The casual observer might have walked into the interview room at the XL Center and thought it's been nothing but clear sailing watching UConn's Geno Auriemma, Maya Moore and Bria Hartley accept the Coach, Player and Freshman of the Year awards from the Big East on Friday.

The fact is that it has not always been the smoothest of seas.

Auriemma believes it's been a more challenging rise to the top of the Big East without the graduated Tina Charles and Kalana Greene and with guard Caroline Doty out for the season with a knee injury.

More than ever, Moore has been asked not to settle for 3-pointers and look to get into the lane and be a physical force.

Then there is Bria Hartley, a freshman who walked in and quickly ascended into the starting role but not just any role, but as the starting point guard.

"It's a Catch-22," Auriemma said. "If Caroline is around, then maybe Bria doesn't have to start and maybe Bria doesn't make this much progress this quickly but she probably doesn't struggle as much either. In order to make the progress, she had to struggle. The fact that Stefanie has to start and play that many minutes, that's probably not good. That can't be good when you are a freshman, throw them in and then they look at you and say 'I need a breather.' Tough, who am I going to put in."

In recent weeks, Auriemma has been reminding Hartley that at her current pace she would be the first UConn point guard to have more turnovers than assists since Jen Rizzotti in the 1992-93 season.

"She has taken a lot of grief from me day in and day out," Auriemma said. "What she gets from me isn't even close to what she gets from Shea (Ralph, Hartley's position coach at UConn). She has not had it easy this year. She's in a very difficult position yet the things that we saw from her in high school, she loves the big moment, she loves the pressure. I think for her to come into this environment where everything is magnified and to do that says a lot about her character, what kind of person she is."

As Auriemma mentioned, it is Ralph - herself a former Big East Freshman of the Year - who has been entrusted with Hartley's development.

"Our freshmen this year had a unique opportunity because Bria walked right into a starting spot as did Stefanie," Ralph said. "Without them, we wouldn't be able to do the things that we've done. It's been good to see her kind of embrace that. One of the things I can say about Bria is that she is competitive and she doesn't want to lose and I think you have to have that edge to be successful here because every day we are putting her in situations that are really tough and she fails and fails and fails every day but she is getting better and that is mainly because she is tough, she is competitive, she doesn't want to give up and she wants to win. It is a testament to her to be able to contribute like she has this year."

Speaking of the challenges faced by the freshmen, there is the story that Hartley revealed on Thursday about the freshmen being booted from the UConn locker room from mid-November until early February.

"So much of it is not even punishment," Auriemma said. "It's 'hey, you aren't even part of our team. Go over there with those guys and just show up at practice, you aren't really on our team yet. When you are on our team then you can come back but this locker room is for guys on our team.' You just tell them that to see if you can get a reaction out of them. Then we had a big win and the great negotiator Bria Hartley comes over and says 'Coach, can we get back in the locker room?' I said 'I don't know, CD (UConn associate head coach Bria Hartley) doesn't want you guys in there so ask her.'

"We had a great time with these guys early on. It was more fun than it was anything else, just to see their reaction. We do stuff behind the scenes that if we ever talked about it, you would laugh. They are young and they don't know. Shea, Marisa, CD they are exasperated at practice every day because these guys, there is so much you have to teach them and so much they don't know. It is just a lot for them to get."