User:Grondemar/Drafts/Connecticut Huskies women's basketball 90–game winning streak
From 2008–2010, the University of Connecticut (UConn) Huskies women's basketball team won 90 straight games. This is the longest winning streak in the history of organized college basketball, men's or women's. Over the course of the streak UConn exceeded both their own previous NCAA Division I women's basketball record of 70 straight wins, set between 2001–03, as well as the men's Division I record of 88 straight wins, held by the UCLA Bruins of 1971–74. The UCLA record, set under legendary Hall of Fame coach John Wooden, was particularly seen as one unlikely to ever be equaled, much less surpassed.
In the 2007–08 season, UConn entered the NCAA Tournament with only a single regular season loss, but ended up losing the national semifinal game to the Stanford Cardinal. The streak began with the first game of the next season, as Connecticut defeated the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. UConn would finish the 2008–09 season with an 39–0 record, winning their sixth overall national championship. Every game was won by double digits that season; the Huskies did not trail at halftime in a single game. Connecticut would follow up their triumph the next year with another undefeated 39–0 national championship season, extending the winning streak to 78–0. The Huskies tied their previous record 70–game winning streak with a victory over Syracuse in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals, and set a new record beating Notre Dame in the semifinals. The next season, UConn won their first twelve games to bring the streak to 90 consecutive wins. Win number 88, tying the UCLA men's record, came against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the Maggie Dixon Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Win number 89, exceeding the UCLA record, came at home versus Florida State. Connecticut would win one more game, at Pacific, before the streak finally ended with a loss to Stanford on their campus in Palo Alto.
Prelude
editPrior to 2008 Connecticut was no stranger to long winning streaks, having completed undefeated national championship seasons in 1994–95 and 2001–02. The Huskies continued winning in 2002–03, eventually stretching the streak to a then-record 70 games. That streak would finally end following an upset defeat to the Villanova Wildcats in the 2003 Big East Tournament final.
In 2007–08, UConn entered the NCAA Tournament with a 32–1 record. They would win the first four games of the tournament to advance to the Final Four. In the National Semifinals, Connecticut fell to the Stanford Cardinal, 82–73. This defeat would prove to be the last defeat suffered by the Connecticut Huskies women's basketball program for over two and a half years.