Getting ready to leave Gampel Pavilion after attending "A Night of Hope", the latest fundraising event of Geno's Cancer Team. Actually, the event was more about getting college students involved rather than raking in the dough.

There wasn't much basketball news to report. Auriemma said everything he has heard from UConn's marketing staff is that the 2008-09 national championship banner will be unveiled at the Nov. 14 season opener against Northeastern. The final plans have to be finalized or at least announced.

He also said that Tina Charles should be the next person affiliated with the women's program to be inducted into the Huskies of Honor since she fills the criteria of being a first-team All-American. Maya Moore will have to wait until her senior season.

Now back to the event at the Student Union.

There were about 50 UConn students on hand including 20 from a pair of UConn a capella groups called Ruby Fruit and Chordials. Auriemma was impressed enough with their performances (rightfully so as both groups sounded great) that he suggested they perform at halftime of one of UConn's games. Obviously, that was music to the ears of the two groups. Some members of Ruby Fruit wanted to make sure Auriemma wasn't joking around and he assured them he was being serious and gave them a person to contact in the athletics department to make it happen.

I just filed a story on the latest effort to move forward following the murder of Jasper Howard, a star cornerback on UConn's football team. It was ironic that the day that Howard was laid to rest in his hometown of Miami, there was a charity event inside the same Student Union Howard was inside of before an altercation led to his being stabbed to death on the early morning hours of Oct. 18.