Perhaps the biggest upset of the women's college basketball season up to this point is that UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey had no idea of the honor that was bestowed on her earlier today.

There is not an aspect of the UConn program that Dailey doesn't have her finger on so when members of Dailey's family were contacted about her impending induction into the Huskies of Honor, somehow the word never trickled down to Dailey.

"You can't even describe it because I wasn't expecting it and he (UConn coach Geno Auriemma) doesn't keep secrets very well so I didn't know anything and he didn't say anything," Dailey said. "Usually you would think somebody would blab and it would usually be him."

Pretty much from the time the Huskies of Honor program was created, it was more of a case of when and not if Dailey would be included among the legendary figures she helped to recruit and coach. Auriemma said he wasn't sure why but this just seemed to be the right time. After Moriah Jefferson and Breanna Stewart had their banners unveiled, the mystery surrounding who the third banner was for ended up being revealed.

Morgan Tuck was the only player who knew what was coming. She was told on Friday just so she wouldn't think she was being honored in that fashion.

 "I think CD is extremely important," Tuck said. "She is the one who keeps everybody on our toes and makes sure we are doing the right things. Every little thing, CD is on us, how we dress, how we act or (wearing) headphones so she helps us become better people."

Dailey knew some of her family members would be in attendance but didn't realize just how many of them made the trip until the announcement came that she was joining the Huskies of Honor.
"My sister lives in London, my brother came from Ohio," Dailey said. "I had no idea that a lot of my cousins, my aunt and a lot of people were here. Just to see your name up here, it is emotional because I know my parents would be really, really proud. They were here at the very beginning."

Dailey's father passed away in 2003 and her mom died just last year. Dailey teared up when discussing the support she received from her parents.

"It is never enough to say that she has been for as long as I have," Auriemma  said. "I think the most important thing is putting her up on that wall kind of puts her next to, not above, not under but next to all the people who wouldn't be on that wall if it wasn't for her so I think it is very appropriate. Every single player that is up there, there's a pretty good chance they wouldn't be there if it wasn't for a bunch of stuff that CD did."

So why was Saturday the day for Dailey to be honored?

"We are not getting any younger and I always say it is never too early to do something but there can come a time when maybe it is too late," Auriemma said. "Maybe we missed the boat, maybe we should have done it when her mom was alive. I know she is our biggest fan, her and (Dailey's) dad but just felt like the right time to do it, I don't know why. I am glad we did it and every player who has ever played her appreciates it."

There was a video at halftime with many of the players weighing in on Dailey's honor including Rebecca Lobo playfully mentioning many of the Dailey-enforced rules and suggesting that Dailey needs to step it up because she is the coach of the post players and the list of players in the Huskies of Honor is dominated by perimeter players.

Dailey reflected on how meaningful it was to be honored in this way.

"Mostly you think about a lot of different things and that was on the my mind," Dailey said. "My family, the players that I had a role (in their development). I already looked at my phone and there are a lot of texts of everybody from Morgan Valley, Rebecca. It has just been that kind of week with having Diana, Sue and Maya back (for the national-team training camp) and you just think about a lot of things, it is difficult to put into words."

The constant flood of text messages from the members of the two-time defending national champions weren't all the reminders of what awaits for Canadian national team starting guard Kia Nurse during her memorable time in Turkey. She also had the chance to bump into UConn All-American Breanna Stewart, the Huskies' Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies' highly-respected associate head coach Chris Dailey in the hallways and lobby of the FIBA World Championship for Women team hotel in Istanbul.

While Nurse's Canadian team did not get to square off with Auriemma's defending champion United States squad, that was about the only thing Canada's team failed to accomplish over the last several days.

Despite playing without the injured Natalie Achonwa, who would have been one of the team's best post players, Canada defeated 2010 World Championship silver medalist Czech Republic, 2012 Olympic finalist France and China en route to an impressive fifth place finish.

"Around the locker room there was nothing but excitement and happiness," Nurse said a conference call after Canada's 61-53 win over China in the fifth-place game. "Definitely the older players are little more excited that the younger players, they have been through the trenches and have been with the team for a very long time so they knew exactly what it took to get here where some of our younger players are just coming in now and realizing what we have to do to get back to this place. Definitely it is a huge deal for us. We are excited with our finish and thinking it can go nowhere but up."

Nurse had nine points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals in the win over China as Canada recorded its best World Championship finish since winning the bronze medal in 1986.

Nurse, the youngest player on the Canadian team and second youngest in the tournament, finished fourth on the team in scoring averaging 6.9 points per game and her seven steals in the seven games was tied for second on the squad.

"There are hundreds of things I have learned over the last two years. I have been really grateful to have such great teammates and a great coaching staff to help me push through," Nurse said. "I have learned a lot about the mental side of the game, how to think my way through the game and playing against some really great point guards has really exposed some of my weaknesses. It has really helped me realize my strengths and become more confident in that."

Veteran Canadian guard Shona Thorburn, who led her team in assists and steals, has taken the 18-year-old Nurse under her wing as they work out together in their mutual hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.

Thorburn has seen Nurse grow as a player by leaps and bounds even since the time the team gathered for the first of three training camps.

"Her intelligence, she is getting it," said Thorburn, the seventh overall pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft who appeared in 22 games with the Minnesota Lynx in the 2006 season. "She is improving every game. Mentally, some of passes she made (in the tournament) she wasn't making at beginning of the summer.

"Every game she is learning and getting excited. She is an older child, she is completing against women. I hope she is encouraged and it fuels her fire to be one of those stars in the future."

Nurse has gravitated towards Thorburn and fellow veteran Kim Gaucher looking to absorb whatever knowledge and insight she can from the team leaders of the Canadian program. 

"Playing with the two of them has been incredible," Nurse said. "I sit on the bench sometimes and every game say 'oh my gosh, that really just happened.' They are two really amazing players. They are geniuses on the basketball court, they know exactly what is going on. Kim was here at a young age like I am and if I can be anything like a leader like her ... They are two of the best leaders I have ever had the privilege to play with."

Nurse had nine points in the tournament opener against Mozambique but then had four combined points on 2 of 10 shooting in losses to host Turkey and France. Nurse had her tournament high of 12 points in a win over the Czech Republic which put Canada into the quarterfinals and averaged 8.8 points, 2 rebounds and 1.5 assists in the final four games of the tournament against the No. 2, 4, 5 and 8 teams in the latest FIBA World Rankings.

"Over the past year it has been night and day," Canada coach Lisa Thomaidis said of Nurse's improvement. "I said to somebody else that every game that we get to have her and she gets to play in a senior national team uniform is another day that she takes a step up. I think she continues to grow and to improve after every single competition. She is such a competitor. She gets a lot of work with our coaching staff as far as what to think about, what to improve on and watching film. She gets a measuring stick every single night against some 30-year-old guards who have a skill set that is a little bit more refined than she has right now but she is continuing to improve and it only going to get better. She is going to a pretty good program I hear."

So what did Nurse improve the most on during this summer?

"It is just a stepping stone," Nurse said, "I have been playing against the best players in the world and you can't ask for anything better than that. Going into UConn, I am hoping to bring things that I learned like the stretch finishes and reading the defender's eyes so I can bring the mental side of the game over to Connecticut to help me be successful there.

"I think I am getting my head up a little quicker, seeing posts on the (pick and) roll, seeing defenders in front of me, the second line of defenders. Sometimes I am like 'wow, that really just happened and I really made that play.' Probably three months ago I wouldn't have seen that."

Nurse spent a week or two at UConn in between her time with the national team. She is planning to return to campus on Tuesday where she will get caught up academically and have a week to get comfortable before UConn opens practice on Oct. 15.

"I am extremely excited," Nurse said. "I have seen them (Auriemma, Dailey and Stewart) around the hotel a little bit and had a conversation with here and there. I hung out with Stewie the other night and I could not be more excited to go back. My teammates have been texting me waiting for me to come back and I am really excited to get on the court with them."

It's been an extra special time for the Nurse family as her older brother Darnell who has played in six of the first eight preseason games, is tied for second on the team with a plus 3 defensive rating and his two assists is tied for the lead among the 12 defensemen to play for the Oilers. He showed enough that he made the Oilers' opening day roster.

"My parents got here to support us," Kia Nurse said "They got here for the first game. Some days they wake up really late and I ask them why and they got up at 4 a.m. Turkey time watching my brother play his game. I am excited for him because he is living out his dream, he is working really hard, If anybody deserves that, he does and to have him as my brother and have him in my support system it is a great thing to have in your pocket."

Speaking of Edmonton, that is the site of the FIBA Americas Championship for Women in 2015. Last year Canada finished second in that tournament to qualify for the World Championships and is now looking to do the same to earn a spot in the 2016 Olympics. The tournament runs from Aug. 9-15 at the University of Alberta.

According to the tournament's official site, there were 193 players on the rosters of the 16 teams and 12 of them were teenagers. Nurse played the most minutes and had the most points and second best scoring average.

Player Country           Age   G M  FGS 3PT FTS P-R-A-S-B (TO)
Rosa Gala Angola         19 3   33 1-8   1-4  1-2    4- 4- 1-1-0 (5)
Sion Kim Korea 19 dnp
Meng Li China             19 5   34 5-12  2-8  5-5   17-11- 0-1-0 (4)
Sanja Mandic Serbia 19 2     8 2-2    2-2  0-2     6-  0- 2-0-0 (0)
Kia Nurse Canada         18 7 152 18-47 3-13 9-15  48-11- 8-7-0 (7)
Jihyun Shin Korea         19 3   39   5-9   2-4  0-0   12- 7- 5-2-0 (3)
Jisu Park Korea 15 3   84 14-42 0-0  5-6   33-15- 1-3-4 (8)
Leticia Romero Spain 19   3   10   0-2   0-1  0-0     0- 0- 0-0-0 (2)
Tilbe Senyurek Turkey 19 2   15   3-9   0-1  1-1     7- 1- 1-0-0 (1)
Helena Viegas Angola 19 2   10   0-1   0-1  2-2     2- 0- 1-0-0 (1)
Ksenija Voishal Belarus 19 1     5   0-1   0-0  0-0     0- 0- 0-0-0 (0)
Liwei Yang China         19 7 116 11-29 3-15 6-8   31-14-17-5-2 (14)

While a prior commitment kept UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma from making an appearance at the Travelers Championship, associate head coach Chris Dailey has made herself at home at TPC River Highlands.

On Monday Dailey took part in a Pro-Am. On Wednesday she was back in Cromwell to play in a charity mini-golf event along with UConn AD Warde Manuel and football coach Bob Diaco in the morning before playing in the Celebrity Pro-Am in the afternoon.

"Last year was easier," Dailey said after the mini-golf event. "They made the degree of difficulty harder but it was fun. I played on Monday so they let bad golfers play in a lot of events here. They give opportunities to everybody. The people are really nice and I have met a lot of great people."

Dailey said while the coaches are allowed to work with the players on a limited basis, the UConn staff doesn't plan on overworking the team during the summer.

"We have done some individuals but it is a hard balance between taking advantage of the rule and not killing them now in June," Dailey said. "It is a long season, if you are any good you play from September to April so we are trying to balance that. They are working really hard in the weight room and done some individuals which I think is really helpful for the freshmen because they don't know what to expect."

Only half of the freshman class has been taking advantage of spending most of June on campus as Kia Nurse is at Canada's training camp and Gabby Williams just arrived following graduation. It has given Sadie Edwards and Courtney Ekmark a chance to get comfortable on campus.

"I think that no matter how prepared you think you are, your head is spinning for the first two weeks trying to figure it all out," Dailey said. "I would say they have all adjusted to it pretty well."

There will be more on how the offseason work has been going when Auriemma and the players are made available at Auriemma's anual golf tournament on Monday. Dailey said that reigning national player of the year Breanna Stewart will have a conflict with her summer session schedule so she will not be there on Monday. Also, Nurse will be with the Canadian national team and won't be there either. Of course, Brianna Banks will also be absent as she made the decision to transfer to a school yet to be announced.

"You are always disappointed when somebody leaves you program but we wish Bri the best," Dailey said. "Everybody deserves a second chance and hopefully with hers she will make the best of it. I think everybody has to make a personal decision and this was a personal decision by Bri and her family and I just hope it works out well."

I also asked Dailey whether Morgan Tuck was back to doing basketball-related drills as she is coming back from knee surgery which ended her sophomore season prematurely.

"She is doing some conditioning but I don't know if she if doing the whole (basketball) thing yet, running around," Dailey said..

In other basketball-related news I asked Manuel how close they were to finishing work on the basketball practice facility.

"Hopefully it will be finished this week or next week, we will get the keys and just like a new house we will have to do in there, move some things to fill it up and that is what we are working on," Manuel said. "It will be a great day."

With July being such a hectic month for recruiting we'll have to wait to see when a ceremony is held in honor of the completion of the practice facility.

UConn had its first practice of the 2013-14 season this afternoon and everybody but junior guard Brianna Banks took part as Banks has yet to be fully cleared as she continues to work her way back from the knee injury which ended her sophomore season after 21 games.

UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey said that she saw some good things but "we have some work to do but not bad, we'll see how it goes on Thursday (when UConn practices again)."

Dailey said that there is just as much teaching going on during the first day of practice as there has been in the last couple of seasons even though guard Saniya Chong is the only new scholarship player.

"We have three new guys (including walk-ons Tierney Lawlor and Briana Pulido) and I think they panicked just during warmups a little bit," Dailey said. "It is going to take a little while. I thought Saniya did some really good things, she has a really good feel for the game, she can get her shot and is physical on offense, I don't know about defense yet but it was good. It is a long season."

One of the tweaks in an attempt to improve the quality of the women's basketball game, the NCAA will allow coaches to conduct individual workouts during the summer as they permitted once school starts for a few years.

While many programs will take advantage of the summer months to get a head start on the 2013-14 season, don't expect UConn to follow suit.

Earlier this month UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey gave her thoughts on the subject after playing in the Travelers Championship Celebrity Pro-Am.

"I think it could backfire," Dailey said. "I like them to listen to us and it is a long year (even) if you start from September to April, I think the break is good for both but I think it is a fine balance."

With five of UConn's returning players playing in either the World University Games and FIBA U19 World Championship for Women and two more recovering from injuries, there aren't too many players for UConn coaches to work with even if they wanted to start before September but even if that were the case, it's pretty clear that UConn is just fine allowing its players to use to summer to recharge their batteries and the individual workouts can wait until September.

A year ago after her round at the Travelers Celebrity Pro-Am UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey raved about rising sophomore Brianna Banks' improvement on the court and more confident state of mind. There were no such proclamations when she spoke with Rich Elliott of the Connecticut Post and I after her round of golf on Wednesday.

"This has been a real odd year because normally the kids are in summer school in first session and that would be now but the three freshmen (Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck) because they made USA Basketball took Maymester and the other guys because of USA Basketball are coming second semester. (Incoming freshman) Saniya Chong because she doesn't graduate until late June isn't coming until second session so we really don't have anybody on campus right now, everybody else will be around second session. It is weird, it is the first year it has been like this."

For UConn head coach Geno Auriemma this offseason has been pleasantly serene. Unlike the past few years where he would be bouncing around getting ready for national team training camps, he has no USA Basketball responsibilities. Much of his time has been spent bonding with his second grandson Andrew who was born a couple weeks back.

"It's been kind of quiet," Auriemma said. "Each one we win it gets less and less chaotic especially this year. Other some of the travel that I have done, some that I had to do and some I wanted to do, it has been pretty quiet because I don't have USA Basketball, recruiting starts July 6 so I am just kind of keeping a low profile until then."

Obviously when the July viewing period begins next month Auriemma and his staff will continue the pursuit of some big kids to add to the recruiting class headlined by verbal commitments Sadie Edwards, Courtney Ekmark and Gabby Williams.

A'ja Wilson, rated by many as the best player in the Class of 2014, is at the top of UConn's wish list but when I spoke to Wilson during the U-19 national team trials she said her intention was to take all of her official visits so don't look for any commitments from her in the immediate future. A new name is emerging as Lynee' Belton is very much on the Huskies' recruiting radar. In a Washington Post story written 2 1/2 weeks ago, it was reported that Belton has visited UConn and there is clearly plenty of interest in the 6-foot-2 forward who will be a senior at the Bullis School in Potomac, Md. UConn is still involved with other forwards including Kathryn Westbeld, Taylor Rooks and Lexi Gussert as well as wing Sierra Calhoun. With Chong, a 5-foot-9 guard, the only member of the incoming recruiting class and the only commitments in the Class of 2014 being perimeter players, obviously securing commitments from a couple of big kids is a priority for the Huskies.

UConn has made it clear that it would welcome walk-ons since it will only have nine scholarship players next season. Dailey said she hasn't heard much of possible non-scholarship students expressing an interest in trying out for the team.

"I am not sure," Dailey said. "I am not worried about it. We have enough practice players."

Dailey wasn't sure of the status of Becca Pope who was with the team for a few months last year after transferring from UConn-Avery Point. While she has a chance of taking part in drills with the team when she is enrolled at UConn, at the current time it is looking like Pope will not be a part of a program next season.

"Hopefuly we will have some other kids," Dailey said. "It is not an easy thing to do, we don't have a lot of Marci Czels or Colleen Healys running around who are able to do it."

Thanks to the folks associated with the Channel 3 Kids Camp for allowing me to take in today's Women Raising Awareness Philanthropically Luncheon I have a chance to update the good works of former UConn star Tina Charles.

I am working on a story schedule to run in tomorrow's edition of the Register about Charles being the annual event's honoree. UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey was there as the keynote speaker and the part of her 30-minute speech which was of the most interest to me came when she said junior guard Bria Hartley volunteered to come off the bench for the NCAA tournament during a meeting that Hartley and the rest of UConn's guards had with head coach Geno Auriemma.

I knew that Hartley accepted the role but was not aware that she was the one who actually volunteered to come off the bench.

I thought people might be interested in what Dailey had to say about Hartley's decision which Dailey believes was pivotal in the Huskies run to an eighth national title.


"I guess you guys know Geno and know his personality, there is no real roundabout way of him saying anything," Dailey said. "We had some real direct conversations with our players and the conversation that he talks about which I think was one of the turning points for us was he met with our guards for probably an hour or hour and a half and talked  with them about what we needed moving forward and how important their pay was going to be on whether we were going to have a chance to win a national championship. He had to get the guards to see what he saw and that we needed to have more from our guards and we needed to bring more off the bench and in doing that he had to ask Bria Hartley, actually she volunteered, to volunteer to come off the bench.

"Bria Hartley last year was an All-American as a sophomore when we went to the Final Four. There is was in this meeting, she had a difficult year because of injury, she didn't play the same way, she struggled and was up and down the whole year. In this meeting she volunteered to come off the bench and be that person that we need to give us more offense off the bench. I couldn't have been happier for Bria (after the national title game) because I think that says everything you need to know about her. She wants to win a national championship and she knew that was what she had to do, that was the role she had to fill and she was a big part of why we won the game. People like to point out Breanna Stewart and how she played but I am telling you that if Bria Hartley doesn't accept that role and doesn't realize that 'hey I want to win a national championship and this is my best chance to do it with my teammates and my teammates need' then we don't win the national championship this year regardless of how Breanna Stewart played. I was happiest for Bria. She is our most confident, most competitive (player). We were standing in the runway (the day before the national semifinal) and I looked at her and said 'this could be our last practice.' She said 'it won't be.' I said 'are you guaranteeing that?' She said 'yes.' I said 'all right.' I knew for three days that there was no way we were going to lose to Notre Dame because of the way our kids approached it and the way Bria approached it and the way people accepted their roles."

After heaping incredible praise on Hartley, she did the same for another veteran Husky - little-used senior forward/center Heather Buck. Dailey said she had a heart to heart with Buck before it was announced that she would return for her fifth season and needed an assurance that Buck would be able to handle a role similar to the one she had in her first three seasons. Buck said she was and other than one time early in preseason camp when Dailey had to remind Buck of the talk that they had, Dailey couldn't have been more impressed with the way Buck acted as the good and supportive teammate even though her minutes were limited. Dailey said one of the highlights for her in the title game was the steal and layup by Buck.

                                                                                                         (Associated Press photo)
Christina Foggie, who was the SEC's scoring champion as a sophomore, has overcome
a knee injury and increased attention from opponents to lead Vanderbilt into the second
round of the NCAA tournament. The Commodores play at UConn on Monday night.

Christina Foggie's first reaction was one of absolute dismay as she experienced the pain in her right knee last month.

Her Vanderbilt team has already needed to press forward without the services of the multi-faceted Stephanie Holzer and now Foggie, the reigning Southeastern Conference scoring champion, was faced with an uncertain short-term future.

There was a sense of relief when she was told that the knee injury was not of the season-ending variety. She was forced to sit out four games including showdowns with top 15 teams Tennessee and Texas A&M before returning in time for the Feb. 28 game against Auburn.

While still working her way back, Foggie will be front and center when the Commodores face UConn in Monday's second-round game.

So was Foggie scared that her season was over?


"A little bit," Foggie said. "I definitely had to go with what the prognosis and the injury. Missing time was tough but at the end of the day I was rooting for my team to bounce back and recover really helped me and coming back now has helped me be solid and bring experience for them.

"It is a scary injury and something I hope (nobody) has to do but I was very grateful to be able to come back and play for the rest of the season. It is tough because at that point of the season everybody is really in stride and I am trying to come back and get back to the level of shape that I was before I got hurt. I have done a decent job of doing that and I am feeling pretty good so it has been good but having to play with a brace is different too."

It has been a slow road back as she had only four points in 23 minutes in her first two games back before scoring 12 points against Missouri, her first double-digit game in nearly a month.

"Quickness on defense (has been a struggle) but I have been good to go," Foggie said. "I have really got back faster than I thought I would."

The knee issue and playing with a knee brace is not the only adjustment for Foggie this season. Coming off a breakthrough season as a sophomore, stopping Foggie has been the focus of every team's scouting report.

"People play you a little tighter, they know your every tendency a little more not and it is definitely more of reacting to what they are doing and it is not as easy as it was last year," Foggie said.

Foggie drew praise from both UConn coach Geno Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey for coming back so quickly from an injury that could have been of the season-ending variety.


"Sometimes you just will yourself to play and you have to admire kids like this," Auriemma said. "They just love to play and don't want anybody telling them that they can't play."

Dailey remembers Foggie playing for some powerful Fencor teams, the same AAU program that one-time UConn signee Elena Delle Donne played for.

I watched her play in AAU and she is a good player," Dailey said. "You want to talk about toughness, clearly she has to be a pretty tough kid to come back in the same year off the partially torn ACL and just now I think she is just starting to get her form back and get her shooting back. She is a tough kid and knows how to play."

Just a reminder that USA Basketball will be making a presentation of Olympic rings to head coach Geno Auriemma, who was the head coach of the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic squad, as well as to video coordinator Keith Anderson, associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coaches Marisa Moseley and Shea Ralph who weren't official staff members but assisted Auriemma.

Breanna Stewart, seen driving to the basket during U-18
training camp in May, is among the Huskies who will be
recognized by USA Basketball tomorrow night.

Also, Bria Hartley will be recognized for being a member of the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the FIBA 3x3 World Championships as well as the three freshmen (Moriah Jefferson, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck) for being members of the United States team which on the squad which won the FIBA U18 Americas title. My apologies for omitting Jefferson from the list of UConn players on the U-18 team when I reported this news a couple days ago.

The ceremony will take place before tomorrow's game with Pittsburgh.

Recee' Caldwell, a 5-foot-8 junior guard from San Antonio, Tex., is expected to arrive at UConn for her unofficial visit on Thursday according to her high school coach.

Caldwell, a member of the 2011 U.S. U-16 squad, is expected to fly out on Thursday. I'm not sure if she will arrive in time to watch UConn's practice on Thursday but she certainly should be able to watch the Huskies practice on Friday.

Caldwell committed to Baylor back in August of 2011 before reopening her recruitment. UConn head coach Geno Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey were in Johnson High School in San Antonio to watch Caldwell practice last month according to Johnson head coach Randy Evans.


"I know the head coach and associate head coach was here about a month ago and watched one of our practices," Evans said. "I had a good, long talk with Geno and he seemed very interested."

Caldwell averaged 17.4 points, 6.1 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 51 3-pointers as a sophomore. She scored in double figures in all but two games last season and had 11 20-point games. Evans said that while Caldwell will start at point guard, she has the versatility to play the off guard.

"The things that kind of stand out are her passion for the game, her coachability," Evans said. "She certainly is an outstanding passer. Her skill level is really high as far as passing the ball. She has real good court vision. She understands the flow of the game offensively. She fits in well with what we are doing. I've got her at the point but she can play the off guard too, she has a good 3-point shot. Everybody has a weakness or two but her weaknesses are pretty hard to find. She is a real student of the game. She is always wanting to do more. She is here early, she comes by all the time. She is constantly trying to improve. She is a better than average free-throw shooter. She is a joy to have around."

Caldwell and fellow UConn recruiting target Jordin Canada were two of the three members of the high school Class of 2014 on the U.S. squad which led the U.S. to the title at the 2011 FIBA Americas U16 Championships. UConn Class of 2013 recruiting target Erica McCall was also a member of that squad.

When her freshman season came to an end Brianna Banks couldn't help but be overcome by a sense of emptiness and feeling of unfulfilled promise.

Banks' blazing speed was figured to be put to use during her first year at UConn and that was occasionally it was. But on the biggest stages Banks found herself glued to the bench. Banks never got in during UConn's regular-season losses to Baylor and St. John's, did not play in the Big East final against Notre Dame and then as UConn advanced further in the NCAA tournament, the 5-9 guard from Newnan, Ga. found her role being diminished as Banks played a total of five minutes in the regional semifinals and finals against Kentucky and Penn State. Banks first season at UConn ended with her not getting into the game in a Final Four loss to Notre Dame.

Banks knew something had to change and when she finished her school work and headed home to Georgia she knew it was time to look at herself in the mirror. Three weeks back home was enough time for Banks to realize that the way she was going out her business at UConn simply wasn't cutting it especially with three gifted freshmen coming to UConn.

When she returned to campus in early June her teammates and coaches immediately noticed a difference.


"It started gradually changing as the year went on but in the summer when I went home I came back with a completely different mindset," Banks said. "If I wanted to succeed I had to have a completely different mindset."

I asked Banks if it was something UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, associate head coach Chris Dailey or one of the assistant coaches said that made the difference or was it one of her teammates challenging her to practice at a higher level or perhaps it was mother's sage advice which did the trick.

"It was me," Banks said. "I had to figure out some things for myself and once I did that I came back with a completely different mindset. It is a lot easier when you have the mindset of going hard all the time.


"Fatigue was a lot of it. That caused a lot of my problems being tired and not being able to push through my tiredness mentally."

The first time I heard of the new, improved Brianna Banks came in late June when I caught up with Dailey after her round in the celebrity Pro-Am at The Travelers Championship in Cromwell. Dailey was asked which players were impressing her during offseason workouts and she did not hesitate in mentioning Banks' name.



"Brianna Banks is like a different kid," Dailey said. "She is different academically, basketball wise, in the office more. She has probably been in the office more the last few weeks than all of last year. She is just at a different comfort level. I think she is in a really good place. I don't know how it translates into basketball, it translates into growing up. It is definitely nice to see and that will help with basketball because she will approach things differently and in the right way. It is great to see."

Banks could play a key role in the upcoming season especially if UConn looks to press and trap with one of its deepest teams in a few years. The ability for speedy guards like Banks and freshman Moriah Jefferson at the front of the press could wreak havoc with opposing teams.




"We are going to be a running team, all day, completely straight running," Banks said. "I am real excited. I am ready for the season to start. I can't wait."

Banks made an interesting comment when I asked her about Jefferson and fellow freshmen Morgan Tuck and Breanna Stewart.


"They are really good actually," Banks said. "The freshmen last year, my class, we did well but we didn't have as much potential as they do right now."

Feeling that she didn't actually mean that they had more potential but perhaps that they have adapted to the speed of the game and Banks agreed that "they are a lot quicker to adjust."

I also spoke to junior guard Bria Hartley about Banks (and other topics which will be the subject of another entry later this week).

"Brianna went through a lot of tough workouts this summer," Hartley said. "I think she really had to work on pushing herself and working (through) when she was tired. I just think it was the same thing for me my freshman year. I think this year now she understands that. You can tell in workouts she is pushing herself more and more and working to get better.

"I think she has a very quick first step similar to how Tiffany (Hayes) was when she was here. I think she is the type of player who can create because if she is getting into the lane (the opposing team) is going to have to help so it is going to help open up opportunities with our teammates. She can get to the lane and score anytime she wants in my opinion. Every time she puts her mind to it that she wants to go out there play aggressive and not be tentative she is going to score and she is going to make plays for us."

I asked Bria what led to Banks' transformation.

"I think a lot of that year experience," Hartley said. "It helps you out a lot. I think she is more comfortable. She understands more of what she needs to do more on this team and I think it just comes from having one year under her belt."

When Chris Dailey spoke with John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant and I following Saturday's U.S. women's national team practice you could sense the pure excitement the UConn associate women's basketball coach was feeling about her involvement with the U.S. Olympic team.

Dailey was out of the court for the two practices at American University's Bender Arena but she is not being employed as a coach in an official capacity.

"My  job is coordinator of scouting, director of scouting," Dailey said. (UConn assistant coaches) Marisa (Moseley) and Shea (Ralph)will join us. We will support and do whatever Geno and his staff, whatever we can to help them be better prepared to win a gold and that is what our job is."

Dailey will be staying with the team until the end of the Olympics and serve in a similar fashion as she did two years ago when UConn and U.S. head coach Geno Auriemma led the U.S. to the FIBA World Championship title. She won't be able to sit on the bench during games and won't receive a gold medal if the U.S. wins the title but that doesn't lessen the exhiliration she is feeling at the chance to witness history especially with half of the U.S. team members having played for her and Auriemma at UConn.

“You don't know when you will have this kind of an opportunity and the fact that you are able to be a part of the Olympic experience but for this particular group, to have six of our former players on the Olympic team that will never happen again,” Dailey said. “To be able to be around them again and hopefully be able to watch them experience (winning) an Olympic gold medal that would be - I can't even put it into words because it is not something that you think about every day. Now that it is here, I am just going to enjoy it every day and do whatever Geno and his staff need or want me to do. “I have an advantage, I have worked with him a long time i know his system, I know what he wants and whatever I can do to help I am happy to do it. I am going to enjoy it, not only with our six guys but I really enjoy the other six players. We have played against them and in the last two years I have gotten to know them better Sylvia (Fowles), Candace (Parker), Lindsay (Whalen) ...  It is going to be a great experience for me.”

Dailey’s relationship with the former UConn stars is different now than when they were in college. Dailey admits that she is like a sponge eager to pick up anything she can from players like Cash, Sue Bird, Asjha Jones and Diana Taurasi who have played at a high level and won games and championships all over the world.

“You can say different things,” Dailey said. “You can appreciate their humor in a different way. We have always been open to listening to our players but now they have so much experience, they have played in so many different situations that I like to ask their opinion on different things now it’s 'how to guard this, how do you do this? What teams do this? How do you find things? What is the hardest thing to guard? When you in college, you are pretty much telling them what those things are. Now with all of their experience, they are able to share a lot of knowledge.”

The former Huskies are thrilled to have Dailey around and she has also gotten to know the six players on the team who didn't go to UConn.

“CD always brings, I don't even know the word for it but she brings CD,” Maya Moore said. “She is there keeping us sharp. She is always somebody who is going to be focused on what you do and she is good at what she does. She helps keep everybody together. It is just a joy to be around people who have impacted me so much and continue to share in a special moment - my first Olympics - with people who have been such a big part of helping me get there.”

After finishing her round at the Travelers Championship Pro-Am and making sure the assembled media know that she recorded four pars, UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey provided an update on how the Huskies have been looking in the offseason.

Dailey raved about the growth of rising sophomore guard Brianna Banks, both on and off the court.

"The kids are good, they are working hard," Dailey said. "Brianna Banks is like a different kid. She is different academically, basketball wise, in the office more. She has probably been in the office more the last few weeks than all of last year. She is just (at) a different comfort level. After having gone through I think she is in a really good place. I don't know how it translates into basketball; it translates into growing up. It is definitely nice to see and that will help with basketball because she will approach things differently and in the right way. It is great to see.

"There are always conversations but you don't know what it means. You can talk until you are blue in the
face but until kids internalize it and make a change and understand it doesn't matter. She seems to have
done that now and hopefully she will continue and send her into the fall."o

Dailey also said "the freshmen are doing well, they have a nice way about them" and Kiah Stokes is planning to stay at UConn for both summer sessions "to give herself a chance to rehab (her injured foot).
"It is going to be a process, she is still in a boot. Her spirits are good."

Since I am in golf mode, sitting here at one of the Connecticut high school golf tournaments, I figured I would pass on the fact that Geno Auriemma and Chris Dailey are among the Travelers Championship Pr-Am participants announced today.

UConn is well represented on the list as Auriemma and Dailey are joined by UConn men's basketball coach Jim Calhoun, his associate head coach George Blaney, former assistant coach Tom Moore and former star player Scott Burrell. UConn AD Warde Manuel is also scheduled to take part in the event which will be held on June 20 at the TPC River Highlands in Cromwell.

Maren Walseth's time in Connecticut was relatively brief but it was still long enough for her to land securely on UConn's recruiting radar.

Walseth, who is in her fifth season as an assisant coach on the staff of Penn State coach Coquese Washington, took a few minutes on Saturday to reflect on the experience of being recruited by UConn. It was the perfect time for Walseth to reflect on her days in Connecticut since UConn and Penn State are meeting in the Kingston (R.I.) Regional semifinals today.

"It is always fun, there is a little bit of a tie," Walseth said. "I think it is different for me because I didn't graduate from high school in Connecticut, I was there for a short time but I went to a ton of UConn games in high school and was recruited by them."

Walseth is a native of Minnesota and attended Jefferson High School as a freshman. She spent her sophomore and junior seasons at Simsbury High before heading back to Jefferson for her senior season.

"In my mind it was a two-year stint but in Connecticut's mind it was a lot longer," Walseth said. "It was just a
two-year littile stint in my life.

"I joke with (UConn associate head coach) Chris (Dailey) that I got more air time than she did because I sat behind the bench at literally every home game. They did their due diligence in recruiting me as I am sure they did with all of their recruits. I did the campus tour, went to a bunch of games and obviously did stuff like that."

Walseth was hired by Washington and has been there every step of the way as Penn State is back to being a player on the women's basketball scene. Walseth knew that Washington, a former player and assistant coach at Notre Dame, would get the Lady Lions moving in the right direction.

"She is a fantastic leader and she has a great vision," Walseth said. "She gets credited with a lot of on the court things but she is intentional about everything she does, the types of players she recruits, the people she has on her staff, the people she has working in her office. She is a very goal-orientated drive person that everything that she does and has her players and staff do, there is a reason for it. She lays out the plan, we check the box and make sure we follow the plan so I am not surprised where she has taken the program."

When associate head coach Chris Dailey finished her nine-hole round at the Travelers' Pro-Am, she busted my chops about missing the highlight of her golfing "career."

I didn't have the heart to tell her that she could blame one of his prize pupils. When I was out on the course tracking her progress and shooting some videos, I checked my e-mails and saw the release on Maya Moore being one of the three finalists for the Honda-Broderick Cup award. While I was able to throw up a short update on this blog courtesy of my phone, I headed back to the media center to provide a longer entry.

I headed out to the ninth hole and saw Dailey finish with a par. However, it was her effort on the eighth hole that had Dailey downright giddy. Dailey finished with a birdie on the par-3 hole but because of her handicap, her score went down as a zero.

"I wish I could tell you the yardage but it was a par 3 and the putt was about 10 feet downhill slope," Dailey said. "My pro Brian Davis gave me a good read as did my caddy and I knocked it in. I jumped up and down, made a lot of noise and shot a zero. It is so rare, the guy who keys in the score couldn't put a zero in as a score so I got us three strokes in one hole. I just parred tthat (ninth hole)."

This was Dailey's third time playing the Pro-Am. She admits she doesn't play a heck of a lot of golf but with help from Davis as well as her caddy, she showed tremendous improvement as she finished up the Pro-Am in style.

"These guys are great and just the people I've gotten to meet are (great)," Dailey said. "I've been pretty lucky with the pros I've gotten to play with, they are really nice.

"I love to do this. I don't get to play a lot of golf, I am not really good at it. I have a high handicap so that is good. I know my role on the team. Every year I say I am going to practice. This year I was going to practice one week and it rained every day but it is a lot of fun."

This is a bit of the calm before the storm. When the recruiting process opens up early next month, the UConn staff will focus on the top players in the Class of 2013. Diamond DeShields and Taya Reimer have drawn the interest of the UConn staff and it will be interesting to see which members of that class join DeShields and Reimer as top recruiting targets in that class.

"It is going to start picking up," Dailey said. "We go out (recruiting) on the 6th (of July). It starts to pick up and we travel a lot.

Speaking of traveling, Dailey talked about UConn's upcoming trip to Europe.

"I think it is a great experience for our kids to be able to go overseas but it will also be good for us to see what they know, how quickly they pick things up," Dailey said. "It will be good to get a look at this year's team and see what we need to do heading into September and when the season starts."

I think they are handling the intensity of it. I think the first day they were a little overwhelmed but I think with each workout they have gotten better. I think they are pushing themselves but it is still a big jump from that first time, your last day of high school and then you are in college but they have done a really good job so far.

When I left the XL Center Monday night, I said that the DePaul/Notre Dame was the best game in the Big East tournament. Perhaps I should have added the words "up until that point."

The last couple of Big East finals have been duds as UConn defeated Louisville and West Virginia by an average of 33 1/2 points per game. Even during UConn's 65-59 win over Louisville in the 2008 final, there was never the sense that the Huskies were in danger of losing.

The same could not be said on Tuesday night. Even when Maya Moore scored six early points in the second half, all it did was put UConn up by three. When freshmen Stefanie Dolson and Bria Hartley combined for eight points in an 11-0 run to extend the lead to 12, Notre Dame was not discouraged.

Despite hyperextending her left knee, Natalie Novosel scored seven straight puts to bring the Fighting Irish back within three. That was when Moore and Dolson went back to work. Moore's basket made it a five-point lead and then came perhaps the play of the game. Moore missed a rushed shot and Dolson somehow corraled the rebound between a pair of ND players and scored. She scored the next four points and UConn fans could finally exhale as the Huskies went onto a 73-64 win and a record 17th Big East title.

"We needed every person to contribute tonight," Moore said. "I thought we did a really good job, especially in the second half of hitting big shots, running out offense and executing. It took all of us so I am really proud of the way everybody stepped up.

"It's been the most difficult year but we have shown some resilience. Overcoming some odds and being mentally tougher than people probably thought we would be, finding a way to win."

Moore finished with 22 points and her six early points were huge in allowing UConn to get settled in early in the second half. She moved into ninth on the NCAA's all-time scoring list. Down the stretch, it was Dolson who took over despite playing all 40 minutes for the first time in her UConn career.

"The thing where I have progressed the most is just my mentality, playing as hard as I can and not focusing on how tired I am," said Dolson, wh had 24 points in the game and a UConn freshman tournament record 60 in the three games. "There was one timeout when I was so exhausted but CD (UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey) talked to me and I had to fight through it because we don't have a lot of depth."

Had the all-tournament voted been cast with about two minutes to play, Dolson was almost certainly have been named the tournament's most outstanding performer. But with the votes being cast before the final media timeout, it was pretty much a toss up between Dolson and Moore for MOP honors. In that case, the veteran Moore would out over the upstart Dolson. Neither player seemed too concerned with how the voting turned out.

Now the team gets some time off the recover both mentally and physically after surviving three games in three days against three of the most physical teams in the Big East. UConn should be the No. 1 overall seed when the NCAA pairings are announced on Monday.


There are video interviews of Moore and Dolson posted on the Register's site.

The casual observer might have walked into the interview room at the XL Center and thought it's been nothing but clear sailing watching UConn's Geno Auriemma, Maya Moore and Bria Hartley accept the Coach, Player and Freshman of the Year awards from the Big East on Friday.

The fact is that it has not always been the smoothest of seas.

Auriemma believes it's been a more challenging rise to the top of the Big East without the graduated Tina Charles and Kalana Greene and with guard Caroline Doty out for the season with a knee injury.

More than ever, Moore has been asked not to settle for 3-pointers and look to get into the lane and be a physical force.

Then there is Bria Hartley, a freshman who walked in and quickly ascended into the starting role but not just any role, but as the starting point guard.

"It's a Catch-22," Auriemma said. "If Caroline is around, then maybe Bria doesn't have to start and maybe Bria doesn't make this much progress this quickly but she probably doesn't struggle as much either. In order to make the progress, she had to struggle. The fact that Stefanie has to start and play that many minutes, that's probably not good. That can't be good when you are a freshman, throw them in and then they look at you and say 'I need a breather.' Tough, who am I going to put in."

In recent weeks, Auriemma has been reminding Hartley that at her current pace she would be the first UConn point guard to have more turnovers than assists since Jen Rizzotti in the 1992-93 season.

"She has taken a lot of grief from me day in and day out," Auriemma said. "What she gets from me isn't even close to what she gets from Shea (Ralph, Hartley's position coach at UConn). She has not had it easy this year. She's in a very difficult position yet the things that we saw from her in high school, she loves the big moment, she loves the pressure. I think for her to come into this environment where everything is magnified and to do that says a lot about her character, what kind of person she is."

As Auriemma mentioned, it is Ralph - herself a former Big East Freshman of the Year - who has been entrusted with Hartley's development.

"Our freshmen this year had a unique opportunity because Bria walked right into a starting spot as did Stefanie," Ralph said. "Without them, we wouldn't be able to do the things that we've done. It's been good to see her kind of embrace that. One of the things I can say about Bria is that she is competitive and she doesn't want to lose and I think you have to have that edge to be successful here because every day we are putting her in situations that are really tough and she fails and fails and fails every day but she is getting better and that is mainly because she is tough, she is competitive, she doesn't want to give up and she wants to win. It is a testament to her to be able to contribute like she has this year."

Speaking of the challenges faced by the freshmen, there is the story that Hartley revealed on Thursday about the freshmen being booted from the UConn locker room from mid-November until early February.

"So much of it is not even punishment," Auriemma said. "It's 'hey, you aren't even part of our team. Go over there with those guys and just show up at practice, you aren't really on our team yet. When you are on our team then you can come back but this locker room is for guys on our team.' You just tell them that to see if you can get a reaction out of them. Then we had a big win and the great negotiator Bria Hartley comes over and says 'Coach, can we get back in the locker room?' I said 'I don't know, CD (UConn associate head coach Bria Hartley) doesn't want you guys in there so ask her.'

"We had a great time with these guys early on. It was more fun than it was anything else, just to see their reaction. We do stuff behind the scenes that if we ever talked about it, you would laugh. They are young and they don't know. Shea, Marisa, CD they are exasperated at practice every day because these guys, there is so much you have to teach them and so much they don't know. It is just a lot for them to get."

As if there was a question regarding UConn's interest in Hillhouse junior Bria Holmes, assistant coach Shea Ralph was sitting four rows behind the Academics' bench at the TD Bank Sports Center during Monday's Southern Connecticut Conference tournament semifinal.

Holmes had 16 points (on 7 of 11 shooting), eight rebounds, three assists, one steal and five turnovers while playing all 32 minutes as Hillhouse held on for a 51-50 victory over Career.

Holmes saved her best for the early portion of the third quarter, grabbing half of her eight rebounds in that quarter as the Academics built up a commanding lead only to come back behind the play of Bria Moore, who had 16 of her game-high 17 points in the second half and also had 11 rebounds.

Career had a chance to take the lead in the closing seconds but Nicole Bentley missed a driving layup. However, a foul was called during the ensuing scramble sending Nicole Anderson to the line with 0.6 seconds to play. Anderson made the first foul shot but miss the second as Hillhouse escaped with a 51-50 victory.

When I was there, I heard rumblings that Rutgers is the leader in the clubhouse for Holmes so I spoke with Hillhouse coach Catrina Hawley-Stewart to get an update on where her star player is in the recruiting process.

"It's not just Rutgers, the entire Big East is interested," Hawley-Stewart said. "Baylor, Duke, the top 10 is interested. Obviously she will be interested in UConn. It's an honor to have Coach Shea Ralph up here."

Hawley-Stewart said it was hard to pinpoint how many times a member of the UConn staff has been in attendance at one of the Hillhouse games this year. I said "three or four?" and Hawley-Stewart said that was about right.

Holmes, who plays both in the post and on the wing for Hillhouse but projects as a wing player at the next level, is not close to making a decision or even narrowing her list of schools.

"It is still a ways away," Hawley-Stewart said. "I don't think the coaches are putting on the pressure. She is the kind of kid who teams would like to have. Bria likes a family atmosphere and there is no rush unless a coach says now or never and then she would kind of figure out what she would like to do. Right now she is taking advantage of getting to know the coaches, what kind of style they play, what their home life is like and what the team does together. Bria wants to be a part of a happy, winning family."

UConn, Rutgers, St. John's and Providence (where Hawley-Stewart played) are among the schools Holmes has visits.

"She wants to go down to West Virginia, to Louisville," Hawley-Stewart said. "She just wants to see what (options) she has and I think she wants to stay close."

Holmes' main focus is on leading Hillhouse to its third consecutive state title but come April, she'll "be able to use every weekend to go and see schools," Hawley-Stewart said.

"She is overwhelmed (by the recruiting process)," Hawley-Stewart said. "Every time you go to the mailbox and it is overflowing. They haven't even been able to call her yet so just imagine when all the calls start rushing in."

I asked Hawley-Stewart about how much Bria has connected with Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer.

"Everybody loves Vivian but she also loves Coach Geno (Auriemma)," Hawley-Stewart said. "She likes the (UConn) style of play, she really likes (UConn associate head) Coach (Chris) Dailey. She loves and wants to talk to her often. She really likes the UConn family and we'll see what happens. Her mother will go up there with her (for another visit) and she is excited to see them win another championship."


Speaking of UConn, here is a link to the advance I wrote for tomorrow's game against Seton Hall which focuses on the on-court chemistry between Maya Moore and Kelly Faris.

Sure, she has lost more games this season than she did in her four-year career at UConn, but still Jacquie Fernandes has no complaints about her first season as the Director of Women's Basketball Operations at Fairfield University.

Ironically, it was a call from Fairfield coach Joe Frager to Jack Eisenmann, who held the same title at UConn that Fernandes currently does at Fairfield, which started the wheels in motion.

"Coach Frager called up (Eisenmann) and wanted to see if any former players wanted to get into coaching," Fernandes said after Fairfield's 54-52 loss to Marist on Sunday. "That was kind of how it developed. Fairfield is awesome, it is a great place to be. It is a different style (of basketball). It is great to be exposed to that and great to be behind the scenes and see how this program has (emerged). It is great to play one style and then be part of a different style. You can take that wherever you go and I certainly have learned a lot."

Fernandes is not allowed to take part in the actual coaching of players but has her hand in pretty much ever part of the operation for the Stags.

"She has standard Director of Basketball Operation duties," Frager said. "She manages all of our travel, does a lot with our team meals, working with our ticket office. She does a lot of work within the office in terms of entering stuff into our recruiting database. We extend her responibilities as far as the letter of the law will allow us to. She is sort of a jack of all trades, she is going to be a very good coach.

"We knew we were getting a quality person when we took her. Of course I talked to Coach (Auriemma), he called me on Jacquie a couple of times, I spoke to Maria Conlon who spoke with some people who have worked with her so we did our homeworkon her. It is good to get somebody from a program like that because they know what attention to detail is, they know what work ethic is and what commitment is. As much as a good future coach and basketball mind you are going to get with her, you are getting a quality person through and through. There were no doubts about hiring her. She has been great."

Fernandes was bitten by the coaching bug in the later stages of her time at UConn and is enjoying her entry into the coaching profession.

"I am in all of the coaches meetings," Fernandes said. "It is great because I can give as much (input) as I can about what I have learned from Coach Auriemma. Other than directly coaching the players, I do everything else that an assistant does. On a day to day basis, I try to do everything I can for the program. I love it, I learn something new every day but I try to give as much as I can. I love the game, I love teaching it. I feel I have so much to learn and I love teaching the game that I love."

One drawback of being on the staff at Fairfield is that she can't just head up to UConn if she wants to take part in a practice with the Huskies. Needing to be at arms' length from the UConn program has not been easy for her.

"Obviously I am still great friends with a lot of team members," Fernandes said. "I follow them closely, they are my sisters. It is tough. I can't just walk into practice and say 'hey, I want to play' like other former players can do."

That doesn't mean she doesn't check out the UConn games when her schedule allows her to do so. Like so many others, she is amazed by the remarkable senior season her former teammate Maya Moore is putting together.

"Phenomenal, there's so much pressure she has to carry that team but it is going to be the other people around her who help her," Fernandes said. "Hartley's done a great job, Kelly's done a great job and of course Tiffany and obviously Stef. She has a lot of pressure to hold the paint down. She is learning and she is a freshman, she has done great. That's why you love to have Chris Dailey, look at what she turned Tina Charles into. It is great to see what's going to happen with Stef."