UConn coach Geno Auriemma said it seems like every season his team is involved in what is akin to “the game of the century.” He said Sunday’s game against top-ranked South Carolina isn’t it.

“Like, they’re No. 1, but we’re not No. 1A or No. 2,” Auriemma said. “... I think we know what we’re up against. We know who they are and what they can do and what they’ve done.”

And yet No. 11 UConn (20-4) takes on unbeaten South Carolina (22-0) and head coach Dawn Staley at 2 p.m. Sunday on national television (ESPN). The game will be played at 18,000-seat Colonial Life Arena, which is sold out, likely to be teeming with Gamecocks fans the way the XL Center drew 15,564 noisy fans to Hartford to root for UConn in the rivalry a year ago.

South Carolina has won the last three meetings with UConn and four of the last five, including the 2022 national championship game in Minneapolis, 64-49. The Gamecocks won last year’s matchup 81-77.

“You start to appreciate that when you have the best team, you can go down there and not just there, anywhere really, and play a team of that magnitude and know you’re going to win,” Auriemma said. “And then there’s some years you know that it’s going to be a titanic struggle and the chances of winning are not as great as when you think you have the best team in the country.”

UConn has five players out for the season due to injuries and yet the Huskies still boast former national player of the year Paige Bueckers, who beat South Carolina in overtime as a freshman.

Bueckers is averaging 20 points per game for the Huskies, followed by Aaliyah Edwards with 17.7 points and 8.8 rebounds. Staley complimented Bueckers in an interview this week with the South Carolina media.

“There’s no fat to Paige’s game. It’s all lean,” Staley said. “Like, everything that she does has a purpose, there’s no wasted movements out there on the floor. If you have some slippage defensively, she’s going to make you pay.”

South Carolina will be missing leading scorer Kamilla Cardoso (13.8 points, 9.8 rebounds), the Gamecocks’ 6-foot-7 center center, who is away competing for the Brazilian national team in an Olympic qualifying tournament. Also, South Carolina announced Thursday that freshman forward Sahnya Jah (3.1 ppg) was suspended indefinitely for “conduct detrimental to the team.”

Both coaches said that a win or a loss this time of the season is no big deal, but a matchup now could help them if they should see each other again on a much more significant stage.

“The NCAA tournament’s gonna start in a month and ... nobody’s really going to remember that we went down there and played,” Auriemma said. “When those seedings come out, that’s all that matters at that point; who do you play next?”

v.fulkerson@theday.com