(Associated Press photo)
Kelly Faris played a key role in UConn's win over Notre Dame in the Final Four.

When Caroline Doty and Kelly Faris first suited up for UConn it all seemed so routine as the Huskies methodically rolls to national championship glory.

However, the last couple of years it has been a different story. In each of the last two seasons the championship dreams ended at the hands of rival Notre Dame. For the leaders of the 2012-13 UConn team, there a feeling of elation following Sunday's win over the Fighting Irish in the national semifinals.

Any doubt of how much it meant to the UConn players ended when Faris charged onto the court with as big of a smile as she has ever had while being on a basketball court.

"Usually I am not running out on the court in a semifinal game but the path that this team has taken, I am extremely proud of my team and every individual on this team<' Faris said,."I don't think they understand how proud I am but I am just happy for everybody on the team. I thought about (running onto the court) and perhaps I shouldn't but I thought this is it for me, I want them to know I was excited and I wanted them to feel that and enjoy it."


Faris played 30 minutes and finished with 10 points, six rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks. Doty only played the first three minutes but the win was just as sweet but the focus will quickly turn to the Louisville team the Huskies will be facing in tomorrow night's national championship game.


"It is not over yet, we have one more game and to beat a great Notre Dame team it was a great win but we know it is not over yet and we have one more big game on Tuesday," Doty said.."We have to come out ready to fight, follow his game plan and believe in ourselves."

In a perfect world Geno Auriemma would never make a change in his starting lineup.

Sometimes the alterations come as a result of injuries and then there comes a time when staying with the status quo simply wasn't the winning edge.

That is exactly what happened with the 2012-13 squad. With freshman forward Breanna Stewart playing at a level that was simply too dominating to keep her on the bench and the sense of loyalty he felt to fifth-year senior guard Caroline Doty, Auriemma made the difficult decision to remove Bria Hartley from the starting lineup beginning in the second game of the NCAA tournament.

Hartley's impact in those first two games coming off a bench was minimal at best but when she got the call in Monday's win over Kentucky, her impact was immediate and dynamic.


“I am not used to it so I have to get used to how to do it,” Hartley said. “I think (Monday) it really started on the defensive end for me and if my offense isn't really going, just trying to make plays other ways and that is what I was able to do tonight. I think as one of the older ones on the team and one of the leaders on the team, you just want to be able to go out and be an example especially for a Moriah (Jefferson) or Morgan Tuck, the ones you need to come into the game and contribute for us. I want to show them that this is what you have to do to contribute in any way.”

Auriemma didn’t make the switch in the starting lineup on a whim and he admitted to being a little concerned on how Hartley would respond to being removed from the starting lineup.

“Every decision you make you make it with your fingers crossed and you hope that it works,” Auriemma said. “This particular decision it was ‘hey Bria we need some energy coming off the bench, we need some scoring.’ You don't know whether it is going to happen or not. You don't know whether Bria is going to pout a little bit and not sure but she has come out and done exactly what we want her to do and in the biggest games she plays her best and (Monday) was no exception.”

The way that Hartley, who started 100 of her first 105 games, reacted to the change was not lost on her teammates.

"It has just shown up how much she has grown up," Doty said. "She is unbelievable player and the fact that she is able to take that role of coming off the bench and being that spark, she has been that spark consistently and that is huge because she is a great player and she means a lot to the team. Usually when people go to the benches there is a drop off but with Bria she always brings that spark and attacks the basket."

There were moments of jaw-dropping brilliance, especially on the four blocked shots that freshmen Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson combined for, but it so many ways the Huskies punched a ticket to their 14th Final Four including a record-setting sixth in a row the same way they got there so many times before - with an absolutely suffocating defensive effort.

The Elite Eight game was a tad bit interesting when UConn's leading scorer Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis headed to the bench with 11:42 left in the first half while the Huskies were locked in a tight game.

When DeNesha Stallworth hit a pair of layups 29 seconds apart, Kentucky led the top-seeded Huskies by a point. What followed next was a defensive stretch as impressive as the Huskies have had this season.

The Wildcats missed 11 straight shots and committed three turnovers over the next 7:45. By the time Jelleah Sidney ended the drought with a banked-in 3-pointer, the Wildcats were already down by 16.


"They really whipped us in every way imaginable tonight," Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. "It was a rough 40 minutes for us and they had a lot to do with that."

The focus of UConn's defensive effort was slowing down redshirt sophomore guard Jen O'Neill who had Kentucky's first five points.

Who better to make her life difficult that her former AAU teammate Bria Hartley?


"I thought keeping the ball out of Jen's hands and A'dia Mathies got into foul trouble so that  didn't really help Kentucky," Hartley said. "Jen was kind of the one who gets the offense going so keeping the ball out of her hands really helped in those last few minutes of the first half."

Kentucky made seven of its first 11 shots to keep pace with the Huskies but would shot 23 percent the rest of the way as the Huskies finished off an dominating run through the Bridgeport regional.


"I certainly didn't expect to win the Maryland game by 26 and certainly wasn't going into tonight thinking that this was going to be a 36-point game like it was at one point but if we get on those runs like the ones we get on today at the end of the first half, we just take people and make them feel like there is nothing they can do about it," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "Our defense starts it and our defense finishes it off and today was a perfect example of that. They are not an easy team to defend because they have great quickness and they are an aggressive offensive team. We knew that and for us to do what we did, we turned it over less than they did and we outrebounded them and we did all the things we needed to do and that was pretty special tonight."

While everybody chipped in defensively, the 26-3 run started with a 3-pointer by senior Caroline Doty which gave the Huskies the lead for good.


"I was like 'it is about time,'" Doty said. "I was working on it forever but it was part of the game. My role here is to keep the team composed, I know what Coach wants from the team. If Kaleena is hot, if Bria is hot, if Stef is hot, Stewie is hot it is my job to get them the ball because when the ball is in their hands good things are going to happen."

Doty and fellow fifth-year senior Heather Buck joins the LSU duo of Khalilah Mitchell and Marian Whitfield by being members of five Final Four squads.


"People say I am unlucky because of injuries and stuff but I am pretty lucky to go to five Final Fours," Doty said. "It is something every basketball player dreams of and the fact that I was able to do it five years in a row with such a great team, I give all the credit to the coaching staff. Every single year they are on top of us from day one about getting everything perfect and if we didn't strive for perfection there is no way we would be here."

You know it's been a long season when a head coach is asked questions about the workload that the squad's athletic trainer has needed to endure.

Such was the case as Geno Auriemma met with the reporters in between his official off day press conference and a scheduled radio interview.

Stefanie Dolson, dealing with some issues in her legs, feet, ankles and knees, is the latest player added to the injury list.

When you go down the roster, the only UConn player who has physically been able to practice every day this season is senior reserve forward/center Heather Buck and even she missed practices due to the clinicals that she is required to attend as a nursing major.


"It has just been a 24 hour a day job for her and the her whole staff, mostly for her," Auriemma said. "It is just non-stop. It started on Oct. 15 and just hasn't stopped, then you throw in Brianna Banks (who suffered a season-ending torn ACL) and that is three hours of rehab every day so you put that plus everybody else, she (UConn athletic trainer Rosemary Ragle) deserves everything she is getting paid and is woefully underpaid as are most of the athletic trainers in the country."

I asked Auriemma that if UConn is able to have the full use of the rest of the Huskies for the remainder of the NCAA tournament would he consider nominating Ragle for a Huskies of Honor spot.

"Depends on how she gets everybody through the next game and if we win tomorrow and everybody is healthy beyond it will be a miracle," Auriemma said. "There is the ongoing Caroline one, there was the Stewie out for two weeks or a week, there was Stefanie, Kelly with the boot on her foot, Kaleena missing time, Morgan Tuck didn't practice regularly until three weeks, four weeks ago, Kiah Stokes got an MRI on her back about a week ago but look at Maryland's team, they had it worse than we did so there is no feeling sorry for yourself because everybody has had their issues all season long."

Dolson said she is feeling better and merely has to fight through whatever pain she is feeling which is not too different from what she said yesterday or the day before.

While UConn could have as many as three more games in the Connecticut this season counting tonight's game against Vanderbilt, the second-round game will mark the final true home game for seniors Kelly Faris, Caroline Doty and Heather Buck.

While the trio was honored before their final regular-season at Gampel last month, there is a sense of finality for the three who have only been on the losing side two times inside their basketball home since arriving at UConn.


"We pretty much live here if we are not in our apartment or we aren't in class we are probably here so this is pretty much our home away from home," Faris said.

"This is it. This is our last chance to play on this court, this is our main home court and to think that four years ago I was coming in and it was my first game and now the excitement that came with that and now it is all about to  and it is hard to believe it went by fast."

Faris will make her 111th career start and become the sixth Husky to play 150 games while Doty will play in her 127th game.

"Every good thing has to end. I was fortunate to be able to play here," Doty said. "Gampel is known to be one of the best places to play for college women's basketball and to be a part of it for five straight years is a dream come true and I am happy. I am going to miss it but I have the memories."

The Huskies will miss the blue-collar aspect of the senior class when they aren't here for the start of practice in October.


"They have both been here, Carol five and Kelly four and they do a great job of playing, even though they are more facilitators than scorers," UConn junior center Stefanie Dolson said. "Kelly has become more of a scorer so they really work really well together.

"We are going to miss them a ton, just (Doty's)  leadership on the floor and her aggressiveness on defense kind of controls things on offense and with Kelly, just hard hard she works. She always holds herself accountable and we are going to miss them both with their leadership and how awesome they are."

In a perfect world UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma would have a restful night's sleep.

With two seniors and two juniors among his core of key players, Auriemma should have a pretty good idea what he will get from his players heading into tomorrow's regular-season finale.

However, that simply is not the case. Auriemma can count on sophomore Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis making an offensive impact on the game as she is enjoying one of the best shooting years of any player he has ever coached. He knows Dolson will hit a few foul-line jumpers and battle Notre Dame's Natalie Achonwa inside and he is fairly certain that Kelly Faris will fill up the stat sheet in every category while looking to atone for a difficult defensive game against Kayla McBride the last time UConn and Notre Dame squared off.

But that's pretty much all that he is certain of.

Bria Hartley is coming off a nightmarish game. She not only missed all 11 of her field-goal attempts but wasn't particularly close on nearly all of them and she made some decisions with the ball that if they are repeated tomorrow will likely result in a Notre Dame layup at the other end. The freshmen (Moriah Jeffers0n, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck) showed their age in the South Florida game while senior guard Caroline Doty again struggled to make an impact.



"This is kind of an unusual year, everything has been so unsettled. I don't remember a year as unsettled as this one where right from Oct. 15 nothing has been quote right and maybe that is just the way it is going to be," Auriemma said.

"If you are an outsider and you are objectively looking at our team and you would say who have been the three healthiest guys on our team that haven't missed a beat, Kaleena, Stefanie and Kelly. Everybody else has struggled to maintain some kind of consistency and throw in the fact that three of them are so young and we only had to play one of those three young guys, they would be much better today. The fact that you play all three of them in big games, it has been really tough, I have seen anything like this in all of my years where so many things have been so up in the air and have been so uncertain."

With all that being said, Mosqueda-Lewis (who is on pace to shatter UConn's single-season record for 3-pointers made) had a pair of clean looks from behind the arc in the final seconds of the first game against the Fighting Irish. If either one had gone in, UConn would be undefeated in the Big East. The Huskies also seemed to be in control of the game against No. 1 Baylor last month before it slipped from their grasps.

While two losses in one regular season might be enough to send some UConn fans over the edge, the Huskies have some special moments this season even with all the uncertainty and with a win today UConn will earn a share of its 17th Big East regular-season title.

"Nobody is feeling sorry for us but this year has been such an unusual year that we have an opportunity to be in the same exact same situation we were in a year ago except we are on the road this time," Auriemma said. "One of the reasons for that is Stefanie has gotten a lot better, Kaleena has gotten a lot better and Kelly has gotten a lot better and everybody else has struggled.

"Obviously we've got two guys (Mosqueda-Lewis and Dolson) who for the most part have been right there with everything we have done. If you had a chart with their season, if this is 10 and this is 1 it wouldn't go straight across at 10 but the dips wouldn't  be much below eight. They have been so incredible consistent, those two, at this point in the season you have to go with it and everybody else has to fill in with it whatever that is. Bria Hartley maybe goes 7 for 11 and that is the difference, Breanna Stewart makes six shots and maybe that's the difference."

In the previous 20 games UConn coach Geno Auriemma has made alterations to his starting five on just two occasions. Once it was because illness kept Stefanie Dolson on the sidelines and the other one was reward Heather Buck in her final regular-season game at Gampel Pavilion.

On Saturday Auriemma made a lineup change on a basis on matchups and curiosity by giving freshman Morgan Tuck her first career start in place of Caroline Doty. Auriemma was noncommittal about the possibility of seeing Tuck start alongside Dolson, Bria Hartley, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and Kelly Faris in the future.

"Caroline would have ended up guarding a post player so that was one factor ad the other factor is I did want to see what we would look like with two legitimate post players that maybe we could take advantage of some situations inside against them," Auriemma said. "It is not easy to figure out what the absolute best combination is for any particular game or situation so all year long we tried to keep an eye on make this adjustment, make that adjustment and we want to keep doing that. Maybe we will get it right but what you say today, it may be like that Monday night and it may not. It may be like that at the Big East tournament and it may not. We are going to play it game by game instead of 'this is what we've got.' This is kind of an unsual year, everything has been so unsettled. I don't remember a year as unsettled as this one where right from Oct. 15 nothing has been quote right and maybe that is just the way it is going to be."

When Breanna Stewart arrived at UConn it was impossible not to be impressive with the vast array of her offensive skills. However, in Tuesday's win over Pittsburgh she was able to make an impact on the other end of the court.

It began just 29 seconds after she checked into the game when she blocked a shot by Ashlee Anderson. She ended up with four blocked shots and three steals to go with her 15 points and nine rebounds in a 76-36 victory.


"I like it obviously," Stewart said of her blocked shots including a couple rather emphatic ones. "I think it gets the crowd into it sometimes and they get excited, it just helps the team get into a transition game."

Stewart hit a low when she played just seven minutes and failed to register either a point or a rebound in a loss to the nation's top-ranked team.

While the level of competition wasn't exactly world class, it is an encouraging sign to see Stewart average 15.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in the two victories.

"I think getting her some playing time and letting her just kind of do more things than just figure out a way (to produce)," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "When we were playing well with her in the lineup she was doing a whole bunch of things and when the game got away from he she sopped being aggressive, she started being tentative with the ball and just settling for jump shots and I think the last couple of games she has gotten more involved in more different places at both ends of the floor. I think she feels a lot better about herself now and hopefully that will carry over to this weekend."

It wasn't all positive for UConn. Freshman Morgan Tuck did not play in the second half and Caroline Doty saw only four minutes after halftime which resulted in Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis playing all 40 minutes.

"Morgan has said her knee was bothering her and she really couldn't go any harder and it was going to be a little bit of a struggle for her so Caroline same thing, she has been banged up a little bit and her knee has been bothering her," Auriemma said. "We were down in numbers and it is never a bad thing to have her (Mosqueda-Lewis) out on the court."

Auriemma had a different attitude concerning sophomore forward/center Kiah Stokes who did not play.

Stokes actually got some nice things done late in Monday's practice when UConn ran 4 on 4 half-court offensive drills. However, Auriemma was blunt when I asked him after the game why Stokes didn't get into the game at all.

"There are only so many minutes in the game and right now I am trying to get minutes for the guys I think have earned it,' he said.

All the positive vibes making their way around Gampel Pavilion Saturday afternoon came screeching to a halt  less than two minutes into the Senior Day game against Seton Hall.

The visions of Caroline Doty favoring her left leg as she limped off the court brought a hush over the crowd of 9,107. Doty has been dealt a rugged fate over the last five or six years with a series of serious knee injuries but through it all she has persevered. It seemed to be too cruel to imagine that her career would come to an end on the day when she was being celebrated along with her fellow seniors.

Doty was in obvious pain as UConn athletic trainer Rosemary Ragle began to examine her. It didn't take long for Ragle to realize that it was not another issue with Doty's oft-injured left knee. Before long Doty was bending her knee so Ragle to get a closer look at her ankle and her foot and you could almost hear the crowd breath a collective sigh of relief.

The irony of Doty receiving medical treatment on Senior Day was not lost on the fifth-year senior.



"It was more of 'you've got to be kidding me' tape me up and I am going back in," Doty said. "It is the way things work out. The situation was 'really? Is this really going to happen?' I had Rosemary tape me up and take care o me like she always does and got right back on the floor. I had to see Rosemary. Rosemary had to take care of me one last time.

Doty checked out of the game just 1:37 into the game and did not return until there was 9:32 left in the first half.  She played 17 minutes, made both of her field-goal attempts and finished with five points, five rebounds, three assists, a steal and two blocked shots in the 90-30 win despite dealing with some more pain than usual.

"It was definitely a stinger but we got ice on it and it was nothing, we'll get treatment and it will heal," Doty said.

AURIEMMA NOT WORRIED ABOUT COACHING MILESTONES

When UConn coach Geno Auriemma was asked about joining Stanford's Tara VanDerveer as the only Division I women's basketball coaches to win 400 games in one conference, his reaction was little more than an indifferent shrug. But, being the volatile competitor he is, Auriemma used to innocent inquiry as a chance to fire back at critics saying this group can't win the big game and they have a lot to prove when they play at Notre Dame a week from tomorrow.

"We just won a regular season game on Senior Night but obviously if we don't win next Monday night we are not going to win the national championship," Auriemma said. "Today was just a game so a week from this Monday, if we don't win that game there is no chance finishing out the season so we know we have a real busy week coming up for us because that game is going to determine the season and also the future career of a lot of these kids so I don't want to get too excited about tonight."

There used to be a time when the Senior Day/Senior Night festivities had a sense of finality to it. Well, that is certainly not the case today.

While eight UConn seniors including players Kelly Faris, Heather Buck and Caroline Doty will be honored before today's game, it seems surreal to go crazy on Senior Day coverage since the Huskies could play eight more games in Connecticut this season including the regular season home finale on Tuesday against Pittsburgh at the XL Center. UConn could play three more games at the XL Center in the Big East tournament, the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament will be played at Gampel Pavilion while the regional semifinals and finals will be held in Bridgeport.


"It is kind of how it goes," Faris said. "Technically it is not our last game but  it is the only for sure given. We are different because we have two venues and it depends on the tournament who goes where but this night that is what it is meant for and that is the way we are going to treat it."

As for Buck, the game has special meaning for her even if she plays in more games in her home state.

"It's our last Gampel game before the tournament," Buck said. "The Big East and NCAA tournament it is a otally different focus. It is a different kind of feeling to those games so having the last regular season game here, we love playing in Hartford and we've had Senior Night there before, it feels right when it is in Gampel on campus and all the students are here, this really is our home."

Shortly after 3:42 p.m. Heather Buck and Caroline Doty will make the emotional walk onto the court at Gampel Pavilion with their parents by the side. As the fans inside Gampel Pavilion roar their approval, a flood of images figure to be bouncing around inside the heads of the two fifth-year seniors.

They have been members of undefeated national championship teams but individually their basketball careers have not lacked for either ebb or flow.

“It's definitely been a roller coaster, that is for sure,” Doty said. “If we were at an amusement park, I would think our five years have been the most insane roller coaster there can be. You can't regret it, you have to learn from everything, from the ups and downs and have it fulfill you not only as a player but as a person.”

Most of the downs for Doty are a result of her surgically-repaired knee. She suffered her first torn ACL when she was playing soccer as a senior at Germantown (Pa.) Academy. A couple more followed. One ended her freshman season after 17 games another resulted in her sitting out the entire 2010-11 season.

This won’t be Doty’s final game in Connecticut as the home regular-season finale is Tuesday at the XL Center versus Pittsburgh and there could be three Big East tournament games at the XL Center and if the Huskies advance to the Elite Eight, their first four NCAA tournament contests will be played in the Nutmeg State. Still, this day is going to be one Doty doesn’t figure to forget.

“You know you never want to go through an injury or anything like that but everything happens for a reason and the coaches make decisions for a reason and you kind of have to trust (them),” Doty said. “It is hard kind of thing to trust but looking back on it, the best you can do is have fun, play smart and just trust everybody around you.

“(It is special) just to have your parents and take one quick kind of view of the fans, the atmosphere and just know that nothing really ever lasts. We are lucky to be here and have five years to be able to play and be on the court and contribute. You can contribute even when you are not on the court and that is an important thing that we have learned that if you are on the team, no matter what your role is you are important to it and you are on the team for a reason and I am just happy to be a part of this team.”

Buck sat out the 2008-09 season as a non-medical redshirt with the hope that she could be a go-to post player by the time she was an upperclassman.

However, Buck’s minutes have been limited over the last four seasons. Still, while some players in a similar situation have opted to transfer out of UConn, Buck is glad she stuck around for the long haul.

“My whole career took a different track than I think anybody expected so it has been about adjusting and finding new ways to contribute,” Buck said. “It really is all about the love of the game. You still want to have that opportunity to come out and compete every day in practice and hopefully you get that opportunity in a game too but if you don't you find another way to contribute, another thing you can do that can help your team so that is what it has all been about.”

In a perfect world every senior would be like Kelly Faris, who has started every game in the last three seasons or former teammates of Buck’s and Doty’s like Maya Moore and Tiffany Hayes who earned quality minutes pretty much from the time they first slipped on a Connecticut jersey. However, life is not always a fairy tale. Nobody is more appreciative that they both stuck it out than their head coach.

“What it does is it tests how much you love this game,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “If somebody loves the game, they love coming to practice and they love being on the team and love everything that goes along with that than it is not a grind at all, it is a labor of love. In our situation we are lucky, we have two fifth year seniors who love the game, they love coming to practice, and they love being a part of a team.

“In Caroline's case she has had a chance to experience the absolute best, being a starter on a team that is 39-0, sitting on the bench and watching an entire season of basketball and then being somewhere where she is hoping she can rekindle some of the things she used to be able to do. You've got that and then you have Heather who has had a completely different experience that really tests your love of the game and wanting to be a part of the team.”

The last few practices I have attended at Gampel Pavilion have come to an end simply because the allotted time had expired and not because the UConn starting unit performed at such a high level that head coach Geno Auriemma thought it was the appropriate time to call it a day.

However, there was something a little different about what I witnessed and heard on Thursday. It actually started before we were allowed into the court to catch the final 30 minutes of practice. I heard more on-court chatter than I had perhaps all season long. Then there was a crispness when the UConn starters worked on the half-court offense.

The final play of the afternoon was a thing of beauty as Caroline Doty took a couple dribbles straight ahead before dishing the ball off to Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis. Mosqueda-Lewis threw to ball to Stefanie Dolson in the high post who then got it to Bria Hartley on the left side of the court. Hartley dribbled to the middle of the court and then made a perfect pass to Kelly Faris in the left corner. Faris' wide open 3-pointer rattled in and Auriemma had a question for his team.

"Who called that play?" Auriemma demanded to know. The five starters were afraid to answer so he repeated his inquiry. Finally Dolson meekly raised her hand and said "we ran it before."

Figuring she would get reprimanded for going off script, the opposite actually happened.

"I know you ran it before. You should coach the team because that was good."

Following practice Auriemma explained why he was so thrilled with what he saw.


"The best players that play and the best teams that play are teams that can always do two things very well, they can take direction and only have to see things once or twice and they've got and they can also think for themselves," Auriemma said. "When you have a bunch of young guys playing all they want is direction over and over and over and over again. The problem is that when you are out there playing, it is not like football when there is a stoppage of play after every possession that you can give them direction so today's practice was a little more about thinking on the fly and making decisions and making sure we are all on board, we are
all on the same page because there is some stuff that happened Monday that I was scratching my head and so where the other coaches 'where the hell did this come from' and that is because nobody wants to take some direction, take some ownership out on the floor, say 'I've got it, let's go' so little by little hopefully it improves."

The tone for practice was set by senior Kelly Faris who made a simple request that her teammates work through practice together no matter how much Auriemma might rip into them.

"I think it was a step in the right direction for all of us on the floor especially with our starting five," UConn junior guard Bria Hartley said. "We have pretty experienced players so we should know and I think we do know what to bring, what works best and to be honest w should know it better than the coaches do because we are the ones out there doing it. It was good that we all had input on the play that we ran. I think it says a lot because when you are in games, big games like Baylor, a sold-out arena it is hard to hear. In the two Final Fours I have played in, I have experienced that so you have to go out there and make the right play if you can't communicate and then if you don't agree with what Coach, you have to show him something different and say 'hey, Coach we need to run this.'

"It was a step in the right direction and it can help with our team unity. At times instead of being on the court and work together, we kind of tried to do it individually and that is not going to work in a team sport like this. I think it is good that no matter what, it was like what Kelly said at the beginning of practice that no matter what challenges Coach gives me, we need to make sure we are a cohesive group and that is what we focused on today. That is what you saw today when we were able to come up with those plays."

Perhaps no other aspect impressed me more about UConn's 105-49 win over Providence on Tuesday night than the way the Huskies' offense was clicking pretty much from the opening tip.

Nothing drives home that point any more than the fact that the Huskies had assists on 12 of their first 13 baskets with seven different players having baskets and while Kelly Faris, Bria Hartley and Caroline Doty each had at least three assists during that stretch.


"I was thrilled that the game started the way it did because the last time we went on the road (in a Feb. 2 game against St. John's) we were kind of sluggish," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "We wanted to make sure we started off with more of an aggressive attitude and pushing the tempo as much as we could. I thought Bria was really good at finding people. When we are making shots like we have been recently, it is hard to keep up with us. I don't know how to describe it but when we are moving and the ball is moving at the same time that we are hard to keep up with."

Six players finished between 12-17 points for the Huskies led by Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' 17 points and three other players had between 5-7 points. Even more impressively, all 10 Huskies who played in the game had assists.

Another stat that jumped off the page was that the Huskies attempted a season high 30 free throws.

"We generally don't get to shoot a lot of free throws against Catholic schools, tonight was an exception," Auriemma said in a not so subtle jab at the foul-shot discrepancy in games against Big East rival Notre Dame. "Maybe the Pope resigning had something to do with it, the officials are a little bit lax and weren't paying attention as much. Free throws are a function of how much you are moving. When you are standing
around a lot, you don't get to the free throw line. I thought we had really good movement, our cuts were
pretty sharp. We probably dribbled the ball into the lane as much as we  have in a long time and I think
you need to put yourself in a position to get fouled. To me it is such an important part of the game that
you'd be silly not to try to take advantage of it and I'll be the first person to say I don't think we have
done as good a job with it as we have in past years."

AN EVEN 100 FOR FARIS
Keeping true to be unassuming nature, Faris turned a question into the significance of her starting her 100th straight game as a way to pay homage to Auriemma.


"I didn't know anything about it but thinking about that, it means a lot," Faris said. "It is nice to know that Coach (Auriemma) trusts you and the flip side of it is that it says a lot about him. He is a very trustworthy guy, respectful guy and somebody you don't want to let down so if you have somebody like that you are not going to want to do anything to disappoint him."

Renee Montgomery set the program record by starting 140 straight games, breaking the mark of 135 set by Jen Rizzotti. Rizzotti's total is all the more impressive considering that she started every game in her career. The only other UConn player with 100 consecutive games is Jamelle Elliott, who started 106 straight games. Sue Bird was in the starting lineup for 100 straight games that she played in but since she missed a game as a junior, it was not 100 straight games with a start for her.


Auriemma addressed Faris' consistency and reliability following the game.

"It is not easy to put into words all the time somebody's true contributions," Auriemma said. "The stat sheet and record book, that just tells one part of the story, Kelly, her contributions are so numerous that and the 100 starts in a row is most indictitive of how consistent, how reliable and how fortunate she has been to stay healthy and how committed she is to winning and doing whatever she has to do for the University of Connecticut."

As painful as it may have been for them at the time, perhaps the best thing that could have happened to the members of the UConn women's basketball team is suffering through the events of Feb. 2 in Jamaica, N.Y.

The normally up-tempo, high-octane UConn offense was reduced to a standstill in the first half by an athletic and aggressive St. John's team. When the Huskies returned to campus, there were some issues to be addressed.

Neither the coaches nor the players were ready to place all the blame on not having the services of an ill Stefanie Dolson. There was a way the Huskies were going about their business that would catch up to them if the situation was not addressed.


"I really believe when you yourself struggle like that as an individual or see yourself struggle as a team, you get a little wake-up call," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "It is hard to find instances on our team when we are trying to find a lot of fault because you win so many games so when you play as uncharacteristically as we did on that Saturday and allowed St. John's the kind of dictate the game, I think coaches and players had a real difficult time with that. We came back rested, spent some time on things we thought would make us better."

In the last two games all the Huskies have done is score 62 first-half points against Marquette and 52 more in the first half against DePaul.

Let's be honest, the style of play had something to do with the gaudy statistics as neither the Golden Eagles nor Blue Demons made an attempt to limit UConn's offensive possessions by milking the shot clock and they were unable to keep UConn from getting out in transition.

Obviously the talent and resistance level will be increased when the Huskies face Baylor a week from today and Notre Dame in the regular-season finale on Mar. 4 but it is pretty clear that UConn is in a good frame of mind right now.


"I think we always have a focus on the flow of our offense, we don't want to stand around too much," said UConn junior guard Bria Hartley. "We want to get a good mixture of shots. Stef (Dolson) is a great post presence and you have people on the outside like me, Kaleena (Mosqueda-Lewis), Caroline (Doty) and Kelly (Faris) who can hit 3-point shots so I think we can get a good mixture of shots because it is hard for teams to defend that because you don't really know where the shots are going to come from."

Due to the blizzard engulfing the state this weekend, UConn set up a conference call with head coach Geno Auriemma and a couple of players rather than have all of us risk bodily harm by trying to drive up to Gampel Pavilion for tomorrow's practice.

The most newsworthy items coming out of the call is that no date has been set for sophomore Brianna Banks' surgery to repair the torn ACL in her right knee and freshman Morgan Tuck missed the Marquette after slipping on some ice walking around campus.

"We want to make sure she (Banks) is in the best shape possible for when surgery does occur," Auriemma said. "Rehab started the very next day and it will continue leading up to the surgery and obviously for a long, long time after that. This is a good way for her to get a preview of what it is going to be like. No matter how much you explain it to somebody, until they go through it it is hard to prepare somebody for it."

Assuming that campus would be closed on Friday (as it was) Auriemma made the decision to practice on Thursday night and use Friday as an off day. Auriemma reported that all 10 healthy players, including Tuck, were able to take part in drills. Then Auriemma mentioned the bit about Tuck's "mishap."

"The latest report we got was that she was doing so much better and then the little mishap on the ice kind of set her back a little bit but hopefully that was just a temporary thing," Auriemma said.

"If Morgan was a junior I think she'd know how to handle this a little better. She would handle it like Caroline, she would come in and play when she could, contribute and then move on but because she is a freshman she has no reference point. It is hard for her one day to be at practice and the next day not be at practice, then practice for three days and play in a game like St. John's and then not practice for three days. That is not natural and she has no experience with that. I am hoping little by little, if we can get a two-week stretch where she practices every day, plays in a bunch of games then all of a sudden we get to see more of what Morgan can do, that is our goal anyways."

Auriemma also said it was no confidence that one of the Huskies' best offensive showing of the season in the win over Marquette coincided with guard Doty and Bria Hartley exuding confidence when they were on the court.

"The two biggest catalysts for that are Bria and Caroline," Auriemma said. "I think when the two of them are playing with a lot of confidence and it comes across that way, they exude it on the court I that that infects everybody else and that makes our entire team act and behave much differently so if both of them have it we are a real difficult team to beat and if one of them has it obviously we are really good."

At times it almost looked like the members of the UConn starting lineups drew straws to see whose turn it was to make a basket.

Exhibit A in this line of thinking is the first 3:55 of the game. Had Stefanie Dolson made a basket following the first of Caroline Doty's four 3-pointers, each of the five starters would have scored a basket in rapid succession.

It started with a Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis layup then a Bria Hartley jumper. Next up it was Kelly Faris scoring off a Hartley steal before Doty hit consecutive 3-pointers. Dolson was the last of the starters to get into the mix, hitting a jumper with 16:05 left in the first half.

Leafing through the UConn game notes and media guide, it looks as if the last time all five UConn starters hit double digits in points was in last season's Texas A&M game on Dec. 6, 2011. 

"We weren't caught up in what we were doing, we were just playing basketball at the same time focusing on the little things," Dolson said. "I think what we did was force them to turn the ball over and that created a lot of easy shots for us and we knocked a lot of them in.

"How may pints we had in the first half kind of showed how well things were clicking."

UConn had 51 points with 3:56 to play in the first half and seemed primed to make a run at the program record for most points in a half. The Huskies finished with 62, six shy of the mark.

Mosqueda-Lewis led the Huskies with 22 points, the seventh time she led the Huskies in scoring this season. Bria Hartley broke out of a shooting slump to finish with 20. Nobody was happier to see Hartley playing pressure free than UConn coach Geno Auriemma. He noticed that Hartley was uncharacteristically downtrodden in the two practices the Huskies after the St. John's game.

Hartley made Mosqueda-Lewis look like a clairvoyant as Kaleena told Hartley she would go 5 for 7 from 3-point range and that is exactly what she shot from downtown.

"Kaleena actually predicted it tonight. She came in and said I am going to need you to go 5 for 7 tonight and that is probably what I went," Hartley said.

"It was bothering me. I try not to show it but I might have showed it a little more these past couple of days. I know there are times this season when it is frustrating. Basketball is the main thing I think about, it is my life pretty much so when I am in practice and I don't have a good practice, I am going home thinking how I can improve and you can see the wheels turning. I am one of those kids that all I do is think about basketball all the time."

It wasn't all good news. Auriemma said he was expecting freshman Morgan Tuck to play but when Tuck said something didn't feel right in her troublesome right knee, she missed her fourth game of the season.

Freshman Morgan Tuck was limited to riding a stationary bike during the portion of Thursday's practice which was open to the media.

However, before alarm bells start going off it should be noted that limiting her practice time was an intentional move so Tuck doesn't have any further issues with the right knee bone bruise more than a signal that she is having issues with her knee. She was able to take part in drills before we were allowed in to witness the final portion of practice.

"She was in there for a few stretches, it is kind of how we are trying to proceed with Caroline (Doty) and Morgan (Tuck), give them just enough reps that they feel like they have a chance to improve and get better and make sure we don't keep them out there too long so little by little hopefully we will have them ready to go come game days."

Doty, who has been dealing with knee issues throughout her career, said missing practice time periodically is all part of the deal.


"It is a long season, it comes with age but I come out every single day ready to do what I can and take care of myself before I can before and after practice and I want to be 100 percent for game time," Doty said.

DONEHEW PART OF ACC LEGENDS CLASS
Big East Associate Commissioner Danielle Donehew is among the former ACC stars who will be recognized at the 2013 ACC Legends.

Donehew is the Georgia Tech representative as she was a decorated scholar-athlete for Georgia Tech from 1996-2000 as she was a two-time Academic All-ACC honoree, was on the Georgia Tech Dean’s List 10 times in her career. She was the ACC’s postgraduate scholarship recipient, the ACC’s “Top Six for Service” Award in 2000, as the Georgia Tech representative for the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2000. She finished as one of the best 3-point shooters in ACC history, hitting 241 treys during her collegiate career.

Donehew and the other honorees (including former Connecticut Sun forward Jessie Hicks) will be recognized at a brunch on Mar. 9 as part of the ACC tournament festivities. Tickets for the event are $35 each and can be obtained by calling (336) 369-4671.

Beating five ranked teams including top-ranked Stanford allowed the UConn women's basketball team to head into 2013 with an unblemished record and No. 1 national rankings.

Both of those could be tested with perennial nemesis Notre Dame coming to town on Saturday.

The sold-out nationally-televised showdown between the two dominant forces in the world of Big East women’s basketball will be followed by road games against perennially rugged Georgetown and Marquette squads.

“We have a few days to prepare for it and I think we are ready,” UConn senior guard Caroline Doty said. “It is always intense playing them. It is always a great game. It is a new year so it is going to be interesting to see which team comes out but we are going to prepare for them like we always have and keep working hard.”

It will be a different Notre Dame team than the one which ended the Huskies’ five-year run as Big East regular-season champions and knocked the Huskies out in the national semifinals for the second straight year. Three starters have graduated including first-round WNBA picks Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters. The Fighting Irish do return reigning Big East Player of the Year Skylar Diggins as well as athletic wing Kayla McBride and post Natalie Achonwa. Dynamic freshman Jewell Loyd as well as vastly improved junior Ariel Braker round out the normal starting five for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame has hit triple digits in points in three of its last six games including scoring a season high 128 points against St. Francis (Pa.) on Monday, a scoring outburst made all the more impressive considering that Diggins only attempted four shots.

“I think it is kind of like when Maya (Moore) graduated and other players step up and make some contributions,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “When freshmen step in like Stefanie (Dolson) and Bria (Hartley) did as freshman, when they step into your program and have to play a lot, they surprise you with the number of things they can do and do well.

“Natalie (Achonwa) got a lot of experience playing in the Olympics (for Canada). She is a lot better than she was two years ago and it better than she was last year. Jewell Loyd has really made a huge difference on their team. She is one of the best freshmen in the country in my mind and she has added an awful lot because Notre Dame did lose a lot obviously. Everybody knew that McBride is a great player in high school and played great for them during their run (to the Final Four) so they have a lot of pieces in place. Their depth is going to depend on how well their freshmen keep improving but I am not surprised.”

UConn had a long trip home from Oregon so Auriemma isn’t going to rush into preparations for the Notre Dame game.

“(Tuesday) is a day to recover,” Auriemma said. “Wednesday we will probably just get back into our normal routines that we do for game days and really Thursday the real work will start. Thursday and Friday we will spend two days on the court getting ready for Saturday.”

Caroline Doty couldn't have picked a better way to end 2012 or put herself in a better frame of mind going into 2013 with one of the best games of her collegiate career.

Doty already set a career high in rebounds and was two assists away from her career best performance - by halftime. At game's end Doty had a season-high 14 points, a career-high 12 rebounds, seven assists, four steals and two blocks in a 95-51 win over Oregon.


"It's a new pace, not a lot of teams play like that," Doty said of Oregon. "I think they play like (they do) in Philly. It is a fun pace, it is a different challenge for us and we handled it pretty well."

Doty, a fifth-year senior who has overcome multiple knee injuries, provides a steadying influence for the Huskies.

"It was a mentality," Doty said. "I just wanted to have a solid game coming off a great win (over Stanford) and ending this trip the right way

"It is an unbelievable experience to have another year to play and for it to develop the way it is developing so far. I am loving the team, loving what I am doing. We keep growing every single day and we are having a lot of fun doing it. To have a fifth year and be able to accomplish the things we have been accomplishing it is amazing."

Nobody is happier to see Doty playing well than UConn coach Geno Auriemma.


"I don't know what makes me happier, the fact that Caroline is playing great, contributing a lot or it shuts up all the idiots who wonder why she is starting, why she is playing so many minutes and somebody else would be so much better than her," Auriemma said. "It is doubly rewarding for me because I have a lot of confidence in her as a person. She might play poorly, she might play well but I know as a person and from a leadership standpoint how much she has overcome and how much it means for her to be a good player at Connecticut, what it means to her to finish her senior year on the right note so anytime she can play a game like she played today I feel great for her."

An added bonus for the Huskies was that freshmen Morgan Tuck and Moriah Jefferson played 27 and 23 minutes respectively. Tuck finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, five steals, three assists and two blocked shots while Jefferson had 10 points, two assists and two steals.

Auriemma wanted to get them plenty of time as they both work their way back into the flow. Tuck missed two games with a bone bruise in her right knee and only played three minutes in her first game back. A stomach bug limited Jefferson to seven minutes in the last two games.

"For various reasons Morgan and Moriah have not been 100 percent. It has only been recently that I felt like that at some point we need to get these guys out on the floor and let's find out what they are made of," Auriemma said. "Certainly the Stanford game on their home floor might be the best place to play guys who haven't played a lot of minutes but going into tonight that was obviously the plan no question about that, we were going to get those two guys a lot of minutes."

Tuck was happy to not only play significant minutes but also play better than she has since averaging 10.3 points and 3.8 rebounds in the first six games of the season.

"I was glad I got the opportunity to be out on the floor a little bit more that usual and it felt pretty good," Tuck said.

"It is a little frustrating because coming from high school you are not used to that but at the same time I have to prove that I was out there on the court so I can't blame anybody except for myself. That comes with getting used to the system and just helped me (realize) I need to play harder, I need to take it a little more seriously and try to do my best every single time.

"I think it was more mentally, Yes, I had to sit out for a little while because of my knee and I think that kind of helped too, I got to watch a little bit but when I wasn't out there it was mental. The knee I had to sit out but a lot of it was me not playing as well as I can."

HARTLEY PLAYS SPARINGLY
For those wondering why Bria Hartley only played seven minutes, I was told it was not injury or illness related.

Hartley missed badly on some shots she normally makes with ease and seemed out of sorts so Geno Auriemma went elsewhere with the minutes.

In Bria Hartley's last three games she finished with a grand total of eight points in each contest. In Wednesday night's win over Oakland she passed that mark before the first television timeout.

Hartley hadn't scored more than 12 points in a game this season as she worked her way back following an offseason ankle injury. She had 19 of her season-high 21 points with 3:45 remaining in the first half.


"I just had to stay positive, stop thinking too much and stop stressing (out about) every little thing I did wrong," Hartley said.

Hartley opened the scoring with a 3-pointer from straight away, assisted on Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' trey from almost the same spot, had a steal and a couple of free throws and two more steals resulted in two more layups to give Hartley nine points on a game-opening 14-0 run.

"It is always good when you hit your first shot and I was like 'all right, I should be OK for the rest of the game,'" Hartley said.

DOLSON SAID SHE IS FINE
Stefanie Dolson crashed to the court with 13:56 left in the game half in obvious pain after rolling her left ankle. She got an ankle brace put on the ankle while on the bench but did not return to the game.

Dolson thought the injury was not a big deal.


I just had to stay positive , stop thinking too much and stop stressing (out about) every little thing I did wrong


"I am a big tree, I fall hard," Dolson said. "It is just a little tweak, I'll get some ice and Rosemary (Ragle, UConn's athletic trainer) will handle it."

DOTY GETS THE START OVER STEWART
For the first time in her young collegiate career, freshman Breanna Stewart came off the bench as UConn coach Geno Auriemma went with a smaller lineup.

Senior Caroline Doty got the start alongside normal regulars Kelly Faris, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Hartley and Dolson.

So why did Auriemma opt to start Doty over Stewart?

"Just a hunch that it would be better for Caroline, it would be better us in some respects and better for Breanna so I just took a hunch, took a guess and see what happens," Auriemma said. "We'll see. nothing is written in stone."

HUSKIES PAY HOMAGE TO NEWTOWN SHOOTING VICTIMS

With 26 members of the cheerleading and spirit squads and pep band each holding a candle and joined in a circle by players and coaches during a 26-second moment of silence, UConn was able to pay tribute to the 20 students and six adults who lost their lives in Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After the game Auriemma reflected on the emotional ceremony.

"I don't know if you could either be on the court or be in the stands, be a part of the ceremony and not be affected by it," Auriemma said. "That is something that the younger that you are, the more you are affected by it. I saw a picture in the paper this morning of that little kid on their face like it is the saddest day  of their live. It looked like he was 7 or 8 years old and I think they are still at an age where these things really, really hit home. It hasn't been easy on them - it really hasn't."