Friday's game will look pretty impressive in the UConn record books with the Huskies setting a single-game record by holding Fairleigh Dickinson to five first-half points and pulling down 63 rebounds, the most since a Nov. 15, 2001 game against North Carolina.

But after letting the Huskies know now disappointed he was with how they played in the first game of the three-day World Vision Classic, Auriemma didn't pull any punches in expressing his disgust with the level of basketball he saw from his team.

"I thought it was the worst exhibition of basketball I have seen by two teams in the 27 years I have been at Connecticut," Auriemma said. "We should give everybody a refund, it was embarrassment I don't know what that was but it wasn't anything I am used to seeing. It was just two bad teams playing bad basketball.

"Regardless of the score, we ought to complete that pass, that pass or that pass, get this shot if we want that shot or that shot if we want that shot. We ought to be able to make a free throw (UConn was 8 of 19 from the foul line). We ought to be able to do some things that you go and work really hard on practice every day. You aren't really looking at what the score is. You just want your team to play some semblance of good basketball and I didn't see any of that today."

Wait, he was just warming up.

"We are a very immature bunch. We probably came out of the game Monday (when UConn beat No. 3 Stanford) and thought that was really hard and this would be real easy. It is just immature. We have too many players who aren't quite ready yet to put together the kind of consistent (effort)  you would like to see.

"You are playing to make yourself feel better. You aren't really concerned about who the opponent is or say 'oh it is only natural.' Maybe it is when you are playing somebody who is struggling as much as (FDU) is that your concentration would go away or your intensity level would drop. I tell my players all the time that we just won by (46) and you can't sit there and say 'we feel really good, we got a lot accomplished.' After tomorrow's game you want to be able to sit there and say we got a lot done Maybe it was something they ate. Maybe when you eat too much turkey, you play like a turkey."

After the game the players said they understood why they drew Auriemma's ire.

"It's just a matter of if you want to play great for all 40 minutes or not," said UConn senior guard Tiffany Hayes said. "I think some of the times we took possessions off and that is what happens.That is one of the first things we said when we got to the locker room is that it is today and we still two games to redeem
ourselves."

The good news is that UConn will be playing games in the next two days rather than suffer the wrath of an irate Auriemma.

"We definitely would rather play a game than go to practice tomorrow," Hayes said. "We are thankful for that, Thanksgiving just passed and we are thankful for that."