Rarely does a year go by when I don't get asked why UConn doesn't set up a non-conference series with Marist, a perennial NCAA tournament team which will be making its eighth NCAA appearance in the last nine seasons after winning another MAAC tournament.

I headed up to Springfield for the MAAC final on Monday and spoke to Marist coach Brian Giorgis on a couple of topics including the possibility to playing UConn. Giorgis said he gets calls from UConn on a regular basis and would be open to signing up when the Huskies are willing to make it a home and home deal.

"They call every year and I say if you come to our place, we will go to yours and be happy to but I want them at our place because I think our fans deserve to have somebody the caliber of UConn," Giorgis said. "We are not going to beat them at our place, I am not delusional but they want to give guarantees because they get great crowds and I understand that. The day they want to start doing home and home and I can have our fans say 'hey, this is one of the best teams in the country with the greatest coach in the country and they have national players of the year.' If they beat us by 50 at home, fine as long as our fans get to see them.

"We don't do guarantee games, we've stopped doing them. We played them in the preseason WNIT that one year (in 2005), we were only down three at the half, Geno benched all his big kids went with five guards and just killed us in the second half. We play a home and home with Oklahoma, their coach is going to do that for a second time, we will play them at their place next year and they will come back. We are doing it with Kentucky, Kansas State come here and we went out there and we have done it with Villanova. It is what our fans deserve, they deserve to see the best people. I don't need $20,000 (guarantee), if you want to offer me $100,000 like they do on the men's side, sure I'll go do it. I don't need $20,000 to go get my brains beat in, we want them to come beat our brains in at our place as well as their place to give us a chance to see how we do. They way they play, you only get better and learn a ton from it so I'd love to play but at our place too."

Also, I just checked the Paradise Jam website and saw Wake Forest added to the list of teams playing in the 2012 event. UConn, DePaul and Purdue were previously announced as teams playing in the field and when the other four teams are finalized, tournament organizers will release the full field. The tournament will be played from Nov. 22-24 at St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands with UConn playing three games in three days.