Will Huskies Turn the Field to Mush?

Sixty-three teams not named Connecticut are told they have no chance of beating the Huskies in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

But they’ll play the tournament anyway, starting today.

Realistically, there are a few teams that could upset the 33-0 Huskies, the No. 1 team in the country, or at least give them a game.Start with Duke (27-3). The Atlantic Coast Conference champion is the top-seeded team in the East and comes into the tournament on a school-record 18-game winning streak. It ranks second nationally in scoring (84.9 points a game) and three-point shooting (40.8%).

The Blue Devils are young; Coach Gail Goestenkors often starts three sophomores, a junior and a freshman, and has only one senior on the roster. She also has a developing superstar in 5-foot-11 sophomore guard Alana Beard (19.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, five assists). And Duke has not faced Connecticut this season, so there is no baggage. But the two teams’ paths can’t cross until the title game.

Another contender is red-hot Oklahoma (27-3), the Big 12 champion and the top-seeded team in the West.

Like Duke, the Sooners have a brilliant playmaker: 6-foot senior Stacey Dales (16.7 points, five assists and five rebounds). The Sooners have won 13 of their last 14, and lost to Connecticut so long ago (Dec. 22) it’s a fuzzy memory. The only real road block in their bracket is second-seeded Stanford.

The Cardinal (30-2) spent several weeks ranked second behind Connecticut, had a 22-game winning streak and would have been seeded No. 1 in the West if it hadn’t lost to Arizona State in the Pacific 10 tournament final.

Stanford’s irresistible force is 6-2 sophomore Nicole Powell (15.9 points, 9.3 rebounds, 6.1 assists). She can play any position, but is strongest at small or power forward where her lack of quickness isn’t as glaring.

The “if” with Stanford is 6-1 guard-forward Lindsay Yamasaki, its leading scorer (17.4) who missed the Pac-10 tournament after surgery for appendicitis.

If Yamasaki can come back and play at a high level, Stanford is a Final Four threat. If she can’t, Stanford may have difficulty reaching the Elite Eight.

Vanderbilt (27-6) and Tennessee (25-4) are worthy challengers that also lost to Connecticut in the regular season. Their biggest problem is being in the same region, the Midwest, which is so loaded that perhaps neither will make it to the Final Four in San Antonio.

The regular-season Southeastern Conference champion Lady Vols--who have been in every NCAA tournament since the women’s event began in 1982--are directed by 5-9 junior guard Kara Lawson (16 points, five rebounds).

The return of 6-2 junior Gwen Jackson from a shoulder injury will boost Tennessee. She fortifies a frontcourt anchored by two 6-5 towers, senior Michelle Snow and sophomore Ashley Robinson.

But neither Snow nor Robinson is the biggest or best center in their conference. That distinction belongs to 6-6 junior Chantelle Anderson (21 points, six rebounds), who carried the Commodores to the SEC tournament title. Anderson has plenty of help from 6-2 senior forward Zuzi Klimesova (16 points, seven rebounds) and 5-5 junior point guard Ashley McElhiney, who led Vanderbilt with 40 three-pointers.

All those teams have the on-any-given-day capacity to upset Connecticut.

Santa Barbara (25-5), which plays against Louisiana Tech (25-4) today, and Pepperdine (23-7), which faces Villanova (19-10) on Saturday, don’t have such lofty expectations. Not when neither team has ever gotten past the second round. Although both would love a chance to play Connecticut in San Antonio, it’s more important to the Gauchos and Waves to win in the first round.

The Huskies are after more than just a third national championship in eight years. Only three teams--Texas (1986), Connecticut (1995) and Tennessee (1998)--have completed undefeated NCAA seasons. Connecticut would tie Tennessee’s NCAA record of 39 wins in a season should it run the table.

Connecticut has a starting five more than one opposing coach has called the best ever.

The impact of seniors Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, Swin Cash and Tamika Williams and sophomore Diana Taurasi goes beyond statistics. They are a selfless unit that can beat you whether your game is run-and-gun, half-court, physical or nothing but three-pointers. It is conceivable the seniors--led by Bird, the leading candidate for player of the year--could be the first four picks in this year’s WNBA draft.