San Antonio — UConn's three junior captains didn't have that much NCAA tournament experience themselves headed into this year's trip to San Antonio.

Christyn Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa each played in one NCAA tournament as freshmen. Evina Westbrook played in three NCAA games over two tournaments as a freshman and sophomore at the University of Tennessee.

And yet somehow, this year their job descriptions included being the elder statesmen on a roster filled with seven freshmen, really remarkably talented freshmen, extremely personable freshmen, just not the most serious people. Freshman Paige Bueckers, for instance, said this week that she had instructed coach Geno Auriemma to "get his butt on a plane immediately" to rejoin the team following a 10-day quarantine due to COVID.

"I think our juniors have done a great job with that because it would be easy as older players to not want to be involved with all the young guys, to find it silly," UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said recently.

"From the end of last season those three, Olivia, Christyn and E embraced the fact they were going to be the oldest players on the team and they needed to take a leadership role and they've done that. That spearheaded it off the court when everyone first got there. They've really been an important part of trying to stabilize ... with young players they can be up and down a lot emotionally."

On Saturday, UConn's three juniors were unflappable in the top-seeded Huskies' 92-72 Sweet 16 victory over Iowa to get them one win away from what would be their 13th straight Final Four. UConn meets No. 2 Baylor on Monday in the final of the River Walk Region.

Against Iowa, Williams played all 40 minutes and finished with 27 points. Westbrook had 17 points, including the 1,000th of her career, along with 10 assists and nine rebounds, and Nelson-Ododa had 11 rebounds and seven assists. That's not including the tireless defensive efforts of all three, Williams' coming against the nation's leading scorer in Iowa's Caitlin Clark.

"When you think about the fact that Olivia and Christyn have only played in one NCAA tournament as a UConn player and E, this was her first experience as a UConn player, they've had to set the tone without having a lot of experience on their own," Dailey said.

The three didn't sit down and talk about their leadership capabilities, Williams said. They just knew that without Auriemma for the first two games and that with assistant coach Shea Ralph also leaving the bubble in San Antonio due to a family matter at home, they needed to step forward.

"There was no conversation needed," Williams said. "It was just kind of an understanding that we were going to have to step up."

"Moving forward, continuing to do little things for our team, along with Christyn and E," Nelson-Ododa said entering the tournament, "kind of just being unselfish, sacrificing when we need to and just continuing to guide the younger guys is going to be an important part of our tournament run. I also think the younger guys do a great job or just adapting to things, listening, following directions and just absorbing everything in."

In three NCAA games thus far, Williams is averaging 17.0 points, Nelson-Ododa 14.3 points and 8.7 rebounds and Westbrook 10.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists.

News and notes

Auriemma said following practice Sunday that freshman guard Nika Muhl was unlikely to play in Monday's regional final against Baylor, set to miss her third straight game after spraining her right ankle in the Huskies NCAA opener against High Point. ... Likewise, Auriemma said, Ralph, UConn's assistant coach, will not be able to rejoin the team. Said Auriemma: "It's NCAA policy that anyone who left the bubble will not be able to get back in."

Quotable

Auriemma, on whether or not he ever gets mad at Bueckers, the freshman All-American:

"Do I get mad at her ever? Every day. You should probably ask me when am I not mad at her. ... I was mad at her today. I get mad at her about a lot of things. And, as you can see, it doesn't really matter because it goes in one ear and out the other. At least I feel good about it. I feel better."

v.fulkerson@theday.com