Cursed

 The best women's basketball team in America is not No. 1 South Carolina or No. 2 Stanford, or even No. 4 UConn. It's over there on UConn's bench, wearing street clothes.

That's Azzi Fudd, Paige Bueckers, Ice Brady and Aaliyah Edwards over there. Head coach Geno Auriemma, too, at least in spirit.

He's actually at home, felled by a nasty virus that has kept him away for four games. Longtime assistant Chris Dailey is coaching the team now while she presumably chants incantations to ward off evil spirits.

You could be forgiven for thinking something dark is stalking the grounds in Storrs, Conn. these days, looking to make Linda Blair's head spin around again. Bueckers and Brady are both out for the year with various ACL and patella tears. Fudd is out for another couple of weeks, possibly, with a knee injury of her own. And Edwards fell over some chairs last week and injured her foot, and so now she's out, too.

It's gotten so bad UConn had to cancel its Sunday game against DePaul, because the Huskies didn't have the seven healthy scholarship players required by the Big East to play a game. And unless they get at least one back by tomorrow, their scheduled game with St. John's will be a wash, too.

The Blob's mental acuity admittedly fails it occasionally. But I can't remember a similar circumstance that didn't involve COVID.  

 I'm tempted to think this is payback for all those national titles UConn has won, and for Auriemma's resulting, and sometimes off-putting, arrogance. But I don't believe in curses, unless it's the Curse of the Andrettis at Indianapolis, which none of the Andrettis believe in, either.

(And, no, I don't count Michael's five wins as a car owner. In case you were wondering.)

Anyway ... I don't believe in curses.

But just to be safe, I'm not planning on visiting Storrs anytime soon.