The offensive lineman’s car got stuck in the snow, The Associated Press reports. Allen tweeted a “nice guy named Dave” rescued him. He asked for help finding Dave so he could get him playoff tickets.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Good morning. I’m David Greene. The Kansas City Chiefs won on Saturday, but as the AP reports, offensive lineman Jeff Allen nearly missed the game. His car got stuck in the snow. Allen tweeted that a nice guy named Dave rescued him. He asked for help finding Dave so he could get him playoff tickets. Allen said he tracked him down, despite all the people around town who suddenly changed their name to Dave. I’ll tell you, as people in our plight know, the world has plenty of Daves already. It’s MORNING EDITION.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

We’ve invited Mike D’Antoni, head coach of the Houston Rockets, to answer three questions — one question about Michael Jordan, one question about Dan Quayle, and one question about Tony the Tiger.

Click the audio link above to see how he does.

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

And now the game where successful people find out what it’s like to not know why you’re even playing. It’s called Not My Job. Mike D’Antoni is a former NBA player, a star in the Italian basketball league and, for 16 years, a head coach in the NBA with the Phoenix Suns, LA Lakers, New York Knicks and now the Houston Rockets. He was the 2017 NBA coach of the year. And he joins us now.

Coach Mike, welcome to WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME.

MIKE D’ANTONI: Thanks, guys.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: It’s a pleasure to have you. So, first of all, how’s the Rockets doing? Are you satisfied with how the season is going?

D’ANTONI: We’re doing better now. We had a rough start – a lot of injuries and some problems. But, you know, the ship is going pretty good right now.

SAGAL: I’m glad to hear it. Now, are you a guy who feels the progress of your team emotionally? Do you get upset when it’s going poorly? Do you feel elated when it’s going well?

D’ANTONI: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think we’re all in this business especially because we want to compete. And you get emotionally invested in the players and the fans. And…

SAGAL: Yeah.

D’ANTONI: You know, I’ve been in the fetal position a lot of times on the couch – that’s for sure.

SAGAL: Really?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Not on the bench, though. That would be funny…

PAULA POUNDSTONE: Yeah.

SAGAL: …If they panned over to you – you were lying there.

D’ANTONI: …Would like me to do that.

SAGAL: What’s it like getting to watch James Harden play every night?

D’ANTONI: Special.

SAGAL: Yeah.

D’ANTONI: He’s the real deal.

SAGAL: Yeah.

D’ANTONI: And it’s – you know, he’s better than what most people think. He’s is the best I’ve seen.

SAGAL: For people who don’t know, James Harden is known for his extraordinary offensive play and also for his amazing beard.

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

SAGAL: Have you ever had to talk to him about the beard? Like, dude, nobody can see your uniform number. You need to…

D’ANTONI: No, most of the time it’s, like, you know, you’ve got egg in there. Or you’ve got…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Is part of your duties as head coach, like…

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

SAGAL: …Picking the nits out of James Harden’s beard?

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Sometimes, that’s my only duty.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: He seems pretty serious. Are you allowed to tease him about his beard?

D’ANTONI: Very carefully.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So when did you figure out that you could be a coach in this league?

D’ANTONI: I’m – when I’m 39 years old, and I’ve retired from playing, and I’m looking around and going, now what? And so it’s, like, you know, I had really good teams in Europe, and I got lucky. And, like anybody else, it’s just being in the right spot at the right time. And I went back and started coaching the NBA.

POUNDSTONE: Do you have, like, psychological techniques that you use?

D’ANTONI: (Laughter) No. No.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: No. That would mean that I would have to be and the players would have to be smart, so we’re not. No, we’re just…

(LAUGHTER)

LUKE BURBANK: Coach, you’re known for a really up-tempo style. Do players like playing for you because of that? Or is it exhausting for them?

D’ANTONI: No. No. It’s – you know, I think they like it. There’s been some that haven’t liked it. And, obviously, I’ve been to different cities. I’ve been fired a few times, so there’s a lot of players don’t like that.

SAGAL: No. No. They don’t like being fired or they don’t like when you get fired?

D’ANTONI: No, they get me fired.

SAGAL: Oh, I see.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: I always think they didn’t like to play the way I wanted to play.

SAGAL: Well, that to me is interesting because you’re coaching incredibly well-paid, incredibly talented athletes who have been at the pinnacle of their sport for probably their entire careers. Like, everybody in the NBA was a superstar the moment they got there.

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

SAGAL: How do you handle people like that who are the stars of the league?

D’ANTONI: Well, there’s a lot of groveling and begging and pleading.

SAGAL: Right.

POUNDSTONE: Well, I think, then, that you need to have some psychological techniques.

D’ANTONI: There you go.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So seriously, how do you – if James Harden, say, or Chris Paul – both superstars – if you want them to do something they’re not doing, or you want them to do something better or different, how do you do that?

D’ANTONI: We work together, and I give my experience in there. And we’re very analytic-based now, so a lot of it is data driven where they can see that it makes sense.

SAGAL: Right.

POUNDSTONE: Give me an example of a time where a problem is solved by data.

D’ANTONI: Well, you have a player that shoots primarily two-point shots instead of three-point shots. So I’m not going to get too technical, but I can show them some of the data that shooting that shot there is not as effective as shooting the three-point, so you have to…

POUNDSTONE: Wait a minute – but they don’t know that three points is…

D’ANTONI: Well…

POUNDSTONE: …Higher than two points?

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Hey, it’s taken about 20 years for the NBA to figure that out.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Yeah.

SAGAL: Wait a minute…

SAGAL: Yeah.

BURBANK: Coach, I’m on a YMCA men’s team in…

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: …Washington.

D’ANTONI: Good.

POUNDSTONE: Yeah. Well, you want to go for the three points.

D’ANTONI: That’s a good start.

BURBANK: Yeah. We’re called the Sledge Hogs. You’ve probably heard of us.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

BURBANK: I didn’t name the team.

D’ANTONI: We have scouts there most of the nights.

BURBANK: Yeah.

SAGAL: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: We lost a game this week by 49 points.

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: Do you have any advice for us as how to be a better team?

D’ANTONI: (Laughter) Well, start scoring more points.

SAGAL: Yeah, I know.

(LAUGHTER)

BURBANK: Is three points more than two points?

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Yes, three.

BURBANK: OK.

D’ANTONI: Shoot threes.

SAGAL: The biggest cliche of every sports movie any of us have ever seen is the halftime motivational speech, right?

D’ANTONI: (Laughter) Yeah, that’s great.

SAGAL: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Do you give that?

D’ANTONI: No (laughter).

SAGAL: Really?

D’ANTONI: Most of the time I’m – like I said, I’m in that fetal position. They’re giving me the speech.

SAGAL: Really?

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

SAGAL: Well, coach, it is great to have you with us. We have invited you here today to play our game. And we call it…

CHIOKE I’ANSON: Mike D’Antoni, meet Mike, Dan and Tony.

SAGAL: Since your name is built out of three first names, much like a transformer – Mike, Dan, and Tony…

D’ANTONI: Right.

SAGAL: …We thought we’d ask you one question each about a Mike, a Dan and a Tony.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: All right.

SAGAL: If you get two right – could be a Dan and Mike, could be a Tony and Dan, could be a Tony and Mike – if you do any of those, you’ll win our prize for one of our listeners – the voice of their choice from our show. Chioke, who is coach Mike D’Antoni playing for?

I’ANSON: Jim Hogan of Geneva, N.Y.

SAGAL: All right. You ready to play?

D’ANTONI: Oh, yeah.

SAGAL: Oh, yeah. Here we go. First up, Michael Jordan – you may have heard of him – he remains the world’s most famous Mike. He was so famous during his heyday that you could find which of these? A, a shrine to him in the palace of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il; B, a megachurch in Lebanon thta believed he was the Messiah; or C, the be like Mike diet book, which recommended you consume only Gatorade and expensive cigars.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: I’m probably going with the shrine in North Korea just because Dennis Rodman solved our problems there, right?

SAGAL: You’re right. You’re exactly right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: It turns out that Kim Jong Un got his love of the great Bulls teams of yesteryear…

D’ANTONI: Yeah.

SAGAL: …From his father, Kim Jong Il. So Kim Jong Il, the dictator, had a shrine to Michael Jordan. All right. Next up is Dan. One of the most famous Dans in American history was Vice President Dan Quayle.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: He’s remembered now mostly for misspelling the word potato and for not being Jack Kennedy. But he also said many memorable things during his time in the public light, including which of these? A, quote, “I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in the future…”

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …B, quote, “I believe we are on an irreversible trend towards more freedom and democracy. But that could change…”

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …Or C, quote, “The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation’s history. No, not our nation’s, but in World War II. I mean, we all lived in this century. I didn’t live in this century – but in this century’s history,” unquote.

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: Do you have D, all of the above?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: That’s actually right. I’m going to give it to you.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: He said all of those things.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: The last up is Tony. So one of the most famous Tonys, of course, is Tony the Tiger.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Tony the Tiger, the cereal spokes-animal, has fans around the world. They can get a little out of hand, though, such as when which of these actually happened? A, a group of people started raising money to save tigers from, they said, being harvested to make Frosted Flakes…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …B, Tony the Tiger went on Twitter to ask furries to please stop sending him anthropomorphic erotica…

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: …Or C, somebody invented a language called Tony-talk, which is English, but you growl every R?

(LAUGHTER)

D’ANTONI: I’m going with B.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You’re exactly right…

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: …Coach.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: This happened a couple years ago. Lots of people were tweeting inappropriate things to Tony the Tiger, so he tweeted, quote, “I’m all for showing your stripes, feathers, et cetera but let’s keep things great and family friendly if you could. Cubs could be watching.” Chioke,

how did coach Mike D’Antoni do on our quiz?

I’ANSON: Nothing but net – Mike got three out of three.

SAGAL: Congratulations, coach.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Mike D’Antoni, coach of the Houston Rockets. Coach Mike, thank you so much for joining us on WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ROCKET TO NOWHERE”)

WEBB WILDER: (Singing) I’m on a rocket to nowhere. Rocket to nowhere.

SAGAL: In just a minute, we get intimate with a bicycle in our Listener Limerick Challenge game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on the air. We will be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME from NPR.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Bernice Sandler, who had a major hand in creating and helping pass Title IX legislation, has died at 90. The landmark federal civil rights law ensures gender equality in education and athletics.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

We’re going to take the next few minutes to remember the woman being called the godmother of Title IX. Bernice Sandler died this past weekend at the age of 90. She was the catalyst for the landmark civil rights legislation that made it illegal for schools receiving federal funds to discriminate on the basis of sex. NPR’s Tom Goldman reports.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Title IX was passed in 1972, but the seed for that momentous law was planted about 40 years earlier in an elementary school in Brooklyn. That’s when young Bernice Sandler was offended by the way the boys got to do all the classroom activities.

MARTY LANGELAN: For example, running a slide projector.

GOLDMAN: Marty Langelan was Sandler’s friend and colleague for nearly 50 years.

LANGELAN: You know, I mean, simple everyday things. You know, oh, we’ll have the boys do this. If it was important, the boys did it. And she told her mother back then when she was a schoolgirl that she was going to change the world, that this was wrong. And, boy, she sure did.

GOLDMAN: But not until the late 1960s. Sandler was teaching part time at the University of Maryland and was told she wouldn’t be considered for a full-time position because she came on too strong for a woman. Langelan says Sandler decided this had to be illegal. But back then, discrimination in education was rampant – departments refusing to hire women, grad programs denying admission to women, scholarships for men only. Sandler was a meticulous person, and so she started doing research and found presidential Executive Order 11246. It prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in employment on the basis of race and nationality.

LANGELAN: And then she found a footnote that said it had been amended by President Johnson in 1968 to include discrimination based on sex. She literally yelled, eureka, eureka – because most colleges had federal contracts.

GOLDMAN: Over the next two years, Sandler filed around 250 complaints demanding the government enforce its regulations. This led to dramatic congressional hearings and, ultimately, the signing by President Richard Nixon of Title IX. The law’s initial focus was on academic hiring and admissions, but Title IX’s impact spread to all areas of discrimination – to sexual harassment on campus, and its most visible manifestation, sports. I interviewed Sandler in 2012, and she laughed about how she never really thought about causing a sea change in athletics.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BERNICE SANDLER: And I remember saying, isn’t this great news? On field day or play day, that’s a day when schools cancel classes and they have athletic relays and games and stuff while outside. And I’m saying, on field day, there’s gonna be more activities for girls. Isn’t that nice?

GOLDMAN: Marty Langelan says when she first met Sandler in the early 1970s, she was struck by this little, tiny person who was incredibly cheerful. Langelan says she never saw Sandler angry at anyone, but she had moral anger about injustice. Langelan says, near the end of her life, Sandler recognized she’d lived up to her schoolgirl promise. Bernice Bunny Sandler leaves behind two daughters, three grandkids and countless girls and women in sports and academia forever indebted. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The Chicago Bears kicker missed a game-winning field goal Sunday night, after the Eagles called time-out. NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with economist Toby Moskowitz about the practice of icing a player.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Last night, the Chicago Bears fell victim to one of the most debated tricks in the coaching book – icing the kicker. Here’s what happened. With seconds to go in their NFL playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles, Bears kicker Cody Parkey lines up for a field goal. They’re down by one, so the game is riding on this kick, OK? The ball is snapped. The kick goes up and sails through the uprights, except that it doesn’t count. The NBC announcers don’t sound surprised. They know exactly what happened.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

AL MICHAELS: Doug Pederson knowing – yep, getting that timeout just before the snap.

CORNISH: The Eagles’ coach called a timeout right before the play. That’s icing the kicker. It’s supposed to rattle his nerves, get in his head. So Cody Parkey has to do it over again. And this time, the announcers are surprised.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MICHAELS: And – oh, he hits the upright again. That’s impossible.

CORNISH: Ouch – the kick bounces out. Bears lose. Eagles win. A debate is reignited because people keep talking about this idea. Does icing the kicker work? Well, joining us now is Toby Moskowitz. He investigated this question in his book “Scorecasting.” Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

TOBY MOSKOWITZ: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: All right, so to begin, I try and put myself in the mind of a kicker. Is this something that would, you know, rattle one? It’s a high-stakes moment of the game.

MOSKOWITZ: Well, you know what? You would be rattled. I would be rattled. But a professional football kicker shouldn’t be rattled. I think nowadays most kickers fully expect to be iced, meaning that they know the opposing coach is going to call a timeout right before they kick, and they’re mentally prepared for that.

The other thing is these kickers have kicked thousands and thousands of kicks. I don’t even think they’re aware of what else is going on in the field. They’re just – it’s like asking Roger Federer, are you nervous when you hit a second serve? I don’t even think he thinks about it. It’s just so automatic.

CORNISH: Now, let’s get to the numbers. Is it effective?

MOSKOWITZ: So we crunched the numbers several years ago. We added up all kicks over about a decade worth in the NFL, and we looked at times when the kicker in pressure situations was iced versus not iced. And what we found was the success rate was really no different between the two situations. Suppose I hit my kicks from that distance about 70 percent of the time. You’d expect me to miss 30 percent of the time. Well, icing the kicker doesn’t cause you to miss. It’s just that kickers will miss that kick about 30 percent of the time. And some of those times, about half the time, the coach will call a timeout.

You know, it feels like you’re getting in the kicker’s head. But at least if you look at the numbers on the field – and again, you’re controlling for distance and the difficulty of the kick. Whether or not a timeout is called right before the kick doesn’t really make much of a difference.

CORNISH: So why do coaches like it?

MOSKOWITZ: So that’s an interesting question, and we thought about this as well. One aspect is, you know, I think at that point in the game – and you take last night as an example – what’s a coach supposed to do? Doug Pederson’s options are to sit there and wait while the final 10 seconds tick and he sees whether the ball goes through the uprights or not. Or he’s got some timeouts left at his disposal. His fans want him to do something. His players might even want him to do something. Even he might feel like he wants to do something. So why not try it, right?

Imagine the ball goes through the uprights and he didn’t call the timeout. The Philadelphia fans are now going to be screaming, oh, if you’d only iced the kicker, whereas I think if he does it and Parkey hits it last night – he ices him, but he makes it anyway – no one’s going to blame him. There’s nothing else he could have done. But leaving something on the table that people feel like you could have done – psychologically, we just don’t like that.

CORNISH: Toby Moskowitz is professor of finance at Yale University. He’s co-author of “Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played And Games Are Won.” Thank you so much, Toby.

MOSKOWITZ: Thank you.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

We have a roundup of the week in sports, including the latest on the Chicago Bears, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Baylor Lady Bears women’s basketball team.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Now, time for sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: Da (ph) Bears, da Eagles, da playoffs. And where the stars at night are big and bright – Baylor’s Lady Bears hand the UConn Huskies their first regular season loss since – I don’t know – 1874. Tom Goldman joins us. How are you, Tom?

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: I’m good. How are you?

SIMON: I’m fine. Thanks. How am I? The Bears are in the playoffs. The wildcard team…

GOLDMAN: (Laughter).

SIMON: They played last year’s Super Bowl champions, the Eagles, on Sunday. The Eagles are the reigning champions. They’re great. The Bears have a smothering defense with Khalil Mack at linebacker – probably the reigning defensive player in the league. I loved what he said yesterday – you live for these games. Now, isn’t defense considered even more important in the postseason?

GOLDMAN: You do live for these games, Scott.

SIMON: (Laughter).

GOLDMAN: Defense wins championships, right?

SIMON: Yes.

GOLDMAN: I mean, Bear Bryant said so.

SIMON: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: But, Scott, are you ready for some football science?

SIMON: Sure. Sure.

GOLDMAN: OK. Researchers at Cal State Northridge…

SIMON: Yeah.

GOLDMAN: …Set out to uncover whether the old adage…

SIMON: Whenever you say researchers, I know you’re going to spoil my good time. But go ahead. Yeah.

GOLDMAN: I thought you’d fall asleep. Yeah. The old adage, defense wins championships, they wanted to find out, is that true? And their statistical analysis found it is true. The fewer regular season yards a team gives up, that leads to more playoff wins. But they also discovered the more yards gained by an offense, the more playoff wins. So apparently, great defense and great offense wins championships, which, of course, means the Bears will need contributions from young Mitchell Trubisky in his first NFL playoff appearance and the rest of the offense.

SIMON: I just have to mention Tarik Cohen – 5-foot-6. If he were, in fact, going to be bar mitzvahed, he couldn’t reach the podium at 5-foot-6.

GOLDMAN: (Laughter).

SIMON: Just about the most fun runner to watch in the league – New York Times did a nice profile of him this week.

GOLDMAN: It’s always mind-boggling to think about looking down on NFL players. He is fantastic. Let’s not forget the Eagles also have a 5-foot-6 water bug, Scott. Darren Sproles has been dazzling and darting for 14 NFL seasons. His return from injury late in the season really helped the Eagles, along with backup quarterback Nick Foles. And they’ve got the Eagles fans thinking this team can beat those scary Bears in Chicago and make another run at the Super Bowl.

SIMON: I don’t even know why even they call Nick Foles a backup quarterback anymore.

GOLDMAN: I know.

SIMON: He’s always there when it counts.

GOLDMAN: I know.

SIMON: A 23-year-old starting quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs is kind of the obvious MVP pick this year, isn’t it?

GOLDMAN: He kind of is. Patrick Mahomes – he has taken full advantage of a league that does everything it can to make life easy for quarterbacks. This season – only his second in the NFL – he threw 50 touchdown passes. And he passed for over 5,000 yards. The only other QBs to throw at least 50 touchdown passes – guys named Tom Brady and Peyton Manning. And his style is just so much fun to watch. You know, he plays sandlot football, really. He’s thrown a pass left-handed. He’s thrown a no-look pass. The big question, of course, with his carefree style – can that succeed in the pressure cooker of the playoffs? I’ll bet it does.

SIMON: So is Tom Brady just kind of taking a nap, waiting for the playoffs to begin and show us what he’s made of all over again?

GOLDMAN: You know, outside the Boston area, it feels a little bit like he’s under the radar, out of the spotlight. You know, the Patriots had a workman-like season for them this year. And then when they lost a couple of games in a row in early December, that prompted the latest round of talks that the dynasty is over. But they have rallied. They won a key game last week. And Tom Brady looked like super Tom Brady. He threw four TD passes. They look like a team and a quarterback ready to go. I’ll bet teams still don’t want to play them in the postseason.

SIMON: And, as we mentioned, Baylor defeated UConn. Actually, I said 1812 or something like that – wasn’t it 2014 – first regular season loss UConn’s had. How did Baylor do it?

GOLDMAN: With size and great defense. UConn’s shooting percentage in that game was 29.4 percent. That’s reportedly the lowest in 20 seasons. The Huskies did the bulk of their scoring from long distance because going inside was an exercise in futility against Kalani Brown, 6’7″, Lauren Cox, 6’4″. Those two simply owned the territory around the basket. And now UConn has to start another streak that will last for a decade.

SIMON: NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman, thanks so much for being with us, my friend.

GOLDMAN: You’re welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF STEVE WINWOOD’S “PHOENIX RISING”)

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

The University of Connecticut women’s basketball team did something on Thursday that it hasn’t done in years. It lost during the regular season, after having a stunning run of more than 100 victories.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Something remarkable happened last night in women’s college basketball. The University of Connecticut lost.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: For the first time, Kim Mulkey’s got a win against number one. A signature upset in Waco, Texas.

(CHEERING)

CORNISH: Baylor managed to do something no team had done in years during the regular season – beat the mighty UConn Huskies. The streak ended at 126 games. Connecticut Public Radio’s Frankie Graziano was on campus today getting a reaction.

FRANKIE GRAZIANO, BYLINE: It was quiet at UConn’s student union. Students are on winter break. But junior Rushil Thakkar was there studying for a science test.

RUSHIL THAKKAR: One of the greatest dynasties in sports. But last night, they lost their streak after 126 games, which is pretty tragic. But still regular season.

GRAZIANO: For the students that were still on campus, there wasn’t a lot of concern about the basketball squad. Emily Reid is a junior who plays on the ice hockey team.

EMILY REID: It’s definitely the best team in the country. So it’s a really big deal, I’d say, when they lose just because it’s not frequent.

BOB JOYCE: To go that long over four years without a regular season loss is extraordinary at any level.

GRAZIANO: That’s Bob Joyce, the voice of the UConn women for 18 seasons. That includes a time the team went on another unbelievable run – four consecutive championships, 111 straight victories. No other team, men or women, had won that many games in a row in the history of NCAA Division I basketball.

JOYCE: It starts at practice. Their work ethic is extraordinary, and this is the result you get. And not only just this win streak, but all the national championships they’ve garnered over the last – the quarter-century, it’s just some amazing numbers that people can throw out at you.

GRAZIANO: UConn missed 70 percent of its shots in the loss against Baylor last night. No Huskies team had done that poorly since the 1990s. Mechelle Voepel covered the game for ESPN.

MECHELLE VOEPEL: To put this together and not really have very many nights – oh, heck – over the last 25, 30 years like they did last night just speaks to how incredibly consistent that they have been. And I think that’s something everybody who follows sports has to just sort of marvel at.

GRAZIANO: Voepel says there’s no reason for UConn fans to panic just yet. The team will be a favorite when the NCAA tournament starts in March. Despite UConn’s regular-season success, the school has gone several years without winning a national title. The team made it to the Final Four without losing a game in its last two years but lost both times in the semifinals. Back on campus, Rushil Thakkar, the science student, isn’t worried that the team’s dynasty is over, not with Geno Auriemma as head coach.

THAKKAR: I guess it’s just a credit to Geno to say that two losses in two years is something for concern for UConn women’s when, you know, there’s other teams out there that have lost much more than that.

GRAZIANO: The UConn Huskies get a chance to start another streak Sunday. That’s when they play the University of Houston. For NPR News, I’m Frankie Graziano in Hartford, Conn.

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