Usually, UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma does not get a perspective on where his team stands ahead of the season. This is because preseason games are reserved for playing behind closed doors or against low-level opponents. But this time around, the Huskies played against the Texas Longhorns, a Final Four team last season, which gave Auriemma the opportunity to figure out the areas his team is currently lacking.

While the Huskies won 83-61 against the Longhorns, Auriemma revealed a few takeaways after the game that gave him clarity on where his team is heading into the final two weeks of preseason.

“Today we scored on a lot of just individual plays. People made pretty good decisions, and then we did some really good things. But I thought we turned it over a lot, some bad decisions. But that’s kind of par for the course for this time of year; I think we’re maybe a little bit ahead of where I thought we’d be.” Auriemma said in the postgame press conference, per a video from the UConn Huskies on YouTube.

The “bad” decisions became glaringly obvious when the Huskies started turning the ball over on their first possessions in both first-half quarters. Regardless of whether it was poor communication among players or the quality of execution, the Longhorns took advantage and scored 14 points off the Huskies’ 11 turnovers by the end of the first half. While the Huskies finished the game with 17 turnovers, Auriemma suggests that some sloppiness can be expected from the team at “this time of the year.”

But it wasn’t that only the Huskies were their own worst enemies on Monday. The Longhorns also took advantage of their sheer size and physicality right from the get-go, which slowed down stars like junior Sarah Strong, especially early on. They pressed UConn repeatedly, and while the Huskies often broke through the press, it disrupted their own offensive rhythm, leading to panic shots and once again, turnovers. Even Auriemma admitted after the game that it was a troublesome experience dealing with the Longhorns’ physical prowess.

“Their style of play is very unique, very different than what you normally see. They spend a lot of their possession running Madison Booker off every kind of screen imaginable. And I think you’ve gotta fight through all those, and you got to work really hard, and then she catches in, scores over you anyway. So, it’s a really difficult assignment. Their size and their length was a little bit of an issue in the first half and took us a while, but once I think we started to get better movement, things kind of opened up for us.”

“We’re not maybe as big and as long as some other teams, but we need to be a little tougher. We need to be a little bit smarter, and I think we’re getting there.” Auriemma said.

Speaking of Madison Booker, the Huskies had their work cut out for them because of her. In half an hour of play, the high-calibre forward scored 23 points on 11-of-17 shooting and grabbed six rebounds. The Huskies tried to shut down Booker, but that came at the cost of a few fouls and errors on their side.

But Auriemma’s side obviously had their bright spots. After all, they won by a margin of 22 points. And even though Booker made life difficult for the Huskies, she met her match with the freshman from Serbia, Jovana Popovic. The 5’9 guard surprisingly defended the 6’1 Booker with ease almost immediately.

And with her swift drives to the basket, Popovic cut through the Longhorns’ defense on multiple opportunities and finished the game with 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting, while grabbing seven rebounds and dishing out five assists.

“She responded the way she responds to everything. You know, just like this icy stare. She has a kind of steely personality, you know, and doesn’t really bend or break most of the time.” Auriemma said about the Serbian.

But Popovic was not the only one scoring for fun, so let’s not forget about her partner-in-crime, Sarah Strong. The two combined for 22 of the Huskies’ first 29 points, as Strong continues to make strides early on in her junior year. Last season’s National Player of the Year was also the catalyst for UConn’s second-quarter comeback, one of the highlights of the preseason game.

The Longhorns continued playing their dominant way, racking up points to maintain a lead over the Huskies in the second quarter. However, Strong had no intention of trailing, as she poured in eight straight points for the Huskies, including a triple, to tie the game at the midway point of the second quarter.

From there on, it was smooth sailing for the Huskies, who had humongous third and fourth quarters, outscoring the Longhorns 19-8 and 27-16, respectively. Strong recorded a game-high 27 points with three rebounds and three assists.

With two preseason games done and dusted and fresh areas of focus identified for Auriemma, the Huskies will play the final game of the exhibition series this Sunday against Army at Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Connecticut.