UConn Women’s Basketball Post-game Notes: Irwin starts, a new ‘core four’ dominates scoring

Ian Bethune/The UConn Blog UConn head coach Geno Auriemma shouts out instructions to his team as Christyn Williams looks on.UConn women’s basketball opened the regular season with an underwhelming 72-61 win over the Cal Golden Bears. Head coach Geno Auriemma described it as a “weird” game, a word he used 11 times during his post-game press conference.

Here’s what stands out after one game:

Things were weird before the ball even tipped off. When the starting lineups were posted, senior Kyla Irwin took the fifth spot in the lineup among the other expected starters: Crystal Dangerfield, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Megan Walker and Christyn Williams.

While Irwin started two games last season when Walker…