If it's true that a team learns more from losing than winning, then No. 1 Connecticut is going back to school after Monday night's 88-86 overtime loss to Stanford at Maples Pavilion.
But if the Huskies have plenty of lessons to take from falling to the Cardinal, the question for the rest of us is what we learned about the team many assumed would be cruising to its third straight national title?
1. Breanna Stewart is not enough
"Stewie" had a pretty good night against the Cardinal -- a team-high 23 points on 8-of-18 shooting. But the consensus preseason player of the year did not dominate this game because she did not have enough offensive support from her teammates to draw away the attention of Stanford defenders and allow her to do the things she does best.
2. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis can't disappear for long stretches
Perhaps no team in the country is better than Stanford at taking a team's most dangerous weapon out of the game, and the Cardinal certainly did that with Mosqueda-Lewis, holding her to just two free throws by halftime and 13 points for the game (she did not make her first field goal until 9 minutes, 43 seconds were left in regulation). But the player who knocked down 10 3-pointers in the previous game against UC Davis has to find a way to help her team more on the offensive end than she did Monday.
Mosqueda-Lewis must also avoid mental mistakes, such as the 5-second turnover late in overtime as well as her inability to get the ball up the floor and get a shot at the basket with 2.6 seconds to go at the end of the extra period.
3. The Huskies miss Stefanie Dolson in the post
They miss her presence in the paint, her ability to deter guards from driving, her rebounding and her sure-handed scoring inside to free up the perimeter. And they miss her calming influence on the floor. Morgan Tuck and Kiah Stokes, who were a combined 4-for-13 from the floor with nine rebounds, have to be ready to fill that void.
4. Connecticut needs a leader to step up
When Stanford was mounting a comeback from 10 points down with 6:32 to play, the Huskies were failing to build on leads -- and making mistakes to boot. There didn't seem to be a player on the floor to pull the team together and regroup. Stewart has been able to be the goofy youngster for two years, and that time is now over. Moriah Jefferson is naturally quiet and finding her way on the floor, and Mosqueda-Lewis has never really had to play this role. Who steps up?
5. Nobody's perfect
The Huskies make themselves look infallible most of the time, as if things like Monday night could never happen. But Connecticut can make mistakes like other teams, they can have defensive lapses like other teams, they can miss shots and free throws like other teams -- and they can lose like other teams.