It’s over.

The longest winning streak in NCAA history, men’s or women’s, came to an end over the break. The Huskies got all the way to win 90 games before finally running into a great team on a bad day.

And as much as it sucks, I can’t think of a better way it could have ended.

Obviously it would have been nice if the streak had lasted forever, but the women’s basketball team had to lose to someone eventually. So why not lose to the last team that beat them, on the road and over break, with the streak at a nice round number like 90? After all, they had already broken both their own women’s record and UCLA’s men’s record.

Honestly, how else could it have ended that would have been any easier? I guess it would have been cool if they got to 100, or if they ran the tableagain this year and then lost an early game next year without Maya Moore, but when you’re talking about a team that hadn’t lost in almost 1,000 days, that’s just being greedy.

In the end, the streak may be over, but in terms of this season, and the future, nothing changes. The Huskies are still 17-1, still perfect in Big East conference play and still look set to run the same road to a third straight title, as they would have if they had gone undefeated.

And let’s not forget that that’s the ultimate goal here; to win the national championship. Think of what is at stake this year. If UConn wins again, it would not only be the program’s second three-peat, but it would also be the 8th national title for Geno, tying Pat Summitt. I’m sure everyone at UConn could get behind that.

Even though it would be the third straight win, winning this year would be an amazing accomplishment all on it’s own, because of how it would be won: Maya Moore.

At this point I think her legacy speaks for itself, whether the Huskies win it all this year or not. But unlike the past two years, where Moore also had Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles, this year she is largely carrying the bulk of the load.

As for the rest of the team, obviously 17-1 speaks for itself. However, there are five freshmen on the roster, for whom being the two-time defending champions doesn’t carry the same meaning, since they weren’t around for them. Then you have to factor in that one of the veteran leaders on the team who was around for those two titles, Caroline Doty, has basically been limited to a coaching role due to her knee injury.

What I’m trying to get at is that this year isn’t going to be a slam dunk like the last two were, and it never was. Coach Auriemma said from the start that he expected his team to lose this season, and now they have. But that’s okay, because the Huskies’ ultimate goal is still within reach, which is all that really matters.

Even still, the team’s 90-game winning streak was an amazing accomplishment that they and everyone at UConn should be proud of. I only hope that the Huskies learned something from their loss to Stanford and their near loss to Baylor, because if history has taught us anything, it’s that we likely haven’t seen the last of them.

Hopefully the next time we do, they’ll get to stand to the side and watch as Geno and the Huskies cut down the nets for the third year in a row.