When UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma heard the news, it was almost too stunning for him to absorb the magnitude of it all.

Tina Stewart, a junior on Middle Tennessee's team, was stabbed to death with police charging her roommate with first-degree murder.

"I can't imagine getting your kids to come to school here and something like that happens, how do you explain that to anybody?" Auriemma said. "You are in college, it is supposed to be the four best years of your life. What could go so wrong for two people to room together for that to happen, wow."

Middle Tennessee is the top seed in the Sun Belt Tournament and scheduled to play on Sunday. Auriemma admits that he isn't sure his squad could take the floor in the wake of a situation like the one the Middle Tennessee players are facing.

"I don't even know if my guys would be able to play," Auriemma said. "I can't speak for them but I think it would be very, very difficult."

HIGH PRAISE FOR DEPAUL'S FELICIA CHESTER
It's safe to say that Auriemma thinks very highly of DePaul's Felicia Chester. How highly? Well, since he is unable to vote for his own players for individual awards, he cast his vote for the DePaul senior for Big East Player of the Year.

When he mentioned that fact on Thursday, I mentioned that Chester was not named to either first or second team All-Big East Auriemma's response was a classic one.

"That is why some teams in our league never get better," Auriemma said. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If she was a free agent, I'd sign her tomorrow and I'd give her my own money, that is how much I like the kid."

So how can somebody who drops 19 points on UConn, has 20 against Notre Dame and 24 against Stanford not even be considered one of the best 21 players in the Big East? First of all, she should have been at worst a second team pick. One reader of this blog believes she should have been a first-team pick and I would have had no problem with that but coaches tend to vote off what they see so let's take a look at Chester's season. Keeping in mind that votes are cast before the final game of the regular season, Chester played 15 Big East games up to that point and scored in single figures more times than she hit double figures. Against UConn, South Florida and West Virginia she averaged 17.7 points and 6.8 rebounds but in the other 12 conference games she averaged 8.3 points and 6.1 rebounds. Still, it is hard to understand how you could name 21 players in the Big East better than her. Of course, I couldn't name 21 players in the conference more deserving than UConn's Stefanie Dolson either.

Personally, I wish the league would go back to the days of naming five or six players to the first team because 11 first-team selections tends to cheapen the award a little bit. There's nothing wrong with five first-team picks and the player of the year, five second-team selections and then throw others on the third team or honorable mention.