The powerhouse Mater Dei program played in the HoopHall Classic for the first time since current UConn All-American Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was a junior with the Monarchs. While there will be plenty to come from Kiernan and current star junior Katie Lou Samuelson, I thought I would pass on what he had to say about Mosqueda-Lewis's impressive first 2 1/2 seasons at UConn.

"We knew that was going to happen, Kaleena is awesome," Kiernan said. "The thing about Kaleena is she is very ambitious. She knew what she wanted, she knew she wanted to go to UConn as a junior, she knew how Geno (Auriemma) was and she wanted it. She never shied away from it. There are some nights when she probably regretted it, some timeout when she had her head down and she was getting yelled at but she is just an awesome kid. If you get one kid like that ... I am blessed, I've had a lot of good kids."

Before heading up to Springfield, I asked Mosqueda-Lewis for her recollections of the game she played in Springfield.

"It was a fun experience," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I don't really know anything about the (current Mater Dei) team but I know I had fun when I went up there and played in the game, It was a good experience for me."

Since her mother attended Mater Dei and was a member of the Monarchs' soccer and basketball teams, it was only natural that Mosqueda-Lewis would also head to Mater Dei for her four years of high school. It was a decision she never regretted.

"I think the fact that Coach Kiernan had a lot of expectations for us and he had coached at the college level and really wasn't going to let us not work hard or expect anything less than our best," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I think I was able to take criticism a lot better, listen to what my coach was saying rather than how he said it. I am just to able to continuously work hard, that is what my coach instilled in me."