What's happened since UConn last won 13 straight?
The Huskies had the fourth-longest winning streak in program history this year. A lot has happened since they last won 13 straight.
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UConn’s win streak ends at 13
The Huskies fell to Rutgers on Tuesday, ending their winning streak at 13 games. That run is the fourth-longest, behind 1971’s season-opening 14-game stretch, a 17-game streak in 1959 that lasted nearly the whole season and 2010’s 22-gamer that helped propel UConn to host the Norwich Regional as a 2-seed that June.
The program has changed a ton since the last time the Huskies won that many games.
Baseball, UConn’s oldest sport, having first played in 1896, has gone to the NCAA Tournament 10 times times in 14 tries, including the bid that would come later in 2010. In the tournament’s first 62 iterations, the Huskies made it 15 times. This run includes all three of the program’s Super Regional appearances, as well as a 532-338-3 record. UConn has also spent 37 weeks in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll and won five conference regular season championships, as well as four conference tournament crowns.
The 2010 season is when UConn went from a solid regional power that didn’t have the depth to compete nationally to the unquestioned best team in the Northeast that has come close to the region’s first top seed in the NCAA Tournament since Rutgers in 2000 on multiple different occasions.
That squad broke a 16-year NCAA Tournament drought and did so in a big way. Seeding started in 1999, which meant Regional hosting was assigned purely on merit, rather than on a partially geographic basis, and there have only been two Regionals in the Northeast since then. Rutgers hosted the Montclair Regional in 2000, but were unseeded, as only the top eight were given seeds prior to 2018. The other is UConn, as the Huskies hosted the 2010 Norwich Regional as a 2-seed over Florida State.
Jim Penders’ team finished in third place, but kept the momentum going the following year, winning the Clemson Regional out of the losers’ bracket to advance to the Columbia Super Regional. Since then, UConn has had a losing season just once (2014) and missed out on four NCAA Tournaments, with two near-misses. In 2017, the Huskies were among the first four out and had a .600 winning percentage in 2015.
Aside from wins and losses, the coaching staff has developed professional talent. Of the 117 Rule 4 draftees since 1965, 51 of them have come since 2010, as well as all but one of the six first-round picks. There have also been 14 drafted Huskies to appear in an MLB game and eight of them were selected after 2010. That includes the six future big leaguers on that 2010 team. Four of those players turned into top-100 picks.
There’s still more do to for UConn. The Huskies, even after coming remarkably close in 2018 and 2023, haven’t brought a Regional to Elliot Ballpark and earned a national seed. The team’s last College World Series appearance was in 1979, doing so in a remarkably different tournament structure. Making noise in Omaha, as they haven’t finished better than 1-2 in a College World Series appearance, and winning a national title, is surely on the list. The 2010 team, which put UConn on this path, will hold the record for at least another year.
RPI Update
UConn heads into this weekend sitting at No. 41 in the RPI after a weekend sweep of St. John’s and a split against Rutgers and Rhode Island. That’s an four-spot jump from No. 45 at this time last week.
If the Huskies want to stay close to the top 40, they’re going to need to win a ton over the final three weeks of the season. They have 10 regular season games remaining and Northeastern is the only Quad 1 or 2 game. The Huskies on Huntington Ave. might creep into the top 25 and make it a Quad 1 contest, but it’s likely that the final midweek game of the season sits at Quad 2. Other than that, this weekend’s road trip to Villanova is Quad 3 and visits from Butler and Maine are solidly Quad 4.
None of those nine dates are going to provide much, if any, value in the RPI with wins and losses could end up meaning a significant drop in the rankings. While this doesn’t account for results around them, it can be assumed that those will be mostly a wash in either direction and UConn won’t have much help keeping that ranking in the top 40, whether from adjacent teams or its opponents.
Bracketology
Baseball America
UConn has jumped into Baseball America’s field and is the last team in the tournament. The Huskies are the 3-seed in No. 6 Clemson’s Clemson Regional, joined by 2-seed Kentucky and 4-seed Holy Cross. The outlet has Xavier, the 2-seed in the Chapel Hill Regional, hosted by No. 4 North Carolina, as the Big East champion, with Creighton in the Next Four Out.
The Huskies have faced the No. 4 Tar Heels, as well as No. 8 Vanderbilt, in single games, in addition to 2-seed UCLA, 3-seeds Duke, Northeastern and USC. UConn also took a series from 3-seed Miami (FL).
D1Baseball
UConn is off the bubble in D1Baseball’s bracket, though its still an at-large team. Xavier holds on to the Big East’s bid as a 3-seed. As for the Huskies, they’re the 3-seed in No. 13 NC State’s Raleigh Regional. 2-seed Ole Miss and 4-seed High Point fill out the regional.
No. 5 North Carolina, No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 16 UCLA are the three regional hosts that were on UConn’s schedule, while it also played 3-seeds Duke, Northeastern and USC in a single game. The Huskies took a series from 3-seed Miami (FL) and will have another against 4-seed Maine to close the regular season.
The Week Ahead
Friday: at Villanova; 3 p.m.; FloSports
Saturday: at Villanova; 1 p.m.; FloSports
Sunday: at Villanova; 12 p.m.; FloSports
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