ST. LOUIS - From just behind the court, television analyst Rebecca Lobo looked on with a knowing smile. On press row, radio analyst Kara Wolters had the same look on her face. Watching the current University of Connecticut women’s basketball team celebrate the end of a perfect season with an NCAA championship on the floor of the Scottrade Center, the two former UConn greats watched the legacy grow.

“One of the great things about Connecticut is you see each generation is so respectful of the generations before them,” said Wolters. “It’s like they take it as their duty to live up to the history and success that started this. It’s a matter of pride as well as responsibility to live up to the classes before them.”

This group lived up to the heavy expectations at UConn, finishing its season 39-0 and with the program’s sixth championship. This team, which beat up Louisville 76-54 Tuesday night in the first all-Big East national championship game, pummeled every one of its opponents this season by 10 points or more. That is the first time a team has run the table in such a dominating fashion.

But are they the best team in NCAA women’s basketball history? Not even their coach would say that. Instead, UConn coach Geno Auriemma would just say this team is a big part of one of the greatest programs in women’s basketball.

“All three (undefeated) teams in and of themselves are separate, but they all had one quality that they were really, really tight together, loved each other for the most part and they were really easy to coach,” Auriemma said. “Really, really easy to coach.”

This team will have its own niche in UConn and women’s basketball history. Though five teams have finished undefeated in women’s NCAA basketball history (1986 Texas, 1995 UConn, 1998 Tennessee and 2002 UConn) this team was clearly the most dominant of its time.

Video   Husky pride April 8: UConn defeats Louisville to claim their sixth NCAA women's basketball title. Coach Geno Auriemma says he is speechless and overwhelmed by the way it ended.

They put an exclamation point on that niche last night when they smacked down the Cardinals (34-5). Auriemma had worried before the game that the Cardinals would be motivated by the two beatings his team had already put on them in 2009. The Huskies topped Louisville 93-65 in Storrs in January and then 75-36 for the Big East Tournament title in Hartford last month.

With those two hard-learned lessons, the Cardinals came out Tuesday with trapping zone defenses set to slow down the Huskies' high-powered backcourt of Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore. That plan worked, but the Cardinals had no answer for junior center Tina Charles, who stepped in and dominated, scoring 25 points and tying a career-high with 19 rebounds.

But, there was no way, Auriemma said, to compare or rank his three perfect teams.

“How do I say that this team is driven more than the '95 team or more than the 2000 team that won in Philadelphia or the 2002 team that was undefeated, or 2003 and 2004 that (Diana Taurasi) drove them?” Auriemma asked.

“The reason that this team is where they are is because they have all those qualities that those other teams have: really good players, really committed, really good role players, and they get really good coaching from their coaching staff,” Auriemma continued. “We've got nothing but national championship coaches working with these guys. But that's all they know. So you put all that together and you almost think, well, we should be. And when you say that, you go, you know how hard it is to get here? It's kind of a double-edged sword for us.”

Auriemma may see the success as a dangerous double-edged sword of expectations, but as Wolters knows, each generation just sees it as a goal.

Women go to Connecticut not just to win basketball games and national titles, but also to be part of the program’s storied history.

Charles said earlier in the NCAA tournament that she had worried that she would be the player that Auriemma would use as a warning to future players.

“I don’t want him to say Tina Charles could have been this or should have been that,” Charles said. “I want him to say that Tina Charles was this, that and everything else.”

Tuesday night, Wolters and Lobo, who years before had gone through the same growing pains as Charles, watched as she joined their sorority. She made sure her name would be held up in the legacy of UConn women’s basketball when she was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. She made sure that the 2009 team will always be remembered as one of the greatest teams in the program’s history and will be held up as a goal for generations to come.

“They are going down in history as one of the greatest teams,” Wolters said. “Going undefeated in women’s basketball is not an easy task. We are spoiled in Connecticut. We’ve come to expect to win national championships every year and going undefeated. But to do it, to go undefeated, means you will go down in history, in UConn history and in women’s basketball history. They are gonna be remembered as a great team.”

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