It mattered little to UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma that 10 of Chattanooga's 15 attempted 3-pointers were off the mark in the first half during the second-ranked Huskies' methodical march to an 80th straight victory.

Auriemma and his coaching staff, led by assistant coach Shea Ralph, spent large portions of the practice the previous day focusing on defending the 3-point line only to give up one uncontested long-range jumper after another in the opening minutes of Tuesday's game. The Huskies weren't about to lose to an offensively-challenged Chattanooga team that was two days removed from a 39-point offensive output against Maine.

However, Auriemma knows that those same open shots would make it through the basket in Thursday's game against No. 15 DePaul (7 p.m., SNY), the Division I leader in 3-pointers made per game this season.

The Huskies have won their last 112 games against unranked opponents. Certainly much of that can be attributed to steady flood of high school All-Americans who come to Storrs but it goes much deeper than that. Auriemma has created a culture where his team does not play down to the level of competition. In stretches during recent games against LSU and Chattanooga, that is exactly what happened.

Now the degree of difficulty is about to increase dramatically with five of the seven opponents the Huskies will play in December ranked in the latest Associated Press poll, and that doesn't include undefeated Kansas State. A total of eight players on teams the Huskies will play in the next three weeks have already made at least 10 3-pointers this season so the stretch of games when defensive lapses won't prove costly will be coming to an end.

Auriemma didn't hold back in admitting that from a toughness standpoint, this year's UConn team has a long way to go after the 37-point win over Chattanooga.

"We gave up like eight layups in the first five minutes of the (Chattanooga) game so we are not that yet," Auriemma said. "We don't have that kind of talent that just blows you away like we've had in the past. That means that every single minute of every day, every practice at every game, they've got to be tough, hard-nosed and really tough."

Auriemma isn't overly concerned that the Huskies are 10 wins shy of the NCAA Division I women's basketball record for longest winning streak, also held by UConn. After playing DePaul, the Huskies will meet No. 14 Texas, No. 1 Notre Dame, No. 9 Ohio State and No. 5 Maryland before the end of the year. While the Huskies figure to play with much more energy in those games than in the recent three-game stretch, he claims that taking a loss or two wouldn't break his heart.

"I hope these ranked teams are as good as everybody says they are because we need to get our (butts) beat soon and bad so that some of our guys realize that this is not as easy as they think it is," Auriemma said. "I know they (DePaul) are good, I know Texas is good and I know the team we are playing next Wednesday (Notre Dame) is really good so I am hoping all the teams that are after that are really, really good because we need a good old fashioned (butt) kicking right now."

UConn junior forward Gabby Williams realizes that the ultra-competitive Auriemma does not go into any game hoping for a loss.

"He doesn't want us to get our butts whipped because he gets his butt whipped too. He is trying to prepare us. I think we definitely have a lot more toughness than we were showing. We just had a talk that we have to have pride and that stuff has to bother us and if it doesn't, that is our real problem it is not anything technical and I think we showed that in the second half."