and am like, ‘I wish I played UConn more' — uhh, no,” Iowa guard Caitlin Clark said with a laugh. “That's not something I wake up and think about.”
The two-time AP Player of the Year, however, understands what facing the Huskies on any stage means, let alone the biggest in the sport.
The Huskies remain a measuring stick. A litmus test. And when Clark and top-seeded Iowa (33-4) walk onto the floor at the women's Final Four on Friday night, Bueckers and Auriemma and the third-seeded Huskies (33-5) will be standing in between the Hawkeyes and the goal Clark has admittedly spent most of her life chasing.
Last April, LSU raced past Iowa in the title game. The pain still lingers.
Fifty-three weeks later — an unprecedented year in which Clark has become a phenomenon and the women's tournament has rivaled the men's in TV ratings and perhaps surpassed it in star power — Clark understands the job is not finished.
“I think if you could win a national championship to end your college career, you can’t really script it any better,” Clark said.
It's a script that UConn used to follow with regularity. It's been eight years since the Huskies won the last of the program's 11 titles, though the standard remains.
It might not be particularly fair. Yet it's one of the reasons Bueckers — now fully recovered from separate knee injuries that hampered her sophomore year and forced her to sit out all of last season — fully embraces. That pressure is one of the reasons she came to play for the Huskies.
"I think it really just speaks to the growth of women’s college basketball," Bueckers said. “I think with UConn, the situation is different this year and it’s unique. But at the same time, it’s the same because UConn is expected to win even though they're the underdog.”
An underdog (Iowa is a slight favorite, according to FanDuel Sportsbook ) that learned something about itself during a winding journey to the program's 23rd Final Four, including a seemingly endless stream of players lost for the season to injury.
“I’m sure it made us tougher in the end,” point guard Nika Muhl said. “I mean, we’re here. And nobody expected us to be here. And that only means that we used all of those things to make each other tough.”
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder understands the narrative surrounding two generational players facing off with so much at stake. She would like to offer a reminder that there will be more than two players on the court.
“I do not want this to be a game that’s promoted as Caitlin vs. Paige,” Bluder said. “And I know it already has been. But I don’t want that. I want it to be Iowa vs. UConn and let these two women do what they do best.”
Clark and Bueckers last shared the floor during the 2021 tournament, when UConn pulled away for a 20-point victory in a Sweet 16 played inside the bubble because of the pandemic. Instead of a crowded arena, the game was played before a smattering of socially distanced fans in San Antonio. Their respective memories are foggy at best.
“It feels like forever ago,” Clark said. “ I was looking back and I saw some old footage of that game and we both look really, really young. It’s cool to see how our careers have evolved.”
UConn's deep tournament run feels familiar. The way the Huskies reached Cleveland is not. The Huskies have won playing both fast and slow, showcasing an ability to get out and run during some games and playing lockdown defense at a plodding pace in others.
There won't be much mystery when the ball is tipped against the Hawkeyes. Not with the country's highest-scoring team on the other side of the floor.
“We’re playing Iowa basketball,” Clark said. “And Iowa basketball, on our scouting report it always says ‘push the ball.’ I think that’s what we want to do. Get it up the floor quickly. ... That’s no secret to anybody.”
AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket/ and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
UConn's long road back to the Final Four is complete. Caitlin Clark and Iowa stand in their way
UConn guard Paige Bueckers, right, hugs guard Nika Muhl after their win over Southern California in an Elite Eight college basketball game in the women's NCAA Tournament, Monday, April 1, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Howard Lao)
UConn's long road back to the Final Four is complete. Caitlin Clark and Iowa stand in their way
KRYO PIGADI, Greece (AP) — Skimming over miles of hills blackened by wildfires west of Athens, Fire Lt. Col. Ioannis Kolovos readies his elite fire crew crouched inside a helicopter.
The 10-member group from the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit bristles with tools needed to hold back fires: chainsaws, specialized rakes, weather gauges, computer tablets and earth-scorching drip torches to burn wildfire barriers into the hillside.
Greece’s fire season officially starts May 1, but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March — considerably higher than previous spikes recorded over the past decade.
“It’s actually already summer for us,” Kolovos told The Associated Press during a recent training exercise. “The truth is that the fire season has started prematurely and has been extended over the last five years.”
This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, and adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames.
Crew members include forestry experts and firefighters with varied skills, many developed in training with colleagues in France, Spain and the United States.
“We can position ourselves in optimal locations that may be difficult to reach by foot and carry out fire suppression using various specialized methods,” Firefighter Dimitris “Jim” Priftis said while assisting trainees in a region near the capital ravaged by wildfires in summer 2023.
“Using water is no longer our main weapon against fires, it’s our tools,” he said. “We are taking a more scientific approach toward fires, measuring the humidity, the wind — it’s a more planned method.”
Mostly funded by the European Union, Greece has launched a 2.1 billion euro ($2.3 billion) program to overhaul its disaster response capability, ordering new water-dropping aircraft, drones, fire trucks, training facilities, and an artificial intelligence-driven sensor network to detect early signs of smoke and flooding.
But the new equipment won’t start arriving until 2025. Greek authorities are doubling down on training and new firefighting methods, with another tough season expected this year.
Fires burned an estimated 1,750 square kilometers (675 square miles) last year, including a blaze in northern Greece that was the worst fire ever recorded in the European Union.
Windy and mountainous with hard-to-reach islands, Greece faces a daunting annual challenge in defending multiple urban settlements that overlap with wooded areas at wildfire risk.
It’s also getting hotter: Last winter was the warmest since modern records began in 1960, according to the National Observatory of Athens, which analyzed European Union satellite data. The six warmest Greek winters on record have occurred in the past decade.
That’s against the backdrop of new data revealing that Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, its temperatures rising at roughly twice the global average.
Standing in the main disaster response command center in Athens, Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection, says authorities expect annual conditions to worsen further.
“It will be a very difficult fire season, a very difficult summer,” Kikilias, a towering former pro basketball player, told the AP in an interview. “We had a dry winter and fall temperatures lasting until December. So we’re facing the climate crisis head on.”
Throughout the month of April, firefighters stepped up exercises and training, using new facilities like the Fire Dragon, a 1.2 million euro ($1.3 million) trailer used to simulate the inside of a burning building. Fire crews with heavy protective gear and oxygen tanks use it to practice close-quarter techniques and rescues.
Close by, Fire Service regulars and trainees crawl through a mesh maze in darkness to practice working in confined spaces. Participants in full kit first workout on treadmill climbers and other gym machines, then crawl through the maze as strobe lights, smoke and loud noises are added to disorient them.
“The firefighting maze helps firefighters in a dark environment, in an unfamiliar setting, in the presence of fire, to enter the area, investigate, possibly carry out a rescue and find a way out,” said Fire Lt. Col. Vrasidas Grafakos, a training center commander.
“It’s to train them effectively to be ready for building fires, for front-line activity.”
Retiree Chrysoula Renieri was among those who lost their homes in the 2023 fires that tore through forests on the island of Rhodes, in northeastern Greece, and areas west of Athens.
Renieri visited her gutted house last week. As she walked through the blackened rooms, she described how her family felt helpless as the approaching fire cut off power and the water supply before the flames took over the house. “No one helped us and everything burned. It’s all gone.”
She said she hopes the Fire Service’s new equipment and methods might make a difference to others.
“I wish that would happen, so many homes could be saved,” she said. “We hope, because summer is coming again and the torment will begin.”
Theodora Tongas in Loutraki, Greece, contributed.
A forest which was burned in July's 2023 wildfire, is seen from above, in Loutraki, about 82 kilometres (51 miles) west of Athens, Greece, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A member of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, holds drip torch used to scorch strips of earth and create fire breaks, during a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Fire Lt Col Ioannis Kolovos, head of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, center, speaks with the members of his team during a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit and firefighters in training for the special unit, take part in a drill in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, left, and firefighters in training for the special unit, take part in a drill in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit take part in a drill in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit take cover as an helicopter takes off after leaving them in a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Achilleas Triantos crew chief of a firefighter helicopter, checks from the open door as approaching a mountain for landing during a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit enter a helicopter as they take part in a drill in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters in training for the special unit, gather after a practice at the Civil Protection Academy in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Retiree Chrysoula Renieri, 73, stands outside her house which was burned in July 2023 during a wildfire, in Loutraki, about 82 kilometres (51 miles) west of Athens, Greece, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias poses at the National Crisis and Hazard Management Mechanism in Athens, Greece, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters officials operate at the National Crisis and Hazard Management Mechanism in Athens, Greece, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters in training for the special unit with the yellow uniforms, gather after a practice at the Civil Protection Academy in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters in training for the special unit, gather after a practice at the Civil Protection Academy in Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
A helicopter drops water during a drill, as firefighters in training for the special unit, practice near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
Firefighters of the 1st Wildfire Special Operation Unit, take part in a drill near Villia village some 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Athens, Greece, Friday, April 19, 2024. Greece's fire season officially starts on May 1 but dozens of fires have already been put out over the past month after temperatures began hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in late March. This year, Greece is doubling the number of firefighters in specialized units to some 1,300, adopting tactics from the United States to try and outflank fires with airborne units scrambled to build breaks in the predicted path of the flames. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)
