At times Geno Auriemma would watch the events unfolding before his eyes with stunned silence and other times he merely shook his head in disgust.

When he finally brought an end to Tuesday's practice, he did not hold back. Auriemma admonished the upperclassmen for a lack of focus and accused them of letting the younger players determine how the Huskies were going to practice.

A few minutes later Auriemma chalked up the less than stellar effort as a result of the long road trip as much as anything else.

"It is a long trip, (UConn returned) back to school yesterday so not exactly ideal scenario and the young guys they struggle with that transition," Auriemma said. "A&M, the Virgin Islands, back to school and there is no let up, no break in terms of what they are expected to do. Sometimes they need a little bit of help and that is one of the things I talked to the upperclassmen about. They have to not be just responsible for themselves because they know how to get ready, they know how to take care of themselves because they have been through all of this. Sometimes they forget that there are guys on our team, freshmen and sophomores, who just need to be brought along and need to be constantly reminded. That is pretty much what today was. We got a lot of things done but our concentration wasn't quite where I wanted it to be for long stretches at a time."

The focus during the practice we were able to watch was on a trapping, zone defense and it did not always go well. The only time UConn got to run offense in the final 30 minutes of practice was when they got a stop on defense. One of those times Moriah Jefferson spotted up from the perimeter and knocked down a 3-pointer. Although the shot appeared to be rushed a little and other options were available, Auriemma had no problem with the shot and he actually applauded the decision.

"Look to be a scorer, look to score," Auriemma proclaimed.

Another time as the five Huskies on the floor scrambled to cover the five male practice players he said "you almost did a great job."

It's no wonder that players past and present say that UConn's practices are more challenging than a majority of the games.