You want tough? Try being a bench player at UConn. Last season, freshman Maria Conlon’s campus welcome was an invite to guard All-America wing Svetlana Abrosimova every day. As Geno Auriemma says: "You’re tired and sore, your schoolwork is catching up with you, and Coach is bitching that you can’t guard Svet."

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If Conlon was thinking, "Who the hell can guard her?" she never said it out loud. Fact is, the combo guard wouldn’t trade her thankless role for anything. Because as the Huskies bear down on their second national title in three years, it’s reserves like Conlon (4.4 ppg, 2.1 apg as of March 1) and redshirt freshmen C Jessica Moore (5.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg) and F Ashley Battle (5.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg) who are doing the important scut work. UConn’s Fab Five are all double-digit scorers, so the subs make their mark changing the game with small moments, like Conlon’s forced turnover and out-of-bounds save vs. Virginia Tech on Feb.10.

"Most people would say we’re in a tough spot," Conlon says. "But we’re coming off the bench for the No.1 team in the country. It’s a spot we all want."

Entering the fall, Auriemma saw his green bench as the team’s lone weakness. But this coach knows how to whip away inexperience, with unrelenting intensity and male scrimmage players. His practices may actually be harder than games, given UConn’s average margin of victory: 37.1 points. "Our bench never plays against anyone better than what they see in practice," Geno says. "That’s a huge confidence boost for a young player." And makes that seat next to the screaming coach almost bearable.

This article appears in the March 18 issue of ESPN The Magazine.