UConn has received the letters of intent from the three recruits and just handed out a press release about the class of Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck.

Jefferson, a 5-foot-7 guard from Glenn Heights, Tex., is a home-schooled athlete who plays for the Texas Home Educators Sports Association Riders. Jefferson has led the Riders to four straight National Christian Home School Basketball Championships. Playing with the team since she was in eighth grade, Jefferson headed into Tuesday’s season opener with 2,541 points, 646 rebounds and 488 steals.

Stewart, a 6-foot-4 forward who is ranked as the top player in all the major recruiting services in the Class of 2012, has also been playing varsity basketball since she was in the eighth grade, has 1,668 points, 996 rebounds, 220 assists, 219 steals and 515 blocks in 93 career games at Cicero-North Syracuse (N.Y.) High. She was a member of the United States’ U-19 and Pan Am Games squads over the summer and was the top scorer and rebounder for both teams.

Following the game, UConn coach Geno Auriemma didn't pull any punches in verbalizing the potential impact of the class.

Tuck, a 6-foot-2 forward, was a teammate of Stewart’s on the gold-medal winning U-19 World Championship team, has 1,539 points, 652 rebounds and 97 assists in 90 career games at Bolingbrook High. As a junior, she led Bolingbrook to its third straight Illinois 4A title and the No. 2 ranking in the USA Today’s final national high school poll.

"This year what we are going to add is as good a threesome as we've had here in a long, long time," Auriemma said. "You can never tell what people are going to do when they get to college but these three, at least two of them have played enough USA Basketball that they are mature enough to know what it's like to play on a good team with really good players. Moriah hasn't had the opportunity to do that but she has played on an AAU that was the best in the country. These three are going to be the difference moving forward. What we have is significant but these three are going to be what puts up back in that category where we can win a national championship."

WIth all due respect to Jefferson and Tuck, who are among the top players in the class, Stewart is being touted as the next big thing at UConn.

"She has something that a lot of kids don't have, she has an incredible competitive spirit about her. She is one of the great competitors I have ever seen," Auriemma said. "Certainly Maya was a competitor, Diana was a competitor, Jen Rizzotti a competitor, Swin Cash a competitor. We've had a ton of competitors. This kid is in the mold of th ebest competitors we have ever recruited here at Connecticut, how hard she plays, how great she wants to be when she wants to impact the game.  I would say based on her her high school career and some of the things she has done in high school, she is as good as any high school player we have ever recruited."

UConn sophomore center Stefanie Dolson played with Stewart and Tuck on the U.S. U-19 team this summer and she spoke about her future teammates.

"I am excited for all of them. Moriah, she is that quick little guard that is going to annoy people on defense and hopefully being a really good point guard for us, pushing the tempo," Dolson said. "Morgan, she is going to be a real key player. She is going to be that hard working Kelly (Faris) type of player, getting rebounds, playing defense and making smart plays all the time. Breanna, she is going to be good. She is going to come in and really go crazy. She will get rebounds, she can block every shot and when she finishes around the basket, she has a great hook shot. She is a really great player.

"It was fun. We know a little bit of how they play so now we just have to get out there and get a feel for how we play. She can play at amy level and be the best player or if not, in the top three. She is a hard worker, she knows her role on every team she plays on and she knows it so well. She is so humble, I love her."