UCLA Gets a Little More Than It Bargained For

Even last spring, when NCAA basketball schedules were being drawn up, UCLA women’s Coach Kathy Olivier thought she knew what she was getting into when she signed off on Connecticut visiting Pauley Pavilion on Tuesday, Nov. 17.

Connecticut, she figured, would be ranked no worse than third by then. Fair enough. Her team figured to be maybe sixth.

Oops. How does this sound? The No. 2-ranked Connecticut Huskies.

And No. 1 eluded them by only one point in The Associated Press poll.

After a remarkable opening weekend to the women’s NCAA season, UCLA will be facing them tonight at 7.

Here’s how it came about:

* First, Connecticut, ranked third in the preseason AP poll, went to San Jose last weekend and buried fourth-ranked Duke, 104-74, then hammered No. 18 Arkansas, 100-64, in the Four in the Fall tournament.

* Then, Sunday, the stunner: Purdue 78, No. 1 Tennessee 68, ending the Lady Vols’ 46-game winning streak.

* Louisiana Tech, second in the preseason Associated Press poll, didn’t play.

Purdue, fifth in the preseason poll, vaulted to first with 18 first-place votes and 987 points. Coach Geno Auriemma’s deep, defense-oriented Connecticut team earned 17 first-place votes and 986 points and showed that it, like Purdue, isn’t about to concede a fourth straight national championship to Tennessee.

UCLA, ranked as high as fourth in preseason polls, fell to 14th in the AP poll after stumbling Saturday at Notre Dame, 99-82, and suddenly looks very much the underdog in its home opener.

Not much has changed at Connecticut since Auriemma won the 1995 national championship with 6-foot-4 Rebecca Lobo at center.

Auriemma has his third consecutive dominating post player. When Lobo left for the WNBA, 6-7 Kara Wolters took over. Now it’s 6-5 Paige Sauer, a junior from Midwest City, Okla., who runs the floor better than either of her predecessors.

She was the most valuable player Saturday at San Jose.

But Connecticut’s best weapon is Russian forward Svetlana Abrosimova, a 6-2 sophomore who is the women’s game’s best shooter this side of Tennessee’s Chamique Holdsclaw.

“We knew we had a chance to be pretty good early, if our freshmen played up to where we felt they should,” Auriemma said Sunday.

At San Jose, Connecticut looked like an all-senior team. The freshmen include New York City’s national prep player of the year, 5-9 Sue Bird; 5-8 Keirsten Walters of Littleton, Colo.; 6-2 Asjha Jones of Piscataway, N.J.; 6-2 Swin Cash of McKeesport, Pa., and 6-2 Tamika Williams of Dayton, Ohio.

“We had eight players get double-digit minutes in the two games and two others almost had double-digit minutes, and I’m happy about that,” Auriemma said.

The Connecticut program has six graduates playing in the women’s pro leagues and Paige and Abrosimova look like eventual first-round draft picks.

Connecticut has the best record over the last five seasons, 166-11 to Tennessee’s 165-19. The Huskies were 34-3 last season, and lost to North Carolina State in the East Regional.

As for UCLA, the Bruins got 47 points and 14 rebounds from Maylana Martin and Melanie Pearson, but were in early foul trouble at South Bend, Ind. Point guard Erica Gomez is still playing tentatively on a left knee she sprained in practice three weeks ago.