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Every Friday during the 2015 preseason, the University of Connecticut’s three-time defending champion women’s basketball team worked out with U.S. Marines. When the season started, the Marines presented head coach Geno Auriemma with an authentic Mameluke sword. He awarded the sword to the senior class: Morgan Tuck, Moriah Jefferson and then-two-time Naismith Award winner Breanna Stewart. They used the sword as a rallying cry all season, as the Huskies attempted to be the first team ever to win four straight national championships. 

“We knew UConn was known for winning championships. It was something we knew we wanted to do, and we were like, ‘Why not try to get four?’” Tuck said. 

Three years earlier, Tuck, Jefferson and Stewart arrived at UConn as the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, with Stewart — a Syracuse native who played for Cicero-North Syracuse High School and now plays for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm — leading the class as the No. 1 player in the country.

As a freshman, Stewart broke Maya Moore’s record for most points in a player’s first 10 career games and led the team in scoring in five games. Still, Auriemma was not shy about being hard on Stewart if he thought she wasn’t putting in enough effort. One practice, he was unsatisfied with Stewart’s effort and ordered her to run the bleachers for the remainder of practice. Stewart, who wasn’t available for an interview, had never experienced that level of criticism before, her father, Brian Stewart, said. 

“She realized the only answer to getting better was spending more time in the gym outside of practice and becoming so confident in everything you’re able to do,” UConn associate coach Chris Dailey said.

Auriemma was relentless in his demands after seeing her potential. Despite her early successes, Stewart soon hit a wall. In the last 18 games of the year, she averaged less than 10 points per game. But instead of complaining, Stewart “knew that the coaches had the best intentions for her … and worked her ass off,” said Peter Feeney, a practice player on the team. 

Stewart rebounded in the Big East Tournament, leading the Huskies in points, rebounds and minutes over the course of three games. UConn went on to win the 2013 national championship, winning its six games by an average margin of just under 35 points. Stewart was named the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player, which was the first time a freshman won the award since 1987. The tough coaching Stewart received from Auriemma and his assistants made her a better player in the long run, Brian said.

“Once she got past that freshman season, she was a different player,” Brian said. “She went through the fire that year, and she did get a lot of criticism … It definitely helped her thicken her skin as an athlete and basketball player.”

Coming off their first championship season, the Huskies won all 31 of their regular season games, but Auriemma still tested his team during practices. In one drill, players lined up to play defense against a practice player who drove to the hoop from the wing. Stewart was matched up against Ryan Probst, a former practice player. Probst beat her to the hoop for a layup. Then he did it again. And again. Probst estimated he beat Stewart 15-20 times in a row as the entire team watched. 

After every basket, if she didn’t do it perfectly, Auriemma told Stewart to line up again and repeat the drill. The philosophy of UConn’s coaching staff was not to do the drill until you got it right, but until you couldn’t get it wrong, Probst said. After a few successful stops, Stewart mastered the drill.

“It was painful, but she definitely learned her lesson. I never saw anything like it again after that,” Probst said.

The Huskies went 40-0 in their first season in the American Athletic Conference. They won by more than 10 points the entire season and crushed rival Notre Dame by 21 points in the national championship game.

Stewart led the team in scoring, won AAC Player of the Year and became the second sophomore to win the Associated Press Player of the Year award. In the Final Four and the national championship games, Stewart led the Huskies in scoring to secure her second consecutive Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four award.

At the start of her junior season, Stewart and the two-time defending champion Huskies were preseason favorites to win the title again. They hadn’t lost a game since the Big East Tournament in Stewart’s freshman year. But then came Stanford.

In the second game of the regular season, UConn traveled to California to face the Cardinal, the same team that broke the Huskies’ record-setting 90-game win streak in 2010. Stewart scored 23 points, but the Huskies blew a 10-point lead with seven minutes to go and lost 88-86 in overtime, snapping their 47-game winning streak. Auriemma responded to the loss with two-a-day practices.

“They got whipped into shape after that. A lot of questioning mindsets and going at it double-time as hard as you can go,” Probst said. 

Despite her status as the reigning AP Player of the Year, Stewart was still not immune to Auriemma’s criticism. In the opening minutes of a game against Memphis, Stewart and Tuck were not playing well and were unhappy with their performance. Auriemma benched them for the remainder of the game.

“There’s a certain level of play that I’ve been accustomed to at Connecticut. If you’re not there, then you’re not playing,” Auriemma said at the time.

Weeks later, Stewart and UConn cruised through the AAC Tournament and the first weekend of the NCAA tournament. Stewart recorded a tournament career-high 31 points, along with 12 rebounds and seven assists against Texas in the Sweet 16.

UConn easily won its remaining NCAA Tournament games by double digits, despite a halftime deficit against Dayton in the Elite Eight. Before the Final Four game against Maryland, Stewart was named AP Player of the Year for the second consecutive season. And just like in Stewart’s sophomore season, UConn bested Notre Dame in the national championship game. Stewart took home her third straight Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four award. 

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By her senior year, Stewart was nearly unstoppable. Over the offseason, Stewart had gained strength so she couldn’t be pushed around in the post. She had improved on her shooting to become lethal from the midrange. And her defense, helped by her 7-foot-1 wingspan, shut down opponents. But for Auriemma, there was always something to improve upon. 

“He was really hard on her. It wasn’t much of telling her what she was doing was good enough,” Tuck said. “It was never good enough.”

Stewart and her teammates would play five-on-seven and four-on-five during practice to prepare for games. In practices, Stewart did drills that “exceeded collegiate basketball,” said Feeney, who now works with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun as an operations coordinator. Sometimes, instead of a conventional one-on-one, the coaching staff matched Stewart up against two practice players. Other times, they would put Stewart at the perimeter of the court and only allow her to take one dribble to get to the hoop. She improved even more because of these restrictions, making Stewart nearly unstoppable when the playing field was leveled.

“It was almost like she had a switch that she could flip at any time and do whatever she wanted to do on the basketball court,” said Jason Pellum, a practice player on the 2015-16 team.

Stewart’s performance caught the attention of the USA Olympic team, who hosted a camp at UConn for two days in February 2016. Some of the best women’s basketball players were present, including UConn alumni Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Maya Moore. Although she didn’t have professional experience that the WNBA players present had, Stewart’s skill and natural talent proved that she belonged, Pellum said.

During her senior season, Stewart led the Huskies to a 29-0 regular season and their third straight AAC conference title. She was named the AAC Tournament’s most outstanding player, too.

When the NCAA Tournament began in 2016, Stewart and the Huskies continued to use the Marines’ sword as a symbol of their hard work. The team requested special permission from airlines and arenas to bring the sword to every tournament game. 

“The sword was a symbol of how hard we worked that summer and how hard it was throughout the year to continue to maintain that high level of play that was needed,” Stewart’s teammate Tierney Lawlor said.

The Huskies beat their first two tournament opponents by a combined total of 98 points. In its Sweet 16 matchup against Mississippi State, UConn won by 60 points, breaking its own record for margin of victory in a Sweet 16 matchup. Days later, UConn beat Texas 86-65, thus reaching its ninth consecutive Final Four. 

Before the national semifinal, Stewart was selected as the AP Player of the Year award for her third time. Not only was she the first player to ever receive this award three times, but she was also the first to be chosen unanimously. UConn then went on to beat Oregon State by 29 points, breaking the record for margin of victory in a national semifinal game. 

In the national championship game, UConn was set to play Syracuse — Stewart’s hometown team. Once the team boarded the bus to the arena for the game, Stewart realized they had forgotten the sword at the hotel, graduate assistant Carley Mooney said. Mooney recalled Stewart grabbing her arm, leading her through the crowd of fans outside the hotel back through the building to get the sword to bring to the arena.

During the game against Syracuse, Stewart totaled 24 points, 10 rebounds and six assists, securing her fourth straight Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four award and UConn’s fourth straight national championship. On the podium after the title, Tuck took the sword onto the stage as Stewart and her teammate Jefferson knelt. 

“In the name of UConn women’s basketball, I knight Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson as great UConn women’s basketball players,” Tuck said.

Published on May 26, 2021 at 5:54 pm

Contact Connor: cpignate@syr.edu