This just in, Tiffany Hayes can play a little bit.

Hayes dropped 28 on a Cal team more focused on stopping the prolific scoring trio of Maya Moore, Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles.

After missing her first shot, Hayes hit her final nine including five 3-pointers and had a couple scintillating coast to coast layups, had five rebounds, two steals, seven assists and ZERO turnovers. Of all the freshmen coming into the UConn program, none ever scored more points in a game than the 28 Hayes had. Maya Moore had the previous record of 25 set in the same round in the 2008 tournament.

Hayes has a style about her which is fun to watch. She has a little bit of Nykesha Sales in the flawlessness she plays with minus the scowl. Sure she can shoot but more than anything she can play. She can defend, rebound, set up her teammates, set screens, pretty much has the whole package. More than anything her style is steady as she goes. She never seems to get too high or too low. She said she was nervous before the game but you would never know it by the way she played.

"She is unique, she can do a lot of things," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "She's got that Florida 'hey what's the big deal. I'm good.' I said to her a few times on the bench 'do you need a breather?' She said 'no, I don't need a breather.' She looks like she is half asleep (on the bench) and then she goes by people. She just has this makeup which allows her to stay calm throughout the game. Freshmen have a tendency to get speeded up and she never gets ahead of herself."

If Hayes thrived in the starring role, the nominee for best performance in a supporting role is Kaili McLaren. With Tina Charles sitting for the final 14 minutes of the first half after picking up two fouls, McLaren was rock solid. Her only two points came with California holding an eight-point lead - the largest deficit the Huskies have faced this season. She had nine rebounds as well but her impact can not be measured by any statistics. The bottom line is when her team needed her the most, she delivered.

Up next is an Arizona State team people were writing off after losing leading scorer Dymond Simon (is that a great name or what?) with a season-ending knee injury. But the Sun Devils took out third-seeded Florida State and second-seeded Texas A&M to set up a 7 p.m. Tuesday showdown with UConn with a Final Four berth on the line.

After the game I caught up with ASU senior center Sybil Dosty, who played her first two seasons at Tennessee and is 2-0 against the Huskies. There will be some stuff from her regarding the exhiliration of playing in a UConn/Tennessee game.

She also addressed the Sun Devils' road to the Elite Eight.

"I think by pulling together, trusting each other and having confidence in each other and having confidence in ourselves," Dosty said. "We did have a slip up at the Pac-10 tournament against USC. But we came back, went back to practice, worked hard and never looked back."

Here's some other stuff from her which I didn't have space to get into my notebook running in Monday's edition of the Register.

HOW WILL THEY SLOW DOWN UCONN?
We are going to have to try our best to take them out of the flow. We are going to have to play great defense and have a lot of flow on offense.

REACTION TO TENNESSEE'S FIRST-ROUND LOSS
I was surprised. I watched the whole game and even when they were down, I thought they were going to come back. I knew they were going to pull it out and when they didn't I was very surprised. I felt sad for them because I know how hard they work down there. At the same time it is Tennessee, they are going to go back, work hard and come back ready next year.