Blogs > Elm City to Eagleville

A blog on UConn women's basketball.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

UConn still keeping tabs on intriguing prospect

Most of the high school players that Geno Auriemma hits the road to see are prolific scorers and players who fill up the score sheet.

However, before he headed down to Orlando with his team for last night's game against Central Florida, he was back in the Philadelphia area where he grew up. However, this was a business trip as he went to check out 6-foot-9 Nigerian native Felicia Aiyeotan up close in person, a player with just two double-digit scoring games during her junior season. Even with a 26-point effort in Neumann-Goretti's win over Hallahan last month, Aiyeotan is averaging less than seven points per game by my count.

When Neumann-Goretti defeated Archbishop Wood 52-43 on Monday with Auriemma in the stands, Aiyeotan finished with five points. Unofficially the junior has 71 points in 16 games although I am missing three box scores. Still, Auriemma and Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw have been in to see Aiyeotan play, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley is supposed to take a look at a Neumann-Goretti game next week.

Aiyeotan, who has games with five and six blocked shots this season, sees limited time on a star-studded 16-0 Neumann-Goretti team. During the summer the major programs began to take more of an interest in Aiyeotan as she made remarkable strides playing with the Philadelphia Belles AAU program. She will play for them again this summer, teaming up with UConn commit Andra Espinoza-Hunter.

Aiyeotan is certainly a project but it is hard to find 6-foot-9 players so this is a player I would expect to UConn staff to keep an eye on in the future.

CASH TO APPEAR ON NEXT GENO'S LEGACY SEGMENT
SNY just sent out an email promoting Swin Cash's appearance on the next installment of "Geno's Legacy" which will air on Wednesday at 10 p.m. during a four-hour block of UConn women's basketball coverage.

The programming will begin with the pre-game coverage, then SNY will air the home game against East Carolina followed by a post-game show. The Geno Auriemma Show will follow from 9:30-10 p.m. followed by Geno's Legacy.

Here is how SNY is promoting the appearance by Cash, a key member of the 2000 and 2002 national championship team.

The Hall of Fame coach and the two-time National Champion discuss the highs and lows of her four years at Connecticut, which includes her time playing with what many consider the greatest UConn’s women’s team ever, as well as her experience playing for him in the Olympics’ and the challenge of overcoming a cancer scare a few years back.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Joe said...

Jim, how do UConn coaches first become aware of prospective recruits?

12:41 PM 
Blogger Jim Fuller said...

Mostly through AAU circles and also through relationships they have built with high school and AAU coaches over the years.

5:09 PM 
Anonymous Joe said...

Thanks.

9:48 AM 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home