UConn freshmen Bria Hartley and Stefanie Dolson looked and acted like they were given word to choose their words carefully regarding the decision of classmate Samarie Walker to quit the UConn squad.

"Samarie, to me she doesn't really show a lot of emotion," Hartley said. "I don't know what to say about it."

Dolson had a little - with the key word being little - more to say about it.

"It is her decision," Dolson said. "I didn't really talk to her a lot about it but it is her decision and we wish her the best of luck in the future. I can't say I am surprised. It is her decision, we wish her the best of luck and we'll miss her.

"She's a roommate and a friend. We will still be great friends after this. I am always there to encourage her and talk to her about things but at the same time, it is her business. If I asked a question and she just wants to give me an answer that is it. I didn't push things."

UConn senior Maya Moore, who was in the program when Elena Delle Donne and Jessica McCormack opted to head home to Delaware and New Zealand respectively before playing a game with the Huskies had this to say:

"It is tough to know what somebody is really thinking. Not having been around her for three or four years, I am not going to say I could have predicted it. I've never thought about anybody leaving and not being with the team."

UConn coach Geno Auriemma had plenty to say about Walker and the decision to become the first player in UConn's main rotation to leave the program in the middle of a season since the Huskies won the first of its seven national titles during the 1994-95 season.

"She was really struggling with basketball. I said since when 'she said since sophomore year of high school,'" Auriemma said. "So it has been a real struggle for her for the last couple of years and it just kind of all kind of caught up to her. She is going to try to figure out what she wants to do whether it is basketball or not basketball. It is probably a bigger issue than that (where her next basketball stop may be) right now. We have been trying to work with her for the last couple of months but it just hasn't worked.

"We thought she had started to turn the corner at one point. There is very little, you can't make somebody want to do something that you feel in their heart that they don't really want to do. It is very frustrating for everybody. Her mom and dad have seen this happen in the past. Marissa has spent a lot of time working with her individually on the court. There is only so much that a coaching staff or anybody else for that matter can do. This is isn't an extracurricular activity when you just use it as a hobby. You accept a scholarship to play Division I basketball, there is commitment required physically, mentally, emotionally. That $30,000 scholarship doesn't come just because you are a nice kid, if it did there would be hundreds of thousands kids on scholarships who are nice kids. You have to be able to put forth that kind of commitment, that effort and that kind of passion. Samarie says that she is not able to do that at this point.

"It's unfortunate for her. Not for us, we will go on and we will do what we do. I am sure that her parents are disappointed. I asked her point blank 'why would you come here to college to play basketball?' She made a comment that my parents wanted me to so right away you know that it is a delicate situation. It's not fair to the rest of the kids on the team either. If you are going to have any kind of level of success, you have to have everybody invested to the same level, the same amount otherwise it is not going to work."

In retrospect, Auriemma said there were signs of an issue with Walker while he was recruiting her out of Dayton, Ohio powerhouse Chaminade Julienne.

"It is easy to look back now and say 'I saw signs of it,'" Auriemma said. "But you can always chalk those things up to a variety of reasons. There were signs also that she wanted to do it. She came in here way, way, way out of shape. The whole summer was spent in trying to get her in shape and that is one of the reasons she was hurt the whole preseason. But she worked really hard to get in great shape so you could never tell where is she, is she is one who didn't get ready to play meaning that she really wasn't interested in playing or the one who worked so hard to try to play."

I was told by a UConn spokesman that Walker is enrolled and attended class on Wednesday, the first day of the spring semester. She is obviously still weighing her options of whether she wants to attend school for the rest of the year before transferring. She has until Jan. 31 to withdraw from her current classes without it impacting her grade-point average.

The last time I spoke with Samarie was the day before she would play the final game of her UConn career. Walker was coming off a career-high 15 points in a win over St. John's. She did not sound like a person ready to stop playing at UConn but a player eager to improve.

"I had a film session with (UConn assistant coach) Marissa (Moseley) and she asked me why I was so hesitant and I said I was timid," . She told me not to be so when I came out here, I tried not to be and tried to be more aggressive.

"I don't understand why. If I watch myself on film, I can see what I am doing wrong."

I asked her about whether she felt any pressure to carry on the tradition of UConn women's basketball and her answer made it clear that she thought of herself very much as part of the UConn program and talented freshman class.

"We knew coming here that we had big shoes to fill, there were five of us and there were five upperclassmen," Walker said. "We always try to improve every day, we stick together and push each other every day and push the upperclassmen as well."

In other news from practice, Hartley said she is not concerned about the right ankle she injured in Monday's win over North Carolina.

"When we came back, I was working with Rosie (UConn women's basketball trainer Rosemary Ragle) getting the swelling down. It is recovering well, I am wearing an ankle brace. I've hurt my ankle before, I have actually broke this ankle years ago. I usually roll it and walk it off but this was a little bit more, I guess I hurt it more than I usually do."