Trip down memory lane for former UConn forward
Nobody had to ask Temple assistant coach Willnett Crockett to recall the details of the last game she was a part of inside Webster Bank Arena.
Crockett was a senior forward on the 2005-06 UConn squad which saw a second-half lead squandered as Duke punched a ticket to the Final Four on the same court as Crockett's Temple team will play UConn this afternoon.
"I remember it play by play," Crockett said. "It is no one person's fault. It was one of those things when we were up but we didn't make sure we handled the pressure and got the win. Being that you were already at the Final Four (in two of the previous three seasons), you already won a national championship and you just needed that game to get back there, it just hurts especially being your senior year and you don't get another chance to come back."
Crockett admitted that she cringed when she realized the site of this game.
"Any team (could play) here but not Temple," Crockett said with a laugh. "But it is OK."
Crockett never thought she's go into coaching but she is thrilled at how things are progressing.
"I love it," Crockett said. "I look back and I realize as you grow older there are some things that you could have done different to make sure you could pass on to these guys so they don't have the same mistakes as you have but I love it, I love coming to practice and try to make them better every day at practice. Tonya (Cardoza) is one of those people I am glad I had the opportunity to start coaching under because I know she is going to take me under her wing and make sure I learned the ropes so I love it. I said I didn't know how this was going to work out but I think I have opened up a lot more, I am not so quiet, I am not so much in the background."
So what does Crockett think about the current UConn team.
"Like any other UConn team, they are smart, everybody can pass, anybody can shoot and it is one of those things that you have to make sure you show up and they play your 'A' game," Crockett said. "Dolson, Stewart, you could name them all they are all good and they know what they are supposed to do.Obviously they don't have as many people as far as in the past especially in the injuries they have had. They are good, there is no one word you can use to describe them."
Crockett was a senior forward on the 2005-06 UConn squad which saw a second-half lead squandered as Duke punched a ticket to the Final Four on the same court as Crockett's Temple team will play UConn this afternoon.
"I remember it play by play," Crockett said. "It is no one person's fault. It was one of those things when we were up but we didn't make sure we handled the pressure and got the win. Being that you were already at the Final Four (in two of the previous three seasons), you already won a national championship and you just needed that game to get back there, it just hurts especially being your senior year and you don't get another chance to come back."
Crockett admitted that she cringed when she realized the site of this game.
"Any team (could play) here but not Temple," Crockett said with a laugh. "But it is OK."
Crockett never thought she's go into coaching but she is thrilled at how things are progressing.
"I love it," Crockett said. "I look back and I realize as you grow older there are some things that you could have done different to make sure you could pass on to these guys so they don't have the same mistakes as you have but I love it, I love coming to practice and try to make them better every day at practice. Tonya (Cardoza) is one of those people I am glad I had the opportunity to start coaching under because I know she is going to take me under her wing and make sure I learned the ropes so I love it. I said I didn't know how this was going to work out but I think I have opened up a lot more, I am not so quiet, I am not so much in the background."
So what does Crockett think about the current UConn team.
"Like any other UConn team, they are smart, everybody can pass, anybody can shoot and it is one of those things that you have to make sure you show up and they play your 'A' game," Crockett said. "Dolson, Stewart, you could name them all they are all good and they know what they are supposed to do.Obviously they don't have as many people as far as in the past especially in the injuries they have had. They are good, there is no one word you can use to describe them."
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