MINNEAPOLIS — Some time ago, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma turned to Christyn Williams and asked the senior guard, is it hard to play at Connecticut, hard to play for him?

“Damn right,” Williams said. “Because you’re demanding.”

“Do you want me to change?” Auriemma followed up. Williams’ second answer was as direct as her first: “No.”

At the Women’s Final Four, where three No. 1 seeds (defending champ Stanford, South Carolina and Louisville) and one No. 2 seed (UConn) are set to give us three terrific last games of the 2021-22 season, there’s been lots of talk about the NCAA portal.

As of Thursday afternoon, more than 800 women’s basketball players had put their names in the portal, looking to leave one four-year school for another. There are former McDonald’s All-Americans, current bench warmers and everyone in between.

“I always like to say, the grass is greener on the other side because it’s fertilized with a bunch of (expletive),” said Louisville coach Jeff Walz, adding that while transfers have always been part of the game, there’s more awareness now because of immediate eligibility. “There are a lot of players that will jump into the portal after one year that don’t really have a good grasp of why they’re doing it.”

Yes, some of these players genuinely need to switch schools, maybe to be closer to family or maybe because they’re in a toxic situation. In an era of player empowerment, the portal gives athletes even more say in their careers, and coaches aren’t necessarily wild about the prospect of 18- 22-year-olds having more authority. Regardless of coaches’ frustrations though, it’s where we’re at with college sports, and there’s no going back.

Bottom line: Everyone in the portal is chasing something. But the reality that most of them — and their helicopter parents — don’t want to admit is that often, what they’re after is individual glory, something our social media world is obsessed with. Some of the transfers want the chance to play for a title.

Realistically, few of them are going to get either of these things. Dig deep, and you’ll find that there are many more unhappy transfers than the alternate.

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Transfer portal is latest trend

From Minneapolis, coaches are watching the flood of players who want out of their current situation. They’re not impressed, and they’re not shy about sharing their thoughts.

Auriemma was even more direct.

“You know those 850 people in the portal?” he said. “Three hundred of them are not going to find a school to go to because they’re going to realize it’s not the school they just left, it’s them. It’s just like last year. There were 1,000 kids in the portal and 250 of them had no place to go, and the (schools) they left don’t want them back. Whatever happened to, ‘Go (to college) and figure it the hell out?’ ”

Auriemma’s comments echoed much of what’s been said by various coaches this season, many of whom publicly rag on the portal, even if they’ve benefitted from it. To wit: each of the four teams left in the women’s NCAA Tournament has at least one transfer (there are 10 total among the four teams; Louisville has five).

Broaden it to include the entire tournament, and the numbers are even more startling. There were more than 185 transfers on rosters for the 68 NCAA Tournament teams. Assuming each team is carrying the full scholarship limit of 15 players, that means, on average, 18% of teams’ rosters are transfers.

Among all the hopping around, UConn starters Williams and Olivia Nelson-Ododa stand out for sticking around.

Williams, the top-ranked recruit in her class and the 2018 National Gatorade Player of the Year, has been open about the reality of playing for Auriemma, who is famously tough on his players.

During UConn’s regional final game against NC State, ESPN reported that Williams said of Auriemma, “he broke me.” Auriemma is known for being especially hard on his guards, and Williams regularly got the brunt of his anger, often publicly.

It’s been similar for Nelson-Ododa, the No. 5 recruit in the 2018 class. Those who have watched Nelson-Ododa over the last four years have probably seen a number of Aureimma tirades directed at the 6-foot-5 post player. Nelson-Ododa’s struggles with inconsistency often mirrored the struggles of her senior class, still in search of its first national championship, an unusual reality for any Husky player of the last two decades.

Sticking it out should be celebrated

But to Williams and Nelson-Ododa’s credit, neither considered entering the portal, rare for players of their generation.

“I knew things were going to be tough and things were going to be hard,” Williams said. “But there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think I’m experiencing that right now.”

Their perseverance and willingness to grow, no matter how painful or public it might have been — being yelled at on national TV can’t be any fun — should be not just noted, but celebrated.

“I think people associate coaching and teaching as two different things,” Auriemma said. “I think any good professor you had in high school or college probably was extremely demanding of you, if they were worth a damn.

“We demand a lot of our players because you can’t tell me when you come to Connecticut, ‘I want to go to the Final Four, and I want to win a national championship but I want to do it my way. I want to do it the easy way. I want to do it so that no matter what I do, everything is about me and my self-esteem and make sure ... you don’t hurt my feelings.’ "

Kids with that attitude, Auriemma said — and there are a lot of them these days, to hear it from college coaches — aren’t playing in Minneapolis this week.

“Hopefully, what I’m teaching my players every day is that life is hard,” he said. “And if you think it’s easy, then you’ve got a lot of growing up to do.”

Nelson-Ododa, who turned in a dominant 10-point, 14-rebound performance in UConn’s Sweet 16 win over Indiana, knew what she was getting into when she went to Storrs.

“Looking back at the person I was when I first got here to now, I think it’s a lot deeper than basketball, just in terms of how much I feel like I’ve grown up and was forced to grow up through certain situations,” Nelson-Ododa said. “This program really does push you toward that.”

That’s not just a mature answer from a veteran. It’s insight into what happens when student-athletes — and their parents — suck it up and stick it out. Sports are often highlighted as vessels for teaching moments. And in a time when so many run from those lessons, Williams and Nelson-Ododa are proof that after the struggle, there’s sunlight. It might have been a roller coaster of a four-year career, but each has ended with a trip to the Final Four. Most players are lucky to get here once.

Of course these two want to win a championship. UConn has been on a title drought since 2016, unheard of for the most dominant program in the history of the women’s game. But even if they lose, they’ll know they didn’t just survive, but thrived, as collegiate athletes.

How many of those 800-plus portal players are going to be able to say that?

Follow Lindsay Schnell on Twitter @Lindsay_Schnell

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Final Four: UConn players show transfer portal isn't always the answer