It was another eventful day at Gampel Pavilion.

Circumstances being what they are, there was a teleconference set up so UConn coach Geno Auriemma could speak to the national media. With the exception of one Syracuse reporter, the rest of the callers wanted to talk about Monday's game against North Carolina. There's one problem, UConn actually has a game against Syracuse on Saturday. So when the call was over, Auriemma begged "does anybody have a question about our game (Saturday)."

Auriemma's point was well taken but with a game on Saturday and travel day on Sunday, there was little choice but to do the conference call on Friday.

A few things of note. First, highly-touted sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis from Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif. took an unofficial visit to UConn on Friday. Mater Dei is playing Northampton (Mass.) High in Springfield, Mass. tonight so she took the opportunity to stop by on Friday. Mosqueda-Lewis, who is averaging 21.5 points for undefeated Mater Dei, could be the most highly-touted California prospect since Diana Taurasi before her high school career is over. I guess my question is - if UConn gets Laguna Hills junior Lauren Engeln and Mosqueda-Lewis to come East, will California schools give the Huskies as much of a cold shoulder as the schools in Georgia and Tennessee did after Auriemma secured a commitment from Maya Moore?

Auriemma and Pittsburgh men's basketball coach Jamie Dixon will be featured on ESPN's "Sunday Conversation." Both undefeated and top-ranked teams have games on the ESPN network on Monday night. Pitt will play Syracuse at 7 p.m. on ESPN while UConn and North Carolina will be on at the same time on ESPN2.

I noticed that Syracuse has been talking the talk about being able to come to Connecticut and beat the Huskies. Confidence is a wonderful thing and I would rather have a team come in with a bit of a swagger but my only question is where was that swagger when the Orange were losing at home to Seton Hall the last time out?

You'd never know that Gampel Pavilion was a basketball haven based on the conversations going on. Auriemma, a long-time Eagles fan, is crowing about his team being one win away from the Super Bowl while seniors Renee Montgomery and Kalana Greene are Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers fans and can only imagine the trash talk the good friends will be engaging in. To the best of my knowledge, UConn does not have an Arizona Cardinals fan. As for me, I've been a Buccaneers fans since the mid-1980s when I lived in Florida and the football season ended with Tampa's loss to Oakland, a loss that Auriemma was quick to remind me recently put the Eagles in the playoffs. All I have to say is I can not root for the Steelers simply because of the utter silliness of the Pittsburgh mayor legally changing his last name because it starts with "Raven". Give me a break. If they started a show based on the misplaced priorities of politicians, Mr. Pittsburgh Mayor's pathetic publicity stunt would rank second behind only Utah's attorney general starting an investigation into the legality of the system to decide which two Bowl Championship Series meet for the national title game in college football.