Geno Auriemma figured when he made the walk to the UConn bench shortly before tipoff for Sunday's game DePaul, the stands at Gampel Pavilion would resemble a ghost town since it would be next to impossible for the Husky faithful to be able to dig out from one of the worst winter storms in state history.

What he wasn't expecting was to see and hear a crowd of 8,861 in the house.

"We have always had a core, a fan base that has been exceptionally loyal to us so these 88 (hundred) that came out, they are probably our absolute strongest fans and maybe we should lock them up before every weekend game and let them out for the weekends," Auriemma said. "It is different here in Connecticut. We are spoiled, lucky to have the kind of fan base that we have and sometimes we take it for granted. I said there wouldn't be anybody here because the roads weren't any good and people would say 'forget it.' But this time of the day has been successful for us, Saturday at 4 or Sunday at 3:30 has proved to be good, it doesn't interfere with a lot of things, you still get home at a certain hour but it took a lot of effort for some people to get here as well as the students, it took no effort for them, but at least they made the walk down here."

Auriemma thanked the fans for coming out after the game while associate head coach Chris Dailey did the same at the end of her halftime interview.