It was a 2 for the price of 1 day in terms of conference calls.

It started with the Big East call where Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw was the most popular coach, getting asked a half dozen questions ranging from the ESPN GameDay extravaganza next Saturday to the impact of dynamic freshman Skylar Diggins and return to the court of Devereaux Peters.

As the first Big East call normally is, a popular line of questioning is "can anybody beat UConn." The answers were close enough in content to lead one to believe that the coaches were reading off cue cards. "The other team has to play a perfect game and UConn can't play well yada, yada, yada."

Also, Providence coach Phil Seymore had high praise for freshman guard Symone Roberts, a former New Britain star who had five steals in the Friars' win over Villanova Wednesday. (A side note: for all those freaking about UConn only averaging about 9,000 fans per game, the announced attendance at the Villanova/Providence game was 223).

Up next was a call with North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell. The biggest news is that Jessica Breland, who is missing the season as she battles cancer, began practicing with the team last week and will be making the trip to Connecticut. In fact, she will head out to meet with the officials as one of North Carolina's captains.

Also, Chay Shegog played in last night's win over Georgia Tech after being sidelined with a concussion but highly-touted freshman Tierra Ruffin-Pratt, who was briefly on UConn's recruiting radar, is iffy to play because of a dislocated shoulder. She actually has issues with both shoulders.

Sylvia, as she annually does, gave a shootout to UConn's fans.