UConn coach Geno Auriemma might poke fun at his team from time to time.

"I used to make demands and I used to give ultimatums," Auriemma said Sunday after the Huskies clobbered Georgetown 90-49. "My word was the judge. Now I just make suggestions: 'Hey, let's trap the ball screen. Hey, let's pick up full court.' It's unlike anything I've ever seen. I'm smiling though, right?"

And yet Wednesday is the day Auriemma very sincerely admits to looking forward to every season since 1989. With a win over Marquette at the XL Center (7 p.m., SNY), No. 7 UConn will clinch the Big East regular-season championship for the 21st time. It would be the Huskies' 28th regular-season title overall, including seven in the American Athletic Conference.

And to Auriemma that means something.

"It wasn't the goal in '85 and '86 and '87 or '88 but from '88-89 to today, every year the goal has been to win your conference championship. That's job No. 1," Auriemma said. "I think that still holds true and it always will. It's a shame that whoever wins the regular season doesn't get the automatic bid (to the NCAA tournament).

"You just spent five months proving you're the best team in the league, now you've got to go do it again for five days (at the Big East tournament). It kind of seems silly. I like it when we have a chance to win the conference championship because that means that over five months we were the best team."

UConn (19-5, 13-1) has a three-game lead over Creighton (15-4) and Villanova (12-4) with three games remaining.

After the matchup with Marquette (18-8, 11-6), UConn faces St. John's on Friday, also in Hatrtford, and Providence on Sunday at Gampel Pavilion. The Big East tournament will take place March 4-7 at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Against Georgetown, UConn recorded a season-high 21 steals, with six each for Nika Muhl and Caroline Ducharme. The Huskies scored 39 points off turnovers, an uptempo brand Auriemma said his team had been hoping to play since October but has struggled with due to a series of injuries which rendered UConn shorthanded throughout the season.

Now, however, the Huskies have 10 healthy players, just awaiting 2021 national player of the year Paige Bueckers to fill out the roster. On Sunday, Auriemma played seven people 20 minutes or more.

Part of the reasoning behind the split in minutes was the lopsided score and some of it was due to UConn's busy schedule this week. Auriemma gave an accounting of the allocation of playing time.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Ducharme, the most recent to return from injuries, came off the bench, as Auriemma decided to keep the lineup the same as when they were out — "With Liv and Caroline out, I thought we started to get in a really good groove, you know; we started to find a really good rhythm. And I felt why not just hold on to it as long as we can?"

Auriemma said when ever he's in doubt, he just sends senior Christyn Williams into the game. Williams had 19 points in a team-high 33 minutes against Georgetown and is averaging 15.2 points per game.

"She's been the designated driver," Auriemma said. "Whenever we need to rest somebody, 'All right, put Christyn in.' Hey, somebody needs a breather, 'Put Christyn in.' So she gets the most minutes. Nika has had her issues and Caroline's had her issues and Azzi (Fudd has) had her issues, all these things going on out there and you go, 'Christyn hasn't had any; throw her out there.'

"... You want them to be effective in the minutes that they get and you want them to be efficient in the minutes they get, so you make a conscious effort to spread the minutes around."

UConn beat Marquette 72-58 in Milwaukee on Feb. 13, outscoring the Golden Eagles 27-11 in the fourth quarter. Fudd scored a team-high 24 points for UConn, while Liza Karlen had 15 points and nine rebounds for Marquette.

v.fulkerson@theday.com