Dallas — Being a pair of headliners on a team going after the NCAA basketball record for consecutive wins was not on the radar of juniors Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams when joined by their UConn teammates for the first official practice in mid-October.

As coach Geno Auriemma and his staff put the Huskies through the drills, both Nurse and Williams were struck by the eerie silence. Moriah Jefferson was not present to exude her normal allotment of positive energy, the calming influence of Morgan Tuck was also not in the gym. Breanna Stewart's dazzling array of skills would not be on display either.

While the four-time defending national champions began preparation for a run at a fifth straight title, the Huskies weren't exactly a rudderless ship, but they were a group looking for an identity and players to lead them. Fast forward to a harrowing season opener at Florida State when the Huskies didn't so much win as they survived and it became evident to both Nurse and Williams that if they did not change their ways, their junior seasons would be a rather bumpy.

As UConn plays SMU in Dallas on Saturday (3 p.m., SNY) with a chance to win a record 91st consecutive game, the two players who have emerged as vocal leaders on the nation's top-ranked team reflected on how they have grown into leadership roles both on and off the court following the graduation of UConn's highly-decorated trio of All-Americans.

"It is definitely a learning on the fly kind of atmosphere this year," Nurse said. "I feel a lot more comfortable in my role right now, it is something that is becoming habit and I don't have to think about it as much. I think it is something that everybody has stepped into their roles."

The on the court roles have been easier to step into. Despite giving up size in many of the most challenging games, Williams has teamed the sophomore Napheesa Collier to give the Huskies a dynamic frontcourt tandem. Sweet-shooting sophomore Katie Lou Samuelson is off to one of the most sizzling offensive starts in program history, Nurse has thrived as a defensive stopper while contributing more on the other end of the court than at any time in her UConn career. Senior Saniya Chong is showing signs of shaking off the tendency to play without the same confidence she displayed during her record-breaking high school career.

UConn has faced 15 opponents — eight nationally-ranked — and won each game to tie the NCAA record for longest basketball winning streak set by UConn from 2008-10.

At the beginning of the season Nurse was still dealing with life after the Big Three and wasn't as vocal as she knew she should be. Williams was the player who from the opening day of practice has attempted to be a presence on the court and off of it for a team that can tend to be a little soft spoken.

"I want that role," Williams said. "It is more of I want this team to have somebody to go to when things are getting tough. It is more about what the guys did for me when I was younger, I want to make sure our guys have that."

Associate head coach Chris Dailey has seen all sorts of leaders emerge since she arrived in Storrs in 1985 to work side by side with Auriemma. She wasn't sure where the leadership was going to come from on this year's team.

"Every practice each player has understood (their role) better," Dailey said. "Geno's famous for saying this, when players say they don't know their role it is usually because they don't like what their role is. I don't think that was the case for our players, I think they were really trying to figure out 'what do I need to do to help my team.' That is a constant growth whether it is Lou and Napheesa who had to do so much less last year or Gabby had to do less last year. Kia has been pretty much steady. Although her role has grown, I think she has a calmness about her because of all of her experience, she is a leader for us. I think they have embraced what we have asked them to do."

The returning players are even surprising their coaching staff with how they handled expanded roles and dealt with the expectations of keeping the UConn train rolling.

"Sometimes you think they have it and when you get them, they don't have it," Dailey said. "Sometimes you can have it in you and it is a matter of putting them into situations to see how they are going to respond in tough situations. I am not sure if any of them could have done it by themselves, but as a core group they have been able to lean on each other the times that they have needed to and any game that we have had, somebody has always done what we needed them to do, they have stepped up."