It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since BR-1 Connecticut appeared in their first-ever NCAA D1 Women’s Basketball Final Four.

“I remember in 1991, when we went to the Final Four and we were the first team from north of the Mason Dixon line to ever play in the Final Four, and it was like we had somehow landed on the moon and what were we doing there,” said UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

The Huskies would lose 61-55 in the 1991 National Semifinals to a Virginia team whose star point guard, Dawn Staley, would eventually earn Most Outstanding Player honors despite her Cavaliers losing to Tennessee in the national championship game.

It’s fair to say that a lot has changed since that fateful national semifinal game inside the University of New Orleans’ Lakefront Arena.[divider]

FINAL FOUR PREVIEWS

Syracuse – Washington – Oregon State[divider]

“I was just hoping that we would get back to the Final Four,” Auriemma said. “When we got home, I said, boy, you know what, Rebecca Lobo is coming in, and I hope she's good enough to get us back to the Final Four. It never, ever crossed my mind that what has happened since then was even remotely possible.”

Not only was that possible, but four years after that first appearance in the Final Four, the Lobo-led Huskies would defeat Tennessee 70-64 cut down the nets inside Minneapolis’ Target Center for the first of their NCAA-best 10 national championships.

“That would have been like you telling me back then, you know what, in 2016 you're going to have a phone in your hand, and it's going to make you drive into other cars because you're going to be on it all the time,” Auriemma quipped. “I would have said you're out of your mind, right? That's how improbable it would have been to tell me we would be where we are.”

Now, with all the focus on the Huskies’ quest for an unprecedented fourth-straight national title, Auriemma wants the world to know that this year’s edition of the Final Four, set to take place this weekend inside Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, shouldn’t be all about UConn’s domination of the sport.

“Stop focusing on what Connecticut does and start paying attention to what a lot of these other schools are doing, and you will see that there's a lot of great stuff going on out there,” Auriemma said. “It just sometimes doesn't get the attention that it deserves because it's easy to write about Connecticut. If you work a little bit harder, there's a lot of great stories out there. You have three teams in the Final Four for the first time, and not three teams that were knocking on the door and finally got there. These are three teams that by all measure only the kids on those teams and only the coaches expected them to be there. I don't think anybody could foresee what happened.”

Fair enough, Coach. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t open our coverage of the 2016 Women’s Final Four without a look at UConn. And that look would seemingly begin with senior Breanna Stewart, the three-time Final Four Most Outstanding Player who is poised for a fourth trophy should the Huskies make history.

“She has probably impacted the NCAA Tournament in those three years unlike anybody ever has in the history of the tournament at Connecticut or anywhere else,” Auriemma said. “I'm not talking about the rest of the regular season or anywhere else. I'm talking about no one ever has impacted the NCAA Tournament as many times and as well as Breanna Stewart in the history of college basketball and women's basketball.”

Which is pretty high praise considering this is the same Connecticut program which produced icons of women’s basketball such as Lobo, Kara Lawson and Diana Taurasi.

“What Breanna Stewart has done during her four years at Connecticut and what she's especially done in the NCAA Tournament, the way she's competed, the way she's played in the Final Four, that's never been done,” Auriemma said. “Does that make her the greatest player ever in the history of college basketball? You know what, that question is going to be answered 10, 15, 20 years from now.”

UConn superstar Brianna Stewart (Courtesy of UConn Athletics)

Yet, the Huskies aren’t all about Stewart. There are other weapons at Auriemma’s disposal, too. Even with a first team All-American in Moriah Jefferson at point guard, the Huskies will go as far as Morgan Tuck will take them.

“She showed the other night against Texas that, when Morgan Tuck plays great and when Morgan Tuck plays the way she played in the Texas game, we are really, really, really hard to play against. I mean, I understand it's hard to play against Connecticut, but if Morgan Tuck plays the way she played (against Texas), it just makes us a completely different team.”

And once you get past the Big Three, there’s the potential next generation of UConn superstars.

“Katie Lou Samuelson has come on the last half of the season and become great at what we need her to be great at. Gabby Williams has given us some unbelievable minutes. And Napheesa Collier was really the difference in us being up by 5 or us being up by 15 in the first half against Texas. And these are freshmen and sophomores we're talking about.”

While UConn has set the gold standard in women’s basketball, they’re not the only dynasty in the D1 landscape.

“We're not even the most dominant women's program in the country, when you look at Penn State volleyball, North Carolina soccer,” Auriemma said. “But because there's not a lot of national television coverage, there's not a lot of talk around it, they get to just do their thing, and God bless them. I'm really happy for them, and I'm proud of them because they've set a standard that we should all aspire to be at.”

As for the critics who say that UConn’s dominance is hurting the sport?

“For those out there that don't appreciate it, that's fine,” Auriemma said. “I'm not asking you to. But don't demean those that do appreciate it. That's all.”

So, is there anything that could ultimately derail the Dynasty in Storrs in the long-term?

“There are a lot more good players in America today than there ever have been, but there's not as many great teams, and the reason for that is they're all going to a lot of different schools,” Auriemma said. “Fifteen years ago, a majority of the best players in the country all went to the same few schools, Connecticut being one of them. But now you're seeing more high school players going to more schools. So there's less great teams, but there's a whole bunch of really, really good teams, and it's going to get even better.”

For the Connecticut Huskies to continue to dominate D1 women's college basketball in the changing landscape of recruiting is nothing short of a miracle. The true test will be whether or not the Huskies can cut the next down in Indianapolis on Tuesday night.