INDIANAPOLIS—The idea of a freshman declaring, from time of her arrival, a desire to win four national championships is a rather audacious thing.

Even at a place like UConn, where national championships are the expectation, and not merely a desire.

When Breanna Stewart, a gangly 6-foot-4 high school All-American from Syracuse, N.Y., arrived in the fall of 2012, regarded as the next great player in the college game, she made her goals crystal clear to her coaches.

In return, they held her to that objective. There would be no backing off, no change of heart or tamping down of her commitment.

If this is what she wanted, she needed to understand what it would take to achieve it.

“We told her that once you say it, you’re giving us permission to help you do it,” said UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey. “It’s great that she said it but she said it only once. It’s not like she kept saying all the time, ‘I want to this.”

If Dailey was surprised at hearing such an ambitious goal, she didn’t acknowledge it. Stewart and fellow All-American classmates Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck haven’t dwelled on the feat all that often publicly, although they have discussed it occasionally among themselves.

“We said at the start of the season that we wanted to make a run at history, but that’s been it,” Dailey said.

As they prepare for their last college game, the UConn trio is on the cusp of history, a win from becoming the first players in Division I college basketball to win four titles.

The Tennessee Lady Vols won NCAA titles from 1996-98 with Chamique Holdsclaw and Kellie Jolly, but were denied their bid for a four-peat at the hands of Duke in the Elite 8.

The Huskies take on former Big East rival Syracuse Tuesday at Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in a career finale that Stewart described on Monday as “the point where we want to be.”

“We know what it takes to get to this level, to get to this stage, and to succeed on this stage,” she said.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma, who teared up with emotion at a press conference with Stewart on Saturday, couldn’t resist taking a poke at his latest superstar, who was saddled with two early fouls before scoring 16 points in an 80-51 national semifinal win over Oregon State.

“I just hope she has more national championships than fouls tomorrow night,” Auriemma cracked. “That will help us a lot.”

UConn’s 10 titles match the great UCLA dynasty of the 1960s and 1970s led by John Wooden. An 11th would get them level with the Bruins all-time (their last crown was in 1995, under Jim Harrick).

While debate rages on in Connecticut about whether Stewart is the greatest player in the history of her own program (and, by extension, the women’s college game), Stewart’s laurels are breathtaking to behold.

She’s the only player to be named Women’s Final Four Most Outstanding Player three times and only the second player, along with Cheryl Miller, to win the women’s Naismith Trophy three times.

Her 2,653 points are second in UConn history behind only 3,000-point scorer Maya Moore and she’s the Huskies’ career shot-blocking leader, surpassing the 400 mark.

About the only thing Stewart has been denied in her glittering college career has been a homecoming game against Syracuse this season.

As a girl, Stewart attended Orange games at the Carrier Dome, five minutes away from her home. Her parents are still friendly with Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman, who said that if he weren’t facing her team for the national championship, he’d be rooting for her.

While much has been made of the so-called Syracuse snub, it might be a stretch to suggest that Stewart is overly consumed by it.

Not now. Not right before the very last game she will ever play for UConn.

Stewart did say she is excited to end her college career “against my hometown team.” Orange guard Brittney Sykes, her AAU teammate with the Philadelphia Belles, is a close friend.

Syracuse, which upended a No. 1 seed in South Carolina, then Tennessee and Washington to reach its first NCAA title game, hasn’t played UConn since 2009, when both schools were in the Big East. The Orange haven’t beaten the Huskies in more than 20 years.

Hillsman laughed when asked what he thought of Stewart’s prediction that UConn would win.

“What is she supposed to say? I told our fans and our crowd that we’re going to win, too,” Hillman said. “Is she supposed to say Tuesday that we’re going to lose? It’s amazing what becomes news.”

A UConn win on Tuesday would hardly rate as stunning news, but it would signify for three departing players the realization of a feat that not even they could comprehend at the outset.

Tuck, whose 21-point performance against Oregon State triggered UConn in the semifinals, said she, Stewart and Jefferson “kind of talked about it when we first came here. Now to be a game away from doing it, it’s really hard to believe it.”

Jefferson, the two-time Nancy Lieberman Award winner as the nation’s best point guard, acknowledged that when she, Stewart and Tuck arrived they joined a strong cast led by Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley for their first two seasons.

“We knew we had the opportunity to do something special,” Jefferson said. “We definitely talked about it, but Stewie is the one that said it on TV.”

Still, even Auriemma admits to being taken aback that Stewart’s desire is a game away from becoming a dream come true.

“Having said it and now being on the verge of being able to do it, those are amazing things that it’s like a storybook,” he said.

“You have to admire her. She’s got a lot of guts, Stewie does, and you what we talk about on our team a lot is courage. And it takes a lot of courage to say certain things and to be able to do certain things.”