It should hardly come as a surprise that the passing of North Carolina State coach Kay Yow was a popular subject in UConn's post-game press conference following the Huskies' dismantling of Cincinnati.

Here are the thoughts of UConn coach Geno Auriemma
"She had a great spirit and I think God rewarded her for it. She was one to fight the fight. She was positive all the time. She never felt sorry for herself, she used it as a teaching tool and motivator for people that she came into contact with. She was given that mission for all those years so I guess it was time to go because she had done all she could do.

"When you think about most coaches who get to coach the Olympic team or get in the Hall of Fame, you think of national championships and Final Fours and all the accolades you accomplish. Kay went to one Final Four and I think her being in the Hall of Fame is (due to) what she contributed to the game and the people she touched. I think her Hall of Fame, her personality and who she is, she has no enemies because she is honest and she is genuinely nice human being unlike most of the coaches in the profession."

UConn sophomore forward Maya Moore appeared to get a little choked up when she remembered meeting Yow when her AAU team played in a tournament at NC State when Moore was in middle school.

"She was one of the first coaches I was able to be really recruited by," Moore said. "When I was playing with my AAU team at NC State. I got the chance to talk to her, she is just very inspiring. Her priorities were in line and she really cares about her players."

HALL BACKTRACKING
Cincinnati coach J. Kelley Hall, the only Big East coach not to pick UConn as the team to beat in the preseason Big East coaches' poll, was practicing a bit of damage control when he was asked about it after the game.

"What I tried to explain, the statement I was trying to make it was no disrespect towards Geno and his program. I was talking about the unbalanced schedule. Rutgers was 2 or 3 in the country and (UConn) had to play them twice so starting right there (UConn) had the toughest. I knew Rutgers went to Louisville and Louisville went to UConn so if they (UConn and Rutgers) split ...

"What I should have done is split
the vote but what I was doing was making a statement because I said this to Barb Jacobs and the conference, I don't think the schedule is balanced. I'm not
saying it wasn't fair but the point I was making was that it wasn't balanced. Looking back I should have split the vote."