UConn Women’s Final Four Made By Immigration

I want to get one thing clear at the outset: I was rooting for Iowa. I’ve been living in the Midwest for 17 years now. My besties (shoutout to Bram and Stella Elias) are Iowa immprofs. Then there’s Caitlin Clark. Plus, rooting for UConn feels like rooting for the Yankees. My son’s godmother is a longtime Huskies’ fan (and Yankees fan, to my dismay) so I’m fully aware of their long history of NCAA Championship wins. Let’s give Iowa (never a NCAA champ) a turn. As my 15-year-old would say: You feel me?

Anyhoo. UConn. It would be impossible to walk away from last night’s game without feeling like UConn was an absolute powerhouse. They lost by an hair at 69-71. They played with almost no substitutions due to massive injuries over the course of the season to key teammates. They led in scoring for huge chunks of the game–at one point holding a 12 point lead.

And immigration played a huge role in their game.

How so?

Let’s start at the top. The coach of UConn women’s b-ball is Geno Auriemma. He was born in Italy and migrated to the U.S. with his family when he was just 7 years old. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1994 at the age of 40. That was just one year before he coached the Huskies to their first NCAA championship in 1995. Coincidence? I think not.

Next, let’s talk about Nika Mühl, the Croatian native whose playing was key to UConn’s first half success. She guarded the hell out of Caitlin Clark in the first half–completely throwing off Clark’s game and keeping her scoring minimal. Mühl herself scored the three pointer off a steal that brought UConn within one of Iowa when just 39.3 seconds remained in the game.

Finally, let’s talk about Canadian Aaliyah Edwards, a UConn forward. With her bright yellow braids, Edwards was a vision on the court. She scored 17 points for her team. Unfortunately, Edwards was also tagged with an offensive foul in the final minute of the game–a call USA Today characterized as “controversial” and which certainly contributed towards Iowa’s win.

In writing this post up, I took at look at the Huskies full roster. The international flavor doesn’t stop with Mühl and Edwards. Check out Inés Bettencourt from Portugal and Jana El Alfy from Egypt.

Last night’s game was a roller coaster thrill ride. I’m thoroughly looking forward to Sunday’s championship game: Iowa vs. South Carolina. 2PM Central. ABC.

-KitJ