Hartford — And so their voyage of self-discovery turned a bit gruesome Thursday, to the point where by night's end, the man with more championships than everyone else admitted that his team just isn't at Baylor's level.

"We don't have enough," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said.

This from the man whose rosters have been peppered annually with enough, plenty and too much. Not so much now, though. That much was clear during a 74-58 loss to the defending national champs at the XL Center.

We learned quite a bit about UConn in this game, much of it calling into question whether all the UConn fans who make those Final Four reservations a year in advance will actually have a rooting interest there in a few months.

"We have a really young team. Young in terms of being able to play in this kind of game," Auriemma said. "You're counting on them to make shots that other people used to make for them. Kind of immature in that way. So in the fourth quarter we got four stops in a row and we came out empty handed in all four of those possessions. We're not capable of making those plays yet."

Ah, the fourth quarter. That's when Baylor went on a 15-0 run and sent many of the non-sellout crowd of 12,415 to the exits early.

"You take what happened today and go, 'OK, what are the areas we can't fix because that's just who we are?'" Auriemma said. "And what areas can we get better at? Some years you're just not going to be able to fix things. This is who your team is. We're not going to fix our size problem. We've got to deal with it."

Size problem: There's not much length inside after sophomore Olivia Nelson-Ododa. Speaking of: Baylor's starting posts — Nalyssa Smith and Lauren Cox outscored Nelson-Ododa and Kyla Irwin 36-0. It's almost hard to fathom.

When asked if the starkness of that stat suggests post production is fixable, Auriemma said, "We need to make more threes. In spite of all that it's a one-point game (in the fourth quarter). We knew we can't guard them in the lane. We just can't. So every one of those threes that was wide open, we shot 8-26. We needed to go 12 or 13-26. And Liv? That's where Liv is right now. Will that change? I think it will."

This isn't meant to pile on Nelson-Ododa, whose gave has improved from last year. And nobody in the country is lining up to play against Smith and Cox. Still, though, 36-0 suggests UConn better start making more threes than the Golden State Warriors.

"We've never been in this situation before. Never had this many players we're relying on that haven't been exposed to this," Auriemma said. "Usually by this time in the year, our guys who were All-Americans last year are carrying the load. We don't have any. So it's all brand new for them. Things are harder. Much harder. It takes some getting used to."

Auriemma, the best of them all, admitted that even he can't do the chicken salad out of chicken feathers thing. And not that there's chicken feathers here. But by Connecticut's historical comparisons ...

"I've always been pretty good at looking at our team and thinking 'this is what this team is capable of doing because we have this, this, this and this," Auriemma said. "I also know when our team doesn't have this, this and this. I can't change that. All I can do is get this team to be as good a team as they can be. I don't know where that is right now. How good come March? I don't know. But the fact that people voted us No. 1 (in the most recent polls?) I thought 'who are those dopes?'"

Happily, the calendar is friendly. Lots of time left. Biggies against Tennessee, Oregon, South Carolina and even an exhibition against the U.S. National team.

"I would say the same thing if we lost. It's not indicative of what lies ahead," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said. "I don't think there is one team head and shoulders above anybody. There's about six teams with the ability and talent and coaching to win a national championship. Don't ask me who those six are. I think we're one of them and I think Connecticut is one of them."

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro