Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Center of attention

It is a pretty safe bet that Pittsburgh senior guard Shavonte Zellous will not be lonely on Sunday.

UConn has been especially effective in shutting down the opposing team's top scorer - particularly in Big East play - and figure to shadow Zellous, the Big East's leading scorer.

For those who are statistical mavens, it should be noted that the only leading scorer of a Big East team to top their season scoring average and shooting percentage against the Huskies. Karee Houlette of Georgetown is the player in question, hitting 7 of 12 shots en route to 20 points.

Here's a look at how the rest of the top offensive options have fared versus the Huskies.

Kahla Roudebush, Cincinnati 16.2 points 3-12 7 points
Deirdre Naughton, DePaul 15.8 points 7-21 21 points
Karee Houlette, Georgetown 10.2 points 7-12 20 points
Angel McCoughtry, Louisville 22.4 8-19 24 points
Angel Robinson, Marquette 14.0 points 0-11 1 point
Epiphanny Prince, Rutgers 20.5 points 8-21 19 points
Shantia Grace, South Florida 14.9 points 2-12 8 points
Monique McLean, St. John's 17.3 points 1-12 3 points
Erica Morrow, Syracuse 16.3 points 2-8 8 points
Liz Repella, West Virginia 15.4 points 6-17 15 points
Takisha Granberry, West Virginia 15.4 points 6-14 17 points

As previously mentioned, Laguna Hills (Calif.) junior wing Lauren Engeln is in town along with her father for an unofficial visit. The Engelns figure to have prime seats behind the UConn bench Sunday.

There will be plenty of off-court things going on Sunday.

UConn's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee will hold a book drive with fans invited to drop off children's books which will be donated to the Burgdorf Health Center in Hartford.

Also, UConn will unveil the newest addition to its Huskies of Honor before the game.

UConn will be wearing uniforms with pink included as part of "February Frenzy." The annual promotion used to raise money for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. Three UConn No. 1 jerseys will go up on an online auction tonight beginning at 6 p.m. at www.genoscancerteam.com and will be open for bidding until Saturday.

Then there is the reunion between UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph and the Panthers. Ralph spent five seasons at a Pittsburgh assistant before returning to her alma mater to coach when Tonya Cardoza took the head job at Temple.

"Obviously I am excited to see them, they are like family to me and excited to see everybody but once the beginning of the game happens, it is just a game," Ralph said. "I work here, I love it here and it is where my heart is. This is the big game for us, a big game in the conference for us and we have to win it."

Zellous and her teammates are anxious to see Ralph or as they called her "Coach Shea."

"We miss her so much since she left," Zellous said. "We keep in touch with her even though she is gone, she will always be our Coach Shea and we will always love her. There are going to be a lot of emotions going through us and her because we know she misses us just like we miss her. She had a big role (in Zellous' development) because she was one who contacted me all the time and told me 'get you behind in the gym, you need to do this or do that.' Coach Shea has a big role because she really helped me develop my game."

I asked Ralph if all the players called her Coach Shea and where that came from. She said they wanted to call her "Coach something" and she didn't want to be called "Coach Ralph." I asked her what UConn players call her and she said "Shea."

So much for formalities in Husky Nation, I guess.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Any news on how Engelns' visit went? Certainly picked a good game to see!

9:14 PM 

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