There are few constants in sports these days but in the world of collegiate women's basketball it's become pretty much of a foregone conclusion that UConn will open the season playing either at Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center.

The last time UConn played its season opener outside the state of Connecticut came in 1999 when the Huskies won 73-45 at Iowa State. The Huskies played in neutral site games to kick off the 1995-96. 1996-97 and 1998-99 seasons. Each of the last 14 seasons began with either games in Storrs or Hartford but all of that changes tomorrow night when the Huskies play just their second true road game to open the season since the start of the 1992-93 season.

"I am ready to go to California," UConn junior forward Breanna Stewart said. "We know we have a big game (against Stanford). Obviously we want to focus on UC Davis first and we want to make sure when we leave Thursday we are ready to go."

Staying on the subject of season openers, the last time the Huskies began a season with a loss came on Nov. 19, 1995 when Louisiana Tech emerged with an 83-81 overtime win in the Hall of Fame Tipoff Classic in Knoxville, Tennessee.

In an attempt to put it into perspective, UConn freshmen Sadie Edwards, Kia Nurse and Gabby Williams were not born when that game was played.

Those freshmen, in addition to classmate Courtney Ekmark, will add a different dimension to UConn's offense. Not only with the Huskies be a much deeper team than they were a season ago, especially with the versatile Morgan Tuck as healthy as she has been since arriving at UConn but could be more athletic as well.

"All of us can move really well and get up and down the floor, we have shown in the two (exhibition) games nthat we can score a lot of points quick with fast breaks," Tuck said.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he is not sure what to expect from the freshmen, particularly in Monday's game at Stanford. If the preseason is any indication, they could play key roles.

"We need to expect a lot from the freshmen but you don't want to put a ton of pressure on the freshmen because you don't them to feel like this is relying on you," Stewart said.
"I think we knew who the main people are and that is the returners, we have the experience, we know what it takes to do what we've done before. We want to make sure we set the tempo, set the pace for this team right from the start on Friday."

AAC TOURNAMENT TICKETS ON SALE TOMORROW
The American Athletic Conference announced that all-session ticket packages for the 2015 women's basketball conference tournament go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at Ticketmaster outlets.

Package tickets to all 10 Championship games will be priced at $99 each, discounted by nearly one third of the face value. Ticket offices at all 11 American institutions will have all-session packages available, and tickets may also be purchased at the Mohegan Sun Arena Box Office beginning tomorrow. Daily box office hours at the arena are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m..

Tickets can also be acquired by phone or online. To purchase via phone, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Both the Mohegan Sun website (www.mohegansun.com) and Ticketmaster (www.ticketmaster.com) will have packages available for online purchase.

The American has also arranged for a bus service to Mohegan Sun Arena for the Championship. The roundtrip price from Manchester. or New Haven is $30 and tickets can be purchased by calling (800) 388-9218 or by emailing bus2champ@theamerican.org. Pickup and departure times and locations can be found at www.theamerican.org/bus.
The tournament will be played at Mohegan Sun Arena from  March 6-9.