In the moment, UConn’s 2016 title marked the end of an era, but it has since served as the peak the Huskies are still trying to🎶 get back tꦗo.
Breanna Stewart, Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson — the class that com🦩piled a 151-5 record — left for the WNBA follo💃wing that NCAA Tournament.
They built the foundation for what became Connecti♑cut’s 111-game winning streak. They won four titles to give the program 11.
But the Huskies💎 haven’t﷽ won a national title the past six seasons entering their Final Four matchup Friday against Iowa.
It’s their longest drought🌃♎ since winning their first one in 1995.
They’ve made five national semifinals, advanced to one championship and still filled rosters with stars — including Paige Bueckers, who helped engineer an underdog run this year.
U🃏ntil their next championship, though, 2016 will serve as the final link to a historic era UConn has yet to replicate.
“There was a trust and a bond that was built and kind of a relentless attitude that k♚ind of came out oℱf that for them — an understanding that even though we had won [in 2015], we had had some hiccups along the way,” Marisa Moseley, a UConn assistant in 2015-16 and current Wisconsin head coach, told The Post.
Coaches never addressed the possibility of fi꧃nishing undefeated as it unfolded, Mosele𒆙y said.
It wasn’t the goal. Wasn’t the focus.
Head cꦺoach Geno Auriemma’s “point of emphasis,” according to Minneso📖ta Lynx star Napheesa Collier, dated back to the previous season, when the Huskies lost to Stanford in November 2014 and ended up winning the 2015 NCAA Tournament at 38-1.
At the time, the Cardinal spoiled the Huskies’ bid for consecutive unde💛feated campaigns — they hadn’t lo🌄st a game in 2013-14.
“We’re not untouchable, and if you’re not care💫ful, people can still come up and beat you,” Collier, a freshman♍ in 2015-16, recalled Auriemma saying.
Winning and advancing to high-pressure postseason games has always been the expectation at UConn, Los Angeles Sparks star Kia Nurse told The Post, but there wasn’t a fear of messing everythওing up with one loss꧒.
If anything, Nurse added, she felt more pressure the following season trying to keep 𝔉their winningཧ streak alive as it neared 111.
UConn still recruit🍌ed top players in the seasons that followed, including Bueckers, Aaliyah Edwards and KK Arnold on its current roster.
But the Huskies dealt with injuries and tournament losses,🍎 falling short of something that never seemed elusive and always seemed inevitable.
This year, the Huskies turned a 4-3 start into ꦅtheir latest Final🐓 Four trip.
They just needed a diꦕfferent route than in 2015-16 to have a chance.
“If you had asked me this 🔜a month ago, two months ago if we would be here, I would have said it would take ♍a miracle,” Auriemma told reporters Tuesday.