Today was all about celebrating Bridgeport's Webster Bank Arena landing the final exhibition game on American soil before the U.S. team leaves for the FIBA World Championship for Women.

Naturally, the fact that the U.S. will play Canada, which features incoming UConn freshman Kia Nurse, was a popular topic of conversation with UConn and U.S. coach Geno Auriemma. He believes spending the summer training with the Canadian national team and playing in the World Championships will be invaluable for her much like the time spent with the Russian national team program aided Svetlana Abrosimova during her time at UConn.

There is an aspect of Nurse's participation in the World Championships which I have been meaning to bring up with Auriemma and that was how they will be dealing with the large amount of time that Nurse will be away from campus while the fall semester is in session. UConn's fall semester is set to begin on Aug. 25 and the World Championships run through Oct. 5 so Nurse will have plenty of work to do to keep up to date with her academical responsibilities. I was able to bring up the subject today and here are his thoughts.

"There really isn't anything you can do other than (offer) all the support she is getting from the University of Connecticut," Auriemma said. "We have been through this before. Through today's technology there are a lot of ways to take classes, a lot of ways for you to do work without you actually being present so we are going to be creative. The people at school have figured out a way to do this. I would be more concerned if she wasn't a great student, if she wasn't even more mature than she is because she is one of the most mature 17 year olds I have ever been around so there isn't that much of a concern as you would have for somebody else."

UCONN FINISHES SIXTH IN CAPITAL ONE STANDINGS
UConn finished sixth on the women's side and seventh among men's programs in the Capital One Cup.

Here is the release from UConn

The University of Connecticut finished among the top schools in the country in the final standings for the Capital One Cup as the Huskies were sixth in the women’s standings and seventh on the men’s side.

Here is the release from UConn

The Capital One Cup competition is based on top-10 finishes in a combination of NCAA championships and final polls and recognizes the top-achieving programs in college athletics.UConn was just one of four schools nationally, joining Oregon, Florida and Maryland, to finish in the top 10 of both the men’s and women’s standings.

“I am very proud of the accomplishments of our Husky teams this past year,” said UConn Director of Athletics Warde Manuel. “I am thankful for all the hard work and dedication of our student-athletes and coaching staffs. The results of the Capital One Cup are another example that UConn continues to be of the elite athletic programs in the country.”

The Huskies received points on the men’s side from the sports of basketball and soccer. The UConn men’s basketball team won the 2014 NCAA Championship and became the first seven-seed in the history of the tournament to win the event. In men’s soccer, the Huskies advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship for the third-straight year.The UConn basketball and field hockey teams both won NCAA Championship to earn points in the women’s standings. Along with the men’s basketball championship, UConn won three NCAA titles during the 2013-14 academic year – the first time that has happened in school history.The national title was the ninth for the Husky women’s basketball program and the third by the field hockey team.