The path to validity runs through Storrs, Connecticut.
It’s a road that was established with Connecticut’s first national championship in the 1994-95 season, and it’s a road that has been solidified with every All-American who has donned the symbolic UConn jersey.
Monday, No. 1 South Carolina will travel nearly 900 miles up that road with a mind to do what was once considered unthinkable — knock off Geno Auriemma and his Connecticut Huskies.
A win against a traditional powerhouse like UConn would all but seal South Carolina’s fate as the consensus No. 1 team in the AP Poll.
“I always watched them,” senior forward Aleighsa Welch said. “They were a staple in women’s basketball — a team you saw at the top year in and year out. Growing up, you always wanted to be a part of a program like that.”
Welch was still in high school when South Carolina faced the Huskies last, a 77-48 drumming of the Gamecocks back in 2008.
But head coach Dawn Staley’s program has steadily inched up the ladder of women’s basketball relevance, resulting in a program-best 22-0 start this year.
South Carolina has not lost game since the 2013-14 season and is the only Power Five school to remain undefeated this far into the season. Additionally, the Gamecocks have won each of their last six games by at least 10 points.
Not to mention the Gamecocks’ status as the nation’s top team for 11 consecutive weeks.
Yet, a feeling of doubt regarding South Carolina as the top dog still festers in the women’s hoops community. Despite suffering an early loss to Stanford back in November and taking a back seat to the Gamecocks in the rankings, Connecticut is still seen as the team to beat rather than the new kids on the block, South Carolina.
That’s the luxury that nine national championships — including a pair of titles in the last two years — buys you.
“I don’t care what they say in the polls, I think they are the best darn team in college basketball,” SMU head coach Rhonda Rompola said in December after the Huskies thrashed her team, 96-45. “They are like playing a WNBA team. You look at their schedule and you look at who UConn plays and there aren’t many teams that are playing that type of schedule in the top 10.”
South Carolina may have a thing or two to say about that.
The Gamecocks already earned a major victory over Connecticut last offseason when A’ja Wilson — the No. 1 recruit in the 2014 recruiting class — chose to stay home and attend her in-state school.
Wilson also had offers from Tennessee, North Carolina and, of course, Connecticut.
“[Connecticut] is one of the schools that recruited her and came down,” head coach Staley said. “So, there will probably be a little bit of anxiety on her part just because the fans will probably boo a little bit louder and a little bit harder because she didn’t chose UConn. But she’s got us as her backup. And we got her back.”
Now, playing as a true freshman, Wilson is averaging 13.2 points per contest, which is the second highest on the team. Wilson has impressed on the defensive side of the ball as well and is tied for the team lead in blocks with 35.
While Wilson is certainly the biggest fish Staley has been able to land at South Carolina, Auriemma has reeled in top prospects consistently and currently has two former No. 1 recruits on his team.
Senior forward Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and junior forward Breanna Stewart were the top high schools recruits in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
Mosqueda-Lewis broke former UConn standout Diana Taurasi’s program-record 318 career three-pointers in January.
And all Breanna Stewart has done is receive the 2013-14 AP National Player of the Year award en route to her second national championship in as many years with the program.
“She’s one of the best players in the nation,” Welch said of Stewart. “She’s been that way since she got to UConn, so it’s going to be a different challenge for us. But one thing that has been consistent for us is our defense.”
Through 22 games, South Carolina’s defense has surrendered 53 points per game on average. The only other defense to allow less than that is UConn, which has held its opponents to 48.6 points per game.
Monday night’s winner will almost certainly hold the No. 1 spot when the rankings come out, and for the Gamecocks to stay on top of the women’s basketball landscape, they don’t need to reinvent the wheel, according to Staley.
“For us, we need to stay in character and do what we do,” she said. “The closer we stay to what we’ve been looking like for the 22 win ... the better off we’re going to be. We’ll probably get a little bump of adrenalin from the environment, the stakes you know all of that.
"As soon as we can get back to our style of play is when we’re going to play our best basketball.”