Indianapolis - So here they are again, back at the game's annual gala, the greatest Gatsby of them all in women's basketball. If it's a Final Four, it must be UConn Huskies. Can they have one anymore without them?

And now you are in Conseco Fieldhouse, the Camden Yards of basketball, and you are soliciting opinions about the team that draws the most opinions. You remind the subjects that Geno Auriemma has called his team "vulnerable" in recent days.

"They've lost one game in the last three years and they're vulnerable?" said Kara Lawson, ESPN analyst and guard for the Connecticut Sun.

"Soooo vulnerable," associate head coach Chris Dailey said. "I don't know if I should say this. But after our first practice, I wasn't sure we'd win a game. After the first practice, I thought we could beat Holy Cross, our first game, but not by double digits."

This is called a dichotomy, a word Candice Wiggins used a few Final Fours ago, proof that the death of the term "student-athlete" has been greatly exaggerated. A dichotomy: Are the Huskies honestly vulnerable - as in not all that good beyond Maya Moore - or are they the new boss, same as the old boss?

Fascinating, this. Despite this proactive initiative of building consensus, there was no consensus building in the building.

Just who is this team? You'd think we'd know by now, 37 games in, years and years of pedigree. But it turns out that one guy's vulnerability is another's gullibility. All we know about the Huskies of 2011 is that we don't know. Quite a paradox for a team we know so much about.

To some, like maybe the guys at the barber shop who hate them, every game is going to be a 40-point win, no matter the date, time, site and opponent. Women's basketball stinks, there is no parity and UConn wins so long as the bus doesn't crash en route to the building.

Perhaps the wives of the guys at the barber shop wear their Svet Shirts for every game, watching intently, worried that every opponent's basket leads to the avalanche that leads to the 40-point run that leads to a tragic defeat.

Some analysts, meanwhile, marvel at the lockstep precision of the offense, despite the six-player rotation, two freshmen included.

Other analysts wonder what, exactly, you'd need beyond Maya Moore.

"They have no post player off the bench to speak of at crunch time, yet they're the most tested team," ESPN analyst Doris Burke said. "They have the best player and the best coach. I think what they're doing is extraordinary. I'm still picking Stanford to win the national championship, but it wouldn't shock me if Connecticut won it."

It wouldn't shock her. Yet somewhere, we can picture sour Seymour from Simsbury, who would be shocked if Notre Dame got within 20 in tonight's national semifinals.

"When Geno said 'vulnerable' he stopped short," Lawson said. "Vulnerable when compared to the last two seasons. At the end of the day, you win championships with stars. If you have the biggest star you have the best chance. Whether it's Diana Taurasi, Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker … all their teams won. The day the ball was thrown up, in my mind, UConn was the favorite because of Maya Moore. They're still the favorite."

This is why Lawson has become a star on ESPN. Not afraid to go Cosell on us and tell it like it is. So you remind Lawson that, for the sake of argument, take Moore away from the UConn lineup and the remnants - Faris, Dolson, Hartley, Hayes, Dixon - shouldn't make anybody tremble with trepidation, even if the uniform does say UConn.

"Definitely the worst of the four teams, no question," Lawson said. "UConn is the team here that leans the most on its star."

But then, it's better than leaning on Hank Finkel.

Auriemma told his players that ultimate success in the 2011 tournament would be "the hardest thing they've ever had to do." Seems the closer inside the team you get, the more warts you see. Which would make Maya Moore the largest living bottle of Compound W ever created.

"The kids have made it look easy, but it's as hard a year as we've had," Dailey said. "To do what we've done with a freshman point guard and a freshman center … Geno has talked to them about it. He said, 'If we get what we're working for, it'll be the best feeling, better than the last two years.'"

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.