After winning an unprecedented consecutive 111 games, the UConn women’s basketball team fell to Mississippi State last night in over time.
The Mississippi State Bulldogs’ Morgan William (above) scored what was, quite literally, the shot heard around the world at the buzzer to shatter the winning streak that defined both this university and sports history.
Although there is an inevitable heartbreak that comes with seeing any good thing meet its end, it is important that we remember, in this historic moment, who the UConn women are.
The UConn women’s basketball team is the pinnacle of hard work, talent, perseverance, and passion. They are a reminder for UConn students every day that history can be made in the most mundane of places if you are willing to go to great lengths to make it. They are a group of strong, incredible women who can not be compared to any other group- male or female- in the world of sports, and I would be willing to venture that there is no group who could parallel them in other arenas, as well.
The UConn women’s basketball team is a lesson to every person who has ever watched one of their games, that teamwork, humility, and hustle are the ultimate recipe for greatness.
The UConn women’s basketball team is, and always will be, the holders of a 111 game winning streak that changed the history of sports and changed the way people look at women who play sports, and that’s an amazing thing to be.
One loss can never erase 111 wins.
One loss cannot define the team that, in the most incredible way, changed what it means to be a female athlete.
As much as we all would have loved to watch our girls get another championship banner to hang in Gampel Pavilion, we will be okay without it. We were spoiled. We forgot that they are human and they are imperfect. We have been brought back down from the comfortable, four-consecutive-championship cloud that we rested on. Even still, we loved watching them play all season, all year, for some of us all our lives, and yes, that includes last night. The UConn women are, among several aforementioned things, the pride of this school, win or lose.
Oliver Goldsmith once said that success is getting up one more time than you fall. Let’s not forget that the last time the Huskies fell, they got up a seamless 111 more times.
On behalf of the University, we are very much looking forward to the next time we see them get up.
Thank you UConn women’s basketball, you will always be winners.