The Preseason Number One That Has To Live Up To Itself
Every college basketball season starts with the same problem for the preseason favorites. Rankings come out. Expectations get set. Games have not been played. The team then has to spend six months living up to what pretty much everyone already believes they are capable of. Any slip is met with surprise and creeping doubt.
In the 2017-2018 season, the University of Connecticut women's basketball team once again occupied the top of the AP preseason poll — a unanimous number one, tying Tennessee for the most preseason number-one rankings overall heading into a season.
The Standard Coach's Line
When asked about the ranking, UConn players and coaches said what favorites always say: "It only matters where you are at the end of the season, not the beginning." Correct on the substance and correct on the communications. Any preseason favorite that talks about the ranking as if it means something invites the follow-up story when they lose a game.
To finish on top, UConn faced a difficult road, opening against a strong Stanford team and defending against contenders including Baylor and defending national champion South Carolina.
The Program's Structural Advantages
There was reason to believe in this iteration of the Huskies. UConn returned four starters from a team that made the Final Four the previous season, plus a talented and versatile group of underclassmen. The program's structural advantages — recruiting reach, coaching stability under Geno Auriemma, historical dominance — created a talent pipeline no rival could match at that point.
The bigger test was not really the opponents. It was living up to the legacy of one of the winningest programs in all of college sports. In recent years, no one had won like UConn had won, and no team wants to be the squad that ends the streak.
The Legacy And The 111-Game Streak
The famous 111-game winning streak — broken in the 2017 Final Four semifinal by Mississippi State in overtime by two points — included two national titles and cemented the respect of anyone following the sport. During the streak, UConn beat most opponents by double digits, dominating on both ends of the floor. The manner of the streak was as much the story as its length.
Every subsequent UConn season is measured against that standard. The communications reality for the program is that ordinary excellence — reaching the Final Four, playing for a title — reads as regression against the 111-game bar. Managing the expectations gap is itself a coaching and communications discipline.
The Communications Lesson
Three reads on the UConn preseason moment worth marking for any brand or program operating at the top of a category.
One — never talk about the ranking as if it means something. The right posture for the favorite is to internalize the target and talk publicly about the process.
Two — build the roster narrative around the returning starters and the emerging players, not around what you did last year. The former is a story about this year. The latter reheats last year's coverage.
Three — expect the eventual loss to become the headline. Every dominant program eventually loses a game. The communications work is to have the framing ready — a hard-fought contest, credit to the opponent, focus on the next game — and to have practiced that language before it is needed.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
