In the seven years I have been the UConn women's beat writer, I've had to opportunity to document in relationships the Huskies' Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma has had with some of his players good (Sue Bird, Renee Montgomery, Mel Thomas), not so good (Charde Houston) and hilarious (Diana Taurasi). I see many of the same traits when I look at Louisville coach Jeff Walz and his all-everything senior forward Angel McCoughtry.

When McCoughtry accidentally belched before giving an answer at the podium in Monday night's post-game press conference, Walz could only shake his head in disbelief before turning to her and saying "I can't believe you just did that."

McCoughtry apologized multiple times but never missed a beat - especially when she was throwing praise in her coach's direction when discussing the play he designed coming out of a timeout to lead to a game-decided three-point play for McCoughtry.

"Coach is a genius and we get the (basket) and one. But he is still young. He will be on Geno's level soon," McCoughtry said.

After the press conference Walz expounded on the relationship he has with his two seniors McCoughtry (who is the likely No. 1 overall pick in next month's WNBA draft) and Candyce Bingham (who Walz believes could be a first-round pick or at least go early in the second round).

"I can't even put it into the words. I kids laugh that Candyce is the mom and Angel is the crazy aunt and it is kind of the way it is," Walz said. "Candyce will get her calmed down when she needs to and I think Angel has benefitted from that tremendously. We are going miss both of them tremendously but I don't think people realize how much we are going to miss Candyce.

"When you see her (McCoughtry) play and she starts to get upset, our kids don't take it personally. In practice, she is off the wall. She came to practice one day with rollers in her hair, sponge rollers. I said 'hey, just tape them up, I don't care.' She went into the training room and got a pre wrap, wrapped her entire head. My assistants said 'you can't let her ...' I said 'if she plays hard, I don't care.' She went out and played as hard as she can with the pre wrap around her head. My kids look at her and say 'oh my God, I can't believe she is out here doing this.' But she practices like she plays. She is a special kid. It's just like today, this poor kid burbs when in being interviewed. Just things like that (happen), you look at her and you have to laugh because she has a personality that can laugh at herself."

If McCoughtry is the most talented wing player available in the draft, Maryland's Marissa Coleman may be a close second so I asked Walz, who was an assistant at Maryland during Coleman's first two seasons with the Terrapins how the two compare.

"They are both going to be great pros," Walz said. "They both have a great frame on them. Angel will put on some weight when she really gets into the weight room and starts to eat some more food. Marissa probably already has 10 of 15 more pounds to her so they are going to be great pro players. There are (similarities) but Angel is more of a slasher, Marissa is more of a 'I'll back you down, I'll make a move.' She is stronger and can score off of you but they can both knock down a 3, they can both compete hard. It was a joy to coach Coleman for two years and it's been great to coach Angel for two years."

POISON IVY?
So could the Ivy League champion draw UConn in the NCAA tournament opener for the second year in a row?

Well, we should have a pretty good idea in the next couple of days. Right now Ohio Valley champion Austin Peay has the lowest RPI (according to collegerpi.com) among those who have claimed automatic bid. That could change shortly. Tonight Dartmouth (with an RPI of 137) can win the Ivy League title with a win over Harvard and tomorrow Lafayette, No. 245 in the RPI listing, goes for Patriot League title with a game at top-seeded Lehigh. You can mark it down, if Lafayette wins it will be headed to Storrs to play top-seeded UConn at either noon or 2:30 p.m. on March 22.

I'll leave with a great parting line Walz had for McCoughtry after she and Bingham finished their portion of the post-game interview session last night.

"Nice job, except for that burbing thing."