Geno Auriemma used to tell the rest of women’s college hoops to catch up to UConn. Now it has.

In past years when Connecticut reigned as women’s college basketball’s champion, the Huskies drew not just fans, but critics.

When they won four titles in five seasons from 2000 to 2004, then six in eight from 2009 to 2016 — including Breanna Stewart’s unprecedented four straight from 2013 to 2016 — some people derided their dominance as boring, and thus bad for the sport.

Coach Geno Auriemma had, to put it politely, a different view. And though his Norristown-bred manner often was not polite, his response was crystal-clear.

If you’re really that annoyed, build a better team and beat his.

In the nine years from UConn’s 11th title to its 12th, that finally happened. Five other teams won the title, led by South Carolina’s three triumphs under Dawn Staley. LSU joined the Gamecocks as a new champion, Stanford won its first title in 29 years, and Notre Dame won its first in 17.

Three more schools made the championship game for the first time and were runners-up. Mississippi State and Arizona beat UConn in the Final Four to get there, and Caitlin Clark’s Iowa topped South Carolina and the Huskies in its two semifinal wins.

This year, seven teams entered March Madness with legitimate shots of winning it all. UConn was one of them but justifiably wasn’t a No. 1 seed. UCLA, South Carolina, Southern Cal, and Texas were. That the Huskies beat three of them — all but Texas — made their run even more impressive.

One of the title contenders was a No. 3 seed, Notre Dame. Another No. 3 seed, LSU, was the first team to oust one of the top seven, second-seeded N.C. State. And another No. 2 seed, Duke, nearly toppled the Gamecocks in the Elite Eight.

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Though first-round upsets were scarce, a few mid-majors had their day. Richmond, led by Cardinal O’Hara grad Maggie Doogan, beat Georgia Tech; South Dakota State toppled Oklahoma State; and Columbia beat Washington in a play-in game as one of three Ivy League schools in the field.

All of this made the tournament as refreshing as it was entertaining. It also sent a message to the rest of the sport: Perhaps it could be your turn some day if you do the work.

“I think the investment in women’s basketball in the universities, and then obviously the attention that is drawn because of the media writing and showing what it’s about, has certainly improved across the board,” said Villanova coach Denise Dillon, who annually matches wits with Auriemma in the Big East. “For so long, it was the UConn-Tennessee show, and then a couple of others would be sprinkled in here and there. But now you see different names in the top 25 throughout the year.”

The transfer portal certainly has helped with that, and this year’s tournament provided a major example. The Big 12’s TCU attracted Sedona Prince from Oregon in 2023 and Hailey Van Lith from LSU last summer, made its first NCAA Tournament in 15 years, and raced to the Elite Eight. Not only did the Horned Frogs beat Notre Dame in the Sweet 16, but Irish star guard Olivia Miles chose afterward to transfer to TCU for her final college season.

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“The way things are going,” Dillon said of all the movement, “any given year, a team can be at the top if they assemble the right group and they come together.”

No Big 5 team has reached the Elite Eight since Dillon’s predecessor, Harry Perretta, led Villanova there in 2003. But the Wildcats got close in 2023, when Maddy Siegrist’s squad reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 4 seed. The Wildcats’ early-round home games were the first NCAA women’s tournament contests in the Philadelphia area since 2011.

“We definitely got a taste of it,” Dillon said, “and I just feel that’s what our focus and attention will be. With some of the key players we have now, retaining them is a big task.”

She did not need reminding — no one on the Main Line does — that this did not happen with Lucy Olsen a year ago. Iowa invited the guard to be Caitlin Clark’s successor, surely with an NIL check to help, and Olsen said yes.

This year, Dillon lost sophomore guard Maddie Webber to the transfer portal. But freshman guard Jasmine Bascoe, the team’s leader in points, assists, and steals, chose to stay. That was a big relief.

So was hearing from new Villanova athletic director Eric Roedl that Dillon’s bosses are committed to ensuring that the women’s basketball team can compete — including in the expected new era of revenue sharing.

“They’re supporting, and they’re willing to do what is necessary,” she said. “It’s just us getting on the right track consistently, but I do certainly know we have their support.”

Temple coach Diane Richardson has her own perspective on not just the college game’s growth, but women’s basketball overall. She coached high school ball at D.C.-area powerhouse Riverdale Baptist from 2000 to 2006 and 2009 to 2012, before and then between various college stints.

“It’s been a hotbed of talent and people just pushing it and pushing girls’ basketball, and getting young girls involved in the DMV area,” she said, using the D.C. region’s slang term for itself. “I would say that early on, especially when I was at Riverdale, the bulk of the players in the DMV were very, very good, and college coaches started to realize that.”

In recent times, the Philadelphia area also has been a hotbed. Natasha Cloud, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Kahleah Copper rose from local AAU teams and high schools to college and the WNBA. Collegeville’s Olsen heard her name called in the second round of this year’s draft on Monday. Hannah Hidalgo will in two years, and down the road, it might be Jordyn Palmer, Ryan Carter, Jezelle Banks, or Jessie Moses’ turn.

Richardson would, of course, like to have a player that good on her team some day. And she knows what it will take for that to happen.

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“In terms of the revenue share, we would like to keep players home anyway,” she said. “But if you base it on revenue share, I don’t know that it would help. … As much as I would love to have all of the Philly kids here, you know it’s going to take money.”

She didn’t comment on her recent social media zinger about how agents asking her for big sums should call Temple’s athletic director instead. But she did return to the greater point.

“I think the Power Four [conference] teams are definitely flexing with the amount of money they have, and they’re offering amounts — and kids are going for those amounts, even though they’ll be sitting on the end of the bench,” Richardson said. “The money is tantalizing, I guess, for 18- to 22-year-olds and their parents and their handlers and their agents.”

As with so much else in the sport these days, Richardson knows the first step toward success is to address things as they are. Time will tell if others go along with her.