Getting a little early jump on this since Bob Joyce of the UConn Radio Network asked me to go on the air with him during the pre-game.

Although the game was advertised as a noon game, it will actually tip at 12:21 p.m. since it will be the last of the four noon games to tip.

I have been told that if you watch the game on ESPN2 in Connecticut, you will get the entire game with no cutaways. If was watch it on ESPN2 HD, you are taking your chances.

Vermont certainly looks loose although can't say I'm a big fan of the practice of their mile-high bounce passes to each other. As one ball came flying by, I had flashbacks of wayward tosses during infield practices at some of the little league games I have covered in my career.

The starting lineups have just been posted it is Tiffany Hayes, Renee Montgomery, Kalana Greene, Tina Charles and Maya Moore for UConn, Vermont counters with May Kotsopoulos, Amy Rosenkrantz, Sy Janousek, Courtnay Pilypaitis and Alissa Sheftic (sounds more like one of the those European soccer lineups, who'd you like to have to spell those names all year round).

The officials are Kathleen Lynch, Kathy Lonergan and Kenneth Kelly. Kenneth Weiland is the standby official.

Former Vermont coach Cathy Inglese, a Wallingford native, said yesterday that she is planning to take in the games today. Nothing resembling any potential recruits sitting behind the UConn bench.

I find it ironic that not only did the Vermont women's basketball team have to go to Storrs to play UConn in the first round of the NCAA tournament but the men's hockey team drew Yale in the first round of the NCAA tournament in Bridgeport.

At least I will have better UVM memories than my previous assignment as the Yale football beat writer. One of the years I had to make the trip to Vermont (when the Catamounts played in the ECAC) an ice storm shut down the state of Vermont and pushed the game back a day. I knew it was bad when the Weather Channel was doing a live remote from the snow and ice covered lawn of my hotel.