Caroline Doty has been down the road of recovery before so it was easy to excuse the UConn senior guard if she was a bit of a matter of fact in talking about being fully cleared to practice.

Doty didn't even remember the exact date that she was allowed to go through basketball drills without restriction with her UConn teammates (UConn coaches can't work with the entire team at the same time until Oct. 15).

"It gets better every week," Doty said before heading out for a pickup game at Gampel Pavilion on Wednesday. "During individuals with (assistant coach) Shea (Ralph), she says it looks better than last week and as long as I keep hearing that and knowing that, I will continue to get better. It is still a while to that first game so I have to keep that in the back of my mind too. If I can't do something this week, I still have next week. I am going to keep working at it, get in the gym and make as many shots as I can and working on my weaknesses so I am ready for the games come November."

That wasn't the approach she took in the past and wasn't the way she went about it one the first day she could go full speed.

"You are the ball hog and you are the person nobody wants to play with because you want to do everything," Doty said. "Coach (Geno Auriemma) pulled me aside and said 'who do you think you are, Kobe Bryant?' because I was trying to do too much. He said you are like the kid going into the candy store and eating all the candy."

Doty said she hasn't made a final decision on whether this will be her final season or if she will apply for a fifth year of eligibility.

There will be more from Doty in this blog and in a story in tomorrow's edition of the New Haven Register.