Albany, N.Y. — When it was over, Crystal Dangerfield leaped into Katie Lou Samuelson's arms, the kind of bounce and joy normally reserved for family members at the airport returning from overseas. And they bearhugged, too, the game finally over and the mission rolling on the rainbow, now headed for Tampa.

This doesn't happen much around UConn women's basketball anymore. Winning is pro forma. A relief. Habitual. Which is what made Sunday somewhat historic in the greatest program of them all. The 12th straight Final Four? Sure. That's historical. But the story was utter joy in the players and coaches, all of whom knew this trip was hardly the same waltz it has been in the past.

"I have felt everything about this team all year long," a truly happy Geno Auriemma said Sunday at the Times Union Center, site of UConn 80, Louisville 73. "I've loved them. I've hated them. I wanted the season to end. I wanted the season to keep going. I wanted 10 guys to transfer. I only wanted to coach one guy. I wanted to have them over for dinner every night. I wish they'd never eat again the rest of their lives. Every single emotion. We can't play defense. We can't run offense. We're a great defensive team. Man, we run offense great.

"Every single thought you could ever imagine was in my brain all year long, to a point where — you know, I can't even — I don't have any more brain space."

Maybe there was one face happier than Geno's. It beloved to the kid they call "Looooooooooo," otherwise known as Katie Lou Samuelson, she — of the balky back and suspect resume against the iron during the regular season. But this, on the day she wouldn't let her college career end, Lou flew. Twenty-nine points, one bigger than the next, all coming with a comportment that screamed, "Climb on my back, even though it's aching."

Samuelson exited the game in the third period with her fourth foul. Her teammates, particularly Megan Walker and Christyn Williams, more than compensated. They might have been scared to do otherwise. Lou did plenty of talking in and out of huddles Sunday. Her teammates wore looks suggesting Lou's words ought to be memorized.

She didn't even start the fourth quarter because of the fouls. Yet she gathered the five headed out to the floor for a pep talk. That could have been left to her bestie, Napheesa Collier. Not Sunday.

"I think this year, especially sitting out the games I did, I found ways to make an impact not being in the game," Samuelson said. "I felt like, when I have something to say, they all listen, and they all kind of come through. But I went out there in that fourth quarter and said, 'we've got to bear down and get these rebounds, and we're going to go to the Final Four.' So I think, for us, no matter who's out there on the court, we've been through so many different things and so many different lineups, that at this point we feel confident, whether I'm on the bench or not, we're going to be successful."

Samuelson's 29 points came a few months now after swings and misses in UConn's other feature games.

Notre Dame: 15 points, 5-16 shooting, 0-4 from three.

Baylor: 12 points, 4-16 shooting, 2-10 from three.

Louisville: 16 points, 5-13 shooting 2-5 from three.

Sunday: 29 points, 7-12 from three.

Little wonder why Walker broke into her own Looooooo on the podium.

"She's a great player," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "If she plays like this continuing on, they're going to be hard to beat."

They sure are.

But whatever happens this weekend in Tampa, there's proof that, yes, there's joy left in the Connecticut program. They can thank Loooooo for that.

"So there's been a couple times when (winning has) been that incredibly joyous and spontaneous," Auriemma said. "I'm glad that at my age I'm getting to experience this because I don't ever want it to become, well, you know, how the world is. Like it's still got to mean a lot, and you still have to feel it in your soul."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro