Women crush Duke en route to Final Four, prove UConn is master of sports universe

The UConn women defeated Duke 75-40 last night, earning their fourth straight trip to the Final Four. The result was not a surprise -- UConn beat Duke by 36 back in January -- but it must have been some comfort to Geno Auriemma to see his team dismantle an opponent after they struggled with Georgetown on Sunday. 

The team was led by Maya Moore who scored 28 points, the last of which was her 3000th career point. That leaves her as seventh on the all-time leading scorer list for women's college basketball. If she scores 26 points before her career comes to an end she can climb to fourth on that list, though the top spot is probably out of reach unless she scores 394 points in her next two games. That seems unlikely, but hey, she's Maya Moore.

The women's advancement also means that for the first time since the BCS was established one school will have a team play in a BCS bowl and both the men's and women's final fours. Georgia sent teams to both Final Fours and the Sugar Bowl in 1983, but the BCS didn't exist then so tough luck for UGA, the record is ours. 

In case you're wondering, the full list of schools that have sent their men's and women's team to the Final Four in the same academic year looks like this (with bowl games in parentheses; h/t to Meacham for the research):

2011 - UConn (Fiesta Bowl)
2009 - UConn (International Bowl)
2006 - LSU (Peach Bowl)
2004 - UConn (no bowl)
2003 - Texas (Cotton Bowl)
2002 - Oklahoma (Cotton Bowl)
1999 - Duke (Suck Bowl)
1983 - Georgia (Sugar Bowl)

I can't honestly say UConn is having the best sports year ever (2006 Florida's basketball and football titles are almost impossible to top). However, even before the results of the Final Fours this has to be very high on the list. Throw in a shot at a few titles and a College World Series big and who knows (now if we could only build a time machine to keep Ray Reid from subbing his keeper during a shootout, ugh). The point is, we're UConn, you're not and therefore we're better than you.