UConn guard Kia Nurse was Canada's leading scorer at 2016 Olympics

UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma, fresh off leading the United States to a second straight Olympic gold medal, said he would not be coaching the national team again. Time will tell if that's the case because at this point four years ago Auriemma was saying pretty much the same thing.

However, it is clear that Auriemma came out of this Olympics significantly more energized than he was four years ago. One of the advantages of covering the UConn football and women's basketball teams (especially before the practice facility came to be) is I would occasionally catch up with Auriemma inside Gampel Pavilion. One of those meetings came on one of his first trips back to campus after leading the U.S. to the 2012 Olympic gold medal. The circles under his eyes had circles of their own and he looked completely spent emotionally and physically. This time around, however, he seems to have emerged from the experience with more of a jump in his step.

At American Athletic Conference media day earlier this week, I asked him about that.

"It was a much different experience when you know what is coming," Auriemma said. "I was able to change my approach a little bit and it was still difficult to come home August 22 and have our players show up Aug. 26th, that was hard.

"I knew my team and in 2012 I didn't know them. I knew what I was going to get and there was  comfort level which made it easier for me, much easier transition."

Auriemma returned to UConn content that his team accomplished everything he was hoping they would. The story is a little different for junior guard Kia Nurse.

Nurse led her team into the Olympics after being her team's leading scorer in the FIBA Americas tournament which served as an Olympic qualifier and Pan Am Games last summer.

Canada faced France in the quarterfinals with the knowledge that a victory would give them a chance to play for a medal while a loss eliminated them from medal contention.

Canada was up by 13 points when Kim Gaucher scored with 7:30 left in the first half and took a five-point lead into halftime before it all began to unravel.

Nurse has had some many magical performances for her national team but she seemed to be pedaling uphill throughout the entire game. Perhaps it was the case that she missed much of the preparation time leading into the Olympics due to an offseason surgery, it simply wasn't her day or France was able to turn her into a jump shooter by cutting off her aggressive drives to the basket, but Nurse couldn't hit a basket. She finished 3 of 17 from the field in the 68-63 loss en route to a seventh place finish.

Nurse was hoping to return home with a medal. She joked that she would leave it with her parents and point out to her brother Darnell, a defenseman for the NHL's Edmonton Oilers, that despite the remarkable number of trophies he has accumulated, he couldn't top her achievement of earning an Olympic medal. Those conversations just may happen one day but not at the current time.

As time has gone on Nurse has learned the appreciate everything that her national team has been able to accomplish instead of a focusing on her disappointing performance against France.

"Every summer when I come back here and put my dreams (in focus) again," Nurse said. "I look back at my summer and realize how fortunate I was to have that experience, thinking about it if you want to be an experienced player you have to keep on playing. I've been fortunate to have that extra experience, find all of my strengths and weaknesses and work through them.

"My whole thing is we had three vets who were finished with the national team no matter what the outcome was and see how they carried themselves every day, the pride and passion they played with each and every day for the last four years of my career and all the years they were with the team. It was a shame we couldn't finish it off and the fairy tale for them and everything they put into the program. It was obviously disappointing but we are extremely proud of how far Canada basketball has come, when those ranking came out and we were six, we bumped up three spots that is just a testament of how far Canada basketball has come."

As Nurse referenced, the Canadian team will look somewhat different four years from now. Gaucher is 32, Shona Thorburn is 34, Lizanne Murphy is 32 and Tamara Tatham is 31 and the future of the team will rest with the seven members of the squad 25 or younger. Canada combined to go 9-3 in the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Championships and FIBA U17 World Championships so perhaps players from those teams will be in the mix. There are also plenty of Canadian stars opening eyes at the collegiate level so it will be interesting to see what the team looks like in two years at the World Championships and in four years time as well.

"It is starting to get more towards my age group so all the players that I played with in the age divisions," Nurse said. "They are doing great things in the NCAA level, in the pro level overseas, for them to come up to the next level and play on the national team I think it is going to great."

A third person with UConn ties who went to the Olympics was also at media day in Philadelphia as former UConn forward Jamelle Elliott and current Cincinnati head coach Jamelle Elliott served as an advanced scout for the U.S. team.

"It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Geno to think enough of me to be a part of this Olympic staff as a coach the best players in the world and try to go for a gold medal," Elliott said. "It was an unbelievable experience and it allowed me to reenergize as a coach being an assistant again, being around the coaching legends on the men's side Mike Krzyewski, Jim Boeheim, Tom Thibodeau just to hear those conversations and hear them talk about basketball it was unbelievable experience."

Time will tell how the UConn coaching staff does in adding post players in the next recruiting class but the 2017-18 Huskies will have some size up front thanks to another transfer joining the program.

Batouly Camara, a former Blair Academy star who spent her freshman season at Kentucky, will be joining former Duke star Azura' Stevens as transfers joining the Huskies since the end of the season.

Camara is a versatile 6-foot-2 forward from New York who averaged a double-double as a senior. In her three seasons at Blair, she led the Buccaneers to a 62-8 record and three consecutive Mid-Atlantic Prep league titles.

Here's a video I shot when Camara took part in the USA Basketball U-18 national team trials back in 2014.

Camara averaged 5.1 points and 4.3 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game as a freshman at Kentucky.

She had a career-high 11 rebounds against UNC-Asheville in the first round of the NCAA tournament. In a loss at South Carolina Camara had a career-high 14 points to go with nine rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot in 25 minutes before fouling out. She also had eight points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots in an overtime win against Tennessee.

Camara previously announced that she would be transferring out of Kentucky, one of six players to transfer, another was dismissed and multiple players who have committed to play for the Wildcats have backed out of those pledges.

This will mark the first time UConn has three transfers on its roster as Camara and Stevens joins Natalie Butler, who is set for her second season on the court at UConn after transferring from Georgetown.

On the 2004-05 season UConn's roster featured junior-college transfer Rashidit Sadiq and Brittany Hunter, who played at Duke as a freshman. Hunter had to sit out that season and by the time she played in a game with the Huskies, Sadiq was no longer a part of the program. Rita Williams also went the junior-college route, spending her freshman season at Mitchell Community College and teamed with former University of Arizona product Sarah Northway for two seasons. However, Mitchell was part of UConn's plans coming out of high school so including her in a list of transfers is kind of hard to do even though she officially would be included as a transfer.

Both Camara and Stevens would have to sit out the upcoming season. Stevens will have two years of eligibility remaining while Camara would have three.

UConn has 13 scholarship players for the upcoming season and with only Saniya Chong and Tierney Lawlor leaving at season's end. UConn has two commitments (Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Lexi Gordon) in the next class so there are two remaining scholarships in the Class of 2017.

The Hartford Courant was the first to report that Camara was likely to land at UConn.

NURSE TO MISS EARLY PORTION OF CANADA'S OLYMPIC PREPARATIONS
The Canadian women's national team is currently in Edmonton for the first stage of its Olympic preparations before leaving to play five international friendlies in Spain and France. However, UConn rising junior guard Kia Nurse is not currently with the team and according to a team spokesperson, neither Nurse nor any of the WNBA players in the player pool will be taking part in the European tour.

There's no cause for concern regarding Nurse as she is back at UConn to what was termed "school commitments" but is expected to join the team this summer. The move makes sense as Nurse looked like she was exhausted by the end of what was a hectic summer for her and the Canadian program which won the Pan Am Games and FIBA Americas title. As the team's leading scorer in both events, Nurse will obviously be a member of the squad and by remaining in Connecticut, she won't be overworked this summer. Canada still has two more training camps, a three-game set of exhibitions against China as well as more international friendlies being held in the U.S. and perhaps in Connecticut shortly before the team leaves for the Olympics.

FORMER HUSKIES MAKING NEWS
A couple of items to report regarding former UConn stars.

First, Tamika Williams was hired at Penn State after leaving her job as an assistant coach at Kentucky. Also, Jamelle Elliott will serve as an advanced scout for the U.S. team at the Olympics.

Cincinnati, where Elliott serves as the head women's basketball coach, announced the news earlier today. Ironically, she will join her former teammate and classmate in the court coach/advance scout as Jen Rizzotti will also handle those chores.

What's interesting with Williams' appointment is that she coached Camara in her final season at Kentucky and now one of the players she will get to coach at Penn State is UConn transfer De'Janae Boykin.

Also, former UConn star Carla Berube and former UConn assistant coach Tonya Cardoza were named court coaches at the upcoming U-17 and U-18 national team trials.

The U-17 trials run from Thursday-Monday with the U-18s running from Saturday-Monday.

UConn Class of 2017 commits Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Lexi Gordon are among 150 players competing for 12 spots on the U.S. taking part in the FIBA U-17 World Championships while 30 players including UConn incoming freshman Crystal Dangerfield and Class of 2017 recruiting target Megan Walker are taking part in the U18 camp. Walker is part of the U.S. squad playing in the FIBA Women's 3x3 U18 World Championships from June 1-5 in Kazakhstan so the four players on that squad will be leaving on Sunday and only take part in Saturday's sessions.

For somebody accustomed to winning during her time as a player and assistant coach at UConn, her first four seasons as Cincinnati's head coach have not always been all smooth sailing.

The Bearcats have lost between 16-20 games each season but with a team consisting completely of players she recruited Cincinnati is off to a 7-4 start including wins over Ohio State and Xavier.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma said that Elliott has simplified things and put the ball in the hands of seniors Dayeesha Hollins and Jeanise Randolph.

"She is bright enough to take advantage of the fact that kid (Hollins) is hard to guard, she is hard to guard one on one, she is hard to guard in the ball screen and sometimes I think we make it really complicated," Auriemma said. "We throw 17 passes and then we end up with a ball screen so Jamelle said 'let's eliminate all of that stuff and let our two best players operate.' Obviously they have had a lot of success with it. Her teams have always played hard, compete, they are passionate just like she is. When they get in trouble they just struggle scoring points.

"For them to beat Xavier and Ohio State, that is huge for them given where they located."

Central FLorida coach Joi Williams coached five
current UConn players on U.S. junior national teams

Few introductions will be necessary when Central Florida coach Joi Williams leads her team against UConn on Jan. 1 in Orlando and Feb. 19 in Hartford thanks to a pair of USA Basketball coaching stints.

Back in 2010 Williams was an assistant coach on the U.S. team which won the FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women. UConn's Bria Hartley and Stefanie Dolson were members of that squad which won five games by an average of 55.8 points per game. The following summer she was an assistant coach on the U.S. team which won the FIBA U19 world championship. That squad also featured Dolson and Hartley along with Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Breanna Stewart and Morgan Tuck.

Williams looked back on those two summers when I spoke to her at American Athletic Conference media day.

"It was great, the first summer with the U18s we had Bria and Stefanie and the U19 year we had all of those guys plus Morgan Tuck so it was a lot of fun," Williams said. "Obviously they earned their way onto that team because they are very talented and deserving. It was a lot of fun and a lot of great stories, Stefanie especially has a great sense of humor so I had a good time with all of them.

"I did work the posts so I worked more with Tuck, Stefanie and Stewart so that was a lot of fun. Tremendous potential obviously, when Breanna had her breakout (performance) last year I am sure nothing in the country was surprised, I certainly wasn't it probably just took her a little bit of time to get acclimated but  it is like the USA Basketball experience for her, she just could take over and any time she did it just happened. Just very coachable, I think that is the big thing with those three that I worked with, very humble. Morgan brings a lot of value, she brought a lot of value when she was our team because she is kind of the quiet assassin type, she doesn't have a lot of highs and lows and she is very even temperament and really does a lot of the dirty work and was a great leader for that team."

Williams knows it will be quite the challenge when facing the Huskies and those five players are major reasons why the Huskies figure to start the season as the nation's No. 1 ranked team.

"It will be tough, they are very talented a great team and a great program but we are excited a bout the challenge," Williams said. "At UCF we are used to being underdogs, we have been there before and it is not going to be any different this year but our mindset is that we want to go in and play with a chip on our shoulder."

Dolson remembers her time working with Williams quite fondly.

"She is great, she is tough and she didn't take any BS from players," Dolson said. "If you weren't running a drill hard she kicked you out and that is something I respect as a player to see a coach who doesn't really care and is willing to push you as hard as she can. It was nice to see her."

TOUGH TIMES AT CINCINNATI
Some things are more important that wins and losses and nobody has to tell that to anybody in the athletic department at Cincinnati.

Ben Flick, who was a freshman offensive lineman on the Bearcats' football team, was killed in a car accident last month and receiver Mark Barr suffered serious injuries in the same accident.

Cincinnati women's basketball coach Jamelle Elliott, a former forward and assistant coach at UConn, reflected on what these last few weeks have been like at Cincinnati.

"When that happened, Whit Babcock our AD did a really good job of making sure there was counseling because there were a lot of people affected by it, even my players, a couple of my freshmen players went through a summer program with them and they were extremely close to them so it was a trying time for all of us," Elliott said. "There are still some lingering things going on from an emotional standpoint but I thought Tommy (Tuberville, Cincinnati's football coach) and Whut handled it about as well as you could handle it as far as making sure you put the student-athletes first, their feelings first. For a short time football wasn't the most important thing, it was about the players and making sure they got the help they needed to grieve somebody who was an impact player even though he was a freshman, he impacted a lot of lives."

TV SCHEDULE FINALIZED

UConn's schedule now has the complete television listings including 17 games being televised by SNY. Every regular-season game will be televised including seven games being on ESPN2, another one on ESPN and two more on ESPNU.

FORMER UCONN RECRUITING TARGET COMMITS TO STANFORD
Throughout the recruiting process New Jersey high school star Taylor Rooks was one of the small list of players mentioned as being on UConn's recruiting radar. However, the recruitment of Rooks ended a while back. It all turned out pretty good for the ultra competitive Rooks who committed to Stanford.

As hard as it is to believe, 30-win seasons and Final Four appearances did not start rolling off the assembly line the day Geno Auriemma was hired at UConn.

The Huskies were just 18-26 in Big East play during Auriemma's first three seasons before sweeping the regular-season and tournament titles in Auriemma's fourth season in Storrs. So Auriemma does have a little bit of a sense of what a grind it has been for former UConn star and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott to change to culture in her four seasons at the helm of the Cincinnati program.

Heading into tomorrow's home game with the third-ranked Huskies, Cincinnati joins Pittsburgh as the only teams yet to win a Big East game this season. Elliott's record in conference play is 12-41. The 41 losses are five more than the total she suffered in 12 seasons as an assistant coach at Connecticut.

"It is always a struggle when you take over a program," Auriemma said. "Jamelle is pretty hard on herself. They can have the same exact injuries that say we have or have guys out for the year and we can withstand them because of the depth of the talent that we have but when you are building a program and you lose a couple of key guys and you don’t recover from that. I know they played a couple of key games that are really tough on them, the Louisville and soembody else got them really good, South Florida maybe (Cincinnati lost to Louisville and South Florida by a combined score of 149-77 in consecutive games in mid-Janaury) and the worst thing you can do is get discouraged, She is pretty positive. I am going to see her(to)night get to talk to her.

"Your first year you are working on adrenaline, you think that once you put your fingerprints all over it that it is going to change and you are going to be able to will it (to change). Your second and third year it is a lot harder and you are so dependent on the kinds of players that you have and everything going right. You always wonder if you can get over a certain hump. Can you finish .500 in the league? Can you beat the top teams a little bit? Can we be competitive in every single game? There are always a lot of questions you can ask yourself. It is very difficult especially at a place that hasn’t been successful for a long time."

Former UConn star player and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott signed a three-year extension meaning she is under contract to be the head women's basketball coach at Cincinnati through the 2017-18 season.


"I am excited and it is my privilege to sign a contract extension through the 2017-2018 season,” Elliott said in a statement. “The support that we have received from the UC administration has been invaluable with helping us elevate our program. I would like to thank President Greg Williams, Director of Athletics Whit Babcock, Senior Woman Administrator Robin Martin and the rest of the athletic department for their belief and commitment to Cincinnati women’s basketball. As a staff, we are excited and energized to ‘Represent the C’ and continuing our success in the future, both on the court and in the classroom.”

Elliott led Cincinnati to a 16-16 record in 2011-12, her third year at the helm of the Bearcats.

Since Geno Auriemma came into the Big East tournament needing three wins to become the sixth Division I women's coach to win 800 career game, opposing coaches in Auriemma's circle of friends were popular with members of the Connecticut media.

I spoke with Cincinnati coach Jamelle Elliott, a former UConn player and assistant coach, and Doug Bruno, who is an assistant coach on Auriemma's U.S. senior national team staff, about what makes Auriemma such a successful coach.

"The thing about getting 800 is that is something he never talks about," Bruno said. "He never talks about how many wins he has. If you go over to his home, there is nothing in the home that celebrates him, I guess the wine cellar might celebrate his taste in wine, but it is all about his taste in teams. It is subtle about how it celebrates his teams and it is really cool the way it is about the team and I think that is what it is about. I really think he could care less about the 800, he knows it is about the players, if you can get great players who are also great people and the numbers always take care of themselves.

"He is a great coach. It is not awkward, it is easy for me to say he is a great coach but you are this guy's assistant so you are not supposed to go on and say he is a great coach but he is a great coach. That is a fact. You know that more when he is on the inside with him. You know he is a great coach when you are on the outside looking in but when you are inside looking out you really do realize he does a great job coaching basketball. I think he has spent a lot of time doing a lot of homework on the game. This didn't just happen. He didn't just wake up on morning and get basketball smart, he really worked to become basketball smart. So much of coaching is your relationships with people, your ability to react with people, interact with people and that is natural,

"Because he has the ability to have a funny shtick people might get the idea that this is an arrogant human being and he is not an arrogant guy. He is confident but he cares about people and all of that comes together when you are coaching and I think that is fine. He has built the program where the kids care about themselves. That is why they come back. They don't want to come back just to see Geno, they want to come back because they are proud to be a part of the UConn tradition."
Elliott was with Auriemma as a player from 1992-96 and then sat by his side for another 13 seasons so she may have as good of an understanding of any person not currently at UConn on what makes Auriemma as successful as he is.

"(It's) how hard he works and I know how long he has been coaching," Elliott said. "With the success he has had year in and year out, you get 30-win seasons those wins pile up quickly. I know how hard he works, I know the expectation he has on his players, how demanding he is, how they buy in, how they want to win every game so I not surprised that he is approaching it. He deserves it, he won't say that, he is probably going to try to downplay it as much as possible but the people who have been around him and have been in his close circle know what he goes through every season, every game, every practice to get what he does out of his players. Some years he is favored, some years he is not and he still finds ways to win basketball games."

I asked her what is Auriemma's best attribute as a coach.

"To be honest with you, perfection. He demands perfection in everything he does in practice, in shootaround, the way they carry themselves off the court, in the classroom. One of the things I learned from him is he doesn't treat his players like girls, he treats his players like basketball players. He doesn't care if they are emotional one day, if they are feeling sorry for themselves. He expects them, once they go on the floor, to show up to work every day. That has been what I learned from him the most, you have to treat your players like players and not like girls because all girls are emotional and you have to get past those things."

On Thursday night former UConn player and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott will bring her Cincinnati squad into Gampel Pavilion as the Huskies begin a stretch of four straight games against Big East foes.

The process of attempting to build the Cincinnati program has been a slow one for Elliott. This seat the Bearcats are 9-8 but at 0-4 are one of three winless teams in Big East play.

At Big East media day I spoke with Elliott for a few minutes to check on the progress of her team. I know it's been three months but I figured some people might be interested in her take on this year's squad.

"We are putting in the work, we are looking forward to it paying off. We don't have the injuries this year so we actually are able to go down 5 on 5 and practice. I truly believe we are better at this time this year than we were last year. That has to do with the numbers and - knock on wood - we don't have any injuries so far this year. Our mindset is different. Our freshmen last year, they played a lot of minutes, they know now what it takes to compete in a conference like the Big East Conference. I think they approach every practice knowing what is down the line."

I was curious how deep she thought Cincinnati would be this season.

"I think we have a good solid eight that could potentially play a lot of minutes and we are hoping that (grows) as practice goes on," Elliott said.

This season four Cincinnati players, led by sophomore Dayeesha Hollins, rank among the top 10 in the Big East in minutes played.

When Elliott was hired, she said she'd like to have an exciting, aggressive style of play. Points have been hard to come by at times during her stint so I asked her if we could expect more of an uptempo style this season.

"More than last season, yes," Elliott said. "I don't think last year we were able to score a whole lot of points in transition just because our point guard was injured and we couldn't be as mobile and push the ball as much. This year we have a point guard that wants to push it and we have big guys willing to run the floor so I think we definitely will score more in transition this year."

FUTURE OF NORTH CAROLINA SERIES IN DOUBT
Even after being on the receiving end of the worst loss in program history, North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell said she likes to play UConn and would like to continue the series. However, even before the 51-point beat down, the word I was hearing that ESPN had tired of airing the UConn/North Carolina games only to see the game decided by the second television timeout.

With Maryland being added to the UConn schedule for the next two seasons, it's uncertain if North Carolina will be playing UConn in the immediate future. It's just me talking but I doubt Maryland is dying to have a long-term rivalry with UConn so after the two-year agreement with the Terrapins comes to an end, perhaps North Carolina and UConn could resume their series. I look at Oklahoma in a similar light. The North Carolina game becomes sort of irrelevant now that UConn is set to play Duke and Maryland for the next two seasons while regular-season games against Texas A&M and Baylor makes me wonder what the purpose of playing Oklahoma would be. Another thing to ponder is whether the new-look Big East would go to an 18-game schedule. If that's the case, there would be two fewer non-conference slots making the prospects of playing three teams from one conference a bit on the unlikely side.

LSU's Hall of Fame coach Van Chancellor was the star of the show at Gampel Pavilion in between games at the World Vision Challenge on Saturday.

Chancellor, who coached Houston to four WNBA titles and later was the coach of the U.S. gold-medal winning team at the 2004 Olympics, will face the Huskies on Sunday at 4:30 in the final game in the three-day tournament.

It didn't take much prodding from the assembled media for Chancellor to heap a flood of compliments on the UConn program.

"They do a great job of putting the right people in the right position, they can shoot the ball really well," Chancellor said. "I've said it for a year and a half, they have great defense. I'll tell you what is remarkable - to be undefeated. I have coached forever and I have never been close to being undefeated. To win two national championships and to be undefeated at the same time, it is incredible.

"The hardest thing to do when I was at Houston was not to 3-peat but to 2-peat. Geno has done a great job of not allowing complacency to set in. It is amazing what they have done of letting them shoot when they ought to shoot and not shoot when you are not supposed to shoot. They do a great job of shot selection."

WALKER DRAWS STARTING ASSIGNMENT
UConn freshman Samarie Walker will start ahead of classmate Stefanie Dolson against Lehigh. Freshman Bria Hartley, sophomore Kelly Faris, junior Tiffany Hayes and senior Maya Moore join her in starting lineup.

MOORE CLOSING IN
UConn senior Maya Moore needs eight rebounds to join Tina Charles, Rebecca Lobo and Jamelle Elliott in the 1,000 rebound club at UConn. One blocked shot will move her into sole possession of fifth place and with five 3-pointers she would pass Renee Montgomery and move into the No. 4 spot on UConn's career charts.

LEHIGH COACH REMEMBERS LAST TRIP
If Lehigh coach Sue Trojan wonders how much time has passed since she last played UConn, seeing her 13-year-old son David on the bench certainly did the trick.

Before the game Trojan recalled that when Lehigh played UConn in the first rounnd of the 1997 NCAA tournament, she was six months pregnant with David. Now he is sitting on the Lehigh bench.

In the midst of his nearly five-minute acceptance speech after being named the Big East Coach of the Year for the ninth time, UConn coach Geno Auriemma was determined to spread the credit to his staff.

Only thing is somewhere in the midst of his dissertation, he seemed to forget that Tonya Cardoza is now the head coach at Temple and Jamelle Elliott is the head coach at Cincinnati.

Auriemma didn't even realize that he mentioned the names "Tonya" and "Jamelle", his former long-time assistant coaches, instead of current assistants Shea Ralph and Marissa Moseley.

"I did. Did I really?" Auriemma said. "My mind doesn't work real well anymore. It's funny because I was thinking that our staff has changed and I was thinking about Jamelle and Tonya. I'm (messed) up, too much going on in my mind."

Auriemma was among a group of about 10 people waiting for Elliott after the fina press conference on Friday although he neglected to mention his slip of the tongue earlier in the day.

"I didn't know that," Elliott said. "I told him I was the swing vote, he owes me. He is just so used to saying our names and we've been together, Tonya 15-16 years, me 15-16 years (four as a player, 12 as an assistant coach), it is hard to get that out of your system."

Elliott led the Bearcats to a 63-51 win over South Florida although it was a costly win as starting guard Carla Jacobs hurt her knee and she is not expected to play when Cincinnati plays Rutgers on Saturday.


WALKER, CHAMINADE JULIENNE ADVANCE

UConn incoming freshman Samarie Walker had 16 points and 17 rebounds as Chaminade Julienne defeated Kenton Ridge 56-51 in double overtime to help the Eagles advance to Tuesday's regional semifinal against the winner of St. Francis DeSales/Hilliard Bradley game.

The way Tina Charles is moving up the career scoring and rebounding charts, it's hard to keep track of it all but I still am a little red-faced that I missed the fact that the UConn senior passed former Notre Dame star Ruth Riley on the Big East's career rebounding list on Saturday.

Counting play in Big East regular season games only, Charles has 548 rebounds in 61 career Big East games (not including the Big East tournament). Riley pulled down 544 rebounds in 72 career conference games. Charles currently is 13th all-time on the Big East rebounding list but doesn't figure to stay there for very long. Next up is Providence's Andrea Magnum (550 rebounds). Villanova's Shelly Pennefather (553), Kym Hope of Miami (554), Georgetown's Sylita Thomas (557) and UConn's Jamelle Elliott (558) are all within range for Charles when the Huskies play at Syracuse on Wednesday. Charles also needs 26 points - the amount she scored against Providence on Saturday - for 1,000 points in her Big East career. She would become the 22nd player with 1,000 points in Big East regular-season play.

For some reason, this year's Cincinnati/UConn game is creating more of a buzz than the last couple of meetings. I'm not sure but it could have something to do with the fact that former UConn player and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott and not J. Kelley Hall is calling the shots.

Elliott is set to dine with Geno Auriemma and his wife Kathy tonight and figures to receive a warm welcome from the UConn faithful for her 16 seasons either as a player or coach at UConn.

"I know they are going to welcome her, it is probably going to be a standing ovation when she comes in and rightfully so," UConn senior forward Kaili McLaren said. "She has been here for half of her life so her coming here and coaching here, it is just going to be crazy."

Speaking of McLaren, she is expecting to play after missing the last game with an injured ankle.

Auriemma - Geno and not Kathy - was mic'd up at practice because there was a crew from ESPN on hand to get some shots of UConn's practice as well as film a promo which will run on the ESPN stations leading up to the first ESPN GameDay women's basketball broadcast on Jan. 16 when Notre Dame plays at UConn. The game is nearing a sellout but is not completely sold out yet. That could happen as soon as tomorrow. Saturday's North Carolina game is a sell out while tickets are going fast for the Feb. 13 game against St. John's.

A recruiting source indicated that Auriemma was out watching Christ the King's Bria Smith play recently. Also, highly-touted junior guard Ariel Massengale out of Bolingbrook, Ill., is expected to be in attendance at Saturday's UConn/North Carolina game.

Finally, UConn signed a contract for a home and home series with Baylor beginning next season with a game at either Gampel Pavilion or the XL Center with UConn playing at Baylor in the 2011-12 season. UConn officials refused to comment on the series because Baylor has yet to return a signed contract. It should happen and a national-television audience will be treated to a showdown of two of the nation's best players in UConn forward Maya Moore and Baylor's 6-foot-8 freshman Brittney Griner. Just imagine if it ends up being the first game of the season and if you happen to be incoming freshmen Stefanie Dolson, Michala Johnson and Samarie Walker or Heather Buck, who will be the only returning true post player, drawing the assignment of slowing down the dynamic Griner.

It seemed a bit odd watching South Florida, normally one of the nation's highest scoring teams, contest to milk the shot clock. Shortening the game was the only way South Florida coach Jose Fernandez thought he could play with the Huskies. Considering how young the Bulls are in the backcourt, it's easy to understand his decision.

I made it a point of asking Fernandez if it is difficult watching a local kid like Tiffany Hayes go off for 22 points against his team. He spoke in glowing terms about Hayes, a player he recruited.

"We recruited Tiffany for a long time," Fernandez said. "I have seen her play since middle school but it is tough to turn down the best team in the country and the playing time she was going to get, the opportunity to win national championships."

I asked Fernandez what he remembered about Hayes, especially the first couple of times he saw her play.

"She played hard, she made plays, she is athletic and played with poise. She is not scared to take the big shot. Not only that, look at what she did lat year as a freshmen when there were some injuries and the amount of time that she played, she's not scared to take big shots and make them."

A few notes from the game:
Maya Moore passed Shea Ralph for the No. 10 spot on UConn's career scoring list and greeting the accomplishment with an indifferent shrug which is no surprise to those who know her.

Kaili McLaren turned an ankle in Sunday's practice and did not play. She spent part of the first half having UConn training Rosemary Ragle working on the ankle leading to the thought that she might get into the game in the second half. She did not.

Caroline Doty was iffy to play because of the flu but toughed it out and played 14 minutes.


Now it is time for the hype to begin for Thursday's game against Cincinnati which will feature the return of former star forward and long-time assistant coach Jamelle Elliott to Gampel Pavilion - this time on the opposing squad.

Starting off, Lauralton Hall's Keylantra Langley has committed to St. John's over Marist, Cincinnati and James Madison. Providence was also in the mix with Langley. Here's the report from the Register's high school blog and there will be a story in tomorrow's edition of the Register about the commitment.

Speaking of Cincinnati, Norwich Free Academy's Kastine Evans visited Cincinnati in her final official visit. Evans was a one-time recruiting target of UConn when Cincinnati's coach Jamelle Elliott was on the Huskies' staff.

I located the schedules of UConn commits Samarie Walker (Chaminade Julienne, Dayton, Ohio), Lauren Engeln (Laguna Hills, Calif.), Michala Johnson (Montini Catholic, Lombard, Ill.) and Bria Hartley (North Babylon, N.Y.).

Johnson and Montini open the season first, playing at Marist High in Chicago on Nov. 17. Engeln and Laguna Hills open at Mission Viejo. Two days later, Hartley will lead North Babylon in a game at St. Anthony. The next day is a big test when North babylon plays at Christ the King at 1 p.m. Samarie Walker and Chaminade Julienne kicks off the season on Dec. 3 at Thurgood Marshall High in Dayton.

I have not seen schedules for either Stefanie Dolson's Minisink Valley HS or Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis' Matei Dei teams. OK, the last part of that statement is not completely accurate. I saw four games listed on maxpreps.com beginning with a Dec. 2 game at Chaparral HS.

Not too many surprises at Big East media day as UConn was the unanimous pick to win the regular season title and Maya Moore was once again selected as the preseason player of the year

First, some housecleaning. I picked the top seven teams in the preseason (I will take credit for having DePaul ahead of Louisville even though they tied). I also got Providence correct at No. 15. But that was it. I picked Cincinnati 14th and Seton Hall 16th while the coaches flipped that selections. I was also only one place off on Marquette and South Florida. I wasn't close on Georgetown, West Virginia, St. John's or Villanova.

As for the individual awards, Maya Moore and Skylar Diggins winning the player and freshman of the year honors wasn't exactly a stunning revelation. Because of a tie, there were 12 players named to the first time rather than 11. Nine of the 11 picks I made were so honored. I had Rutgers' Brittany Ray and Erica Morrow of Syracuse on my preseason All-Big East squad while the coaches had Notre Dame's Lindsay Schrader, DePaul's Keisha Hampton and Nicole Michael of Syracuse on the first team.

DePaul coach Doug Bruno and Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer were unable to attend because of deaths in their family.

UConn coach Geno Auriemma, as always, put on a show for the media. Perhaps his best quotes came when he was asked about how he looks at the annual trek to New York to be selected as the preseason favorite to win the conference.

"We are in a tough situation in some ways," Auriemma said. "How am I supposed to win a lot of these questions? Well, we’ll see, we don’t have this, we don’t have that. Then everybody goes you are a (jerk), you have two of the best players in the country, two of the top five players in the country. Then you say ‘I think we have a chance to win the whole thing.’ Then they say you are an arrogant (jerk), what are you supposed to say?"

I spoke to Villanova coach Harry Perretta who told me former Mercy High star Rachel Roberts approached him requesting to redshirt because of the return of three senior guards and it looks as if Perretta will go that route.

Former UConn player and assistant coach Jamelle Elliott, the first-year coach at Cincinnati, was not pleased to be picked last and hopes to use it as a motivational tool for her squad.

Couple of bits of info from Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw. First, forward Devereaux Peters probably won't be back in the lineup from a knee injury until January and more than 1,500 seats are gone from the Joyce Center as part of a recently-completed renovation.

There will be much more from the day in the coming days.

I just wrapped up a rather eventful eight hours up in Storrs.

I arrived a bit early at the request of my boss to see if there were any memorial sites set up for Jasper Howard, a junior cornerback on the UConn football team.

Then went down and went to work before sitting through a 40-minute dissertation from Barb Jacobs, the Big East's Assistant Commissioner and Director of Officials, on rules changes and points of emphasis. Not much to report other than the rules committee seems to have split personalities. First, Jacobs said that the goal was to have play "free and open" and that is why calling hand check fouls is important. But then she explained that there will be a greater emphasis on calling traveling. Sorry, but wouldn't whistling more traveling calls slow the game down rather than lead to a higher quality of play from the fan's standpoint.

When the lesson was over, UConn took the floor for practice and we waited to speak to them. There were very few basketball questions asked. The main topic was Howard, who was very close to many members of the UConn squad. Tina Charles, Kaili McLaren and Lorin Dixon had a sociology class with him every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Kalana Greene was the most emotional of the players I spoke too, a couple of times using her uniform top to wipe away tears. A story on the Charles', Greene's and Dixon's close bond with Howard will appear in Tuesday's edition of the Register.

Perhasp the biggest basketball news to come out of practice was that the team captains will be Maya Moore and Tina Charles and that UConn coach Geno Auriemma said he is giving Lorin Dixon every chance to earn the starting point guard position. If the season started tomorrow, I would predict that the starting lineup would be Dixon and Tiffany Hayes at guard, Greene and Moore at forward and Charles at center. He also said there has been no further talk of former UConn assistant coach Tonya Cardoza setting up a game with her Temple squad playing Auriemma's Huskies. He also hasbeen in contact with another former assistant coach Jamelle Elliott, in her first year as the head coach at Cincinnati. He said Elliott is not always the most patient coach and that could actually help her because her players will learn things more quickly if they realize their coach is not exactly a patient soul.

My plan of attending vigils for Howard ended when I had to chase down rumors of Bria Hartley's commitment. Thanks to the help of Hartley's high school coach Mike Petre and her father Dennis, it wasn't too much work to track them down.

Dennis Hartley is a good man, perhaps the best parent I have dealt with in the recruiting process. He would have preferred Bria committed earlier since it was not really a question of if Bria would commit to the Huskies, just when.

Talk about having all the bases covered, UConn now has a point guard (Hartley), shooting guard (Lauren Engeln), small forward (Samarie Walker), power forward (Michala Johnson) and center (Stefanie Dolson) committed to the join the program next year.

Getting the only other uncommitted senior on their recruiting radar would make a special class downright nasty. Somehow getting Chiney Ogwumike away from Stanford, however, would be one of the best coups in Auriemma's tenure with UConn. Word is she is planning to visit Stanford this weekend meaning she has been accepted into the school. Her sister Nneka is a sophomore forward on the Stanford team, both her parents want her to go to Stanford so the odds are stacked against Auriemma and his staff convincing Ogwumike to come East but what I've heard is that Ogwumike came away very impressed with her visit so Ogwumike landing at Stanford may not be as much of a slam dunk as some may think it is.

Next up is Big East media day in New York. I may be going out on a limb but I have a hunch the Huskies just may be the pick to win the conference.

It's hard to comprehend that next weekend the UConn women's basketball team will hold its first official practice. It just seems like I returned from St. Louis after documenting the Huskies' run to a third perfect season and sixth national title.

A few items to report from my phone interview with Geno Auriemma on Sunday.

First, if he knows when the national championship banner is being unveiled, he is not saying. I asked him if it would happen during the "First Night" festivities on Oct. 16 or if they would wait until the season opener on Nov. 14 against Northeastern.

"I haven't really talked to anybody back there about that," Auriemma said. "I am sure we will have that decision soon but I haven't really thought that much about it. I'll let the marketing people decide that."

Speaking of First Night, here are some details about the annual fan fest. The doors open at 6 p.m. with the event expected to run from 7-8.

Auriemma had high praise for his U.S. national team assistant coach Jen Gillom even comparing her to Jamelle Elliott. Anybody who knows anything about the high esteem he holds Elliott, his former player and assistant coach who is going into her first season as the head coach at Cincinnati, should be impressed by the following quote.

"Jen's unbelievable, she reminds me a lot of Jamelle," Auriemma said. "She is high energy, high intensity, she was a great, great player and she things she's doing with some of our post players, I can see the results already. She is wonderful, she was like that as a player when I doing some ESPN games and she is like that here. I don't think there could have been a better choice."

The other assistant coach, DePaul's Doug Bruno, is one of Auriemma's closest friends so it goes without saying that Auriemma is thrilled to be working with him as well.

If space permits, the story I wrote on Auriemma's first training camp as the U.S. national team coach should appear in Tuesday's edition of the Register.

Surrounded by throngs of their adoring public, the entire 2008-09 UConn women's basketball team - players, coaches, trainers, support staff included - showed up at the Aqua Turf in Southington to reflect on the Huskies' sixth national championship.

Renee Montgomery, who recently completed her rookie season with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx, and former assistant coach Jamelle Elliott, now the head coach at Cincinnati, flew in to take part in the festivities. The cheerleading squad, which is being replaced in favor of a spirit squad, was there as were many members of the UConn band.

For UConn coach Geno Auriemma, it was the perfect way to wrap up the glorious 2008-09 season before turning the focus on the upcoming season.

"I think it works both ways," Auriemma said. "It is a chance for them (UConn fans, some of whom paid $150 for a private meet and greet with the team) to show how much they appreciate what we do, it is a night of reflection. Some times we are going so
fast that we don't stop to think about what we just did to enjoy it and appreciate it. A night like (Tuesday) is a night to bring it all back and at the same time, put it away and say 'Ok, that was last year and now we are moving onto this year.'"

A week from tonight, UConn stars Maya Moore and Tina Charles will be in Washington, D.C. for team meetings before taking part in the first U.S. Senior National Team training camp of the current four-year Olympic cycle. But the focus on Tuesday was about remembering the journey towards a 39-0 season when the Huskies became the first Division I team to win every game by at least 10 points.

"It's great, we don't always get a chance to interact when they are at the games so it is nice to have that contact, see their appreciation and celebrate and get a chance, be together and just celebrate," Moore said.

Now for some news - Moore said her knee feels fine and she has been practicing without restriction for the last couple of weeks. She will be going full speed at the trials before taking a week off from basketball before UConn starts its official practice on Oct. 17.

Montgomery will leave in a couple of weeks for Europe to join her new team TEO Vilnius of Lithuania. Her Minnesota Lynx teammate and fellow 2009 first-round pick Quanitra Hollingsworth will be joining her on that squad.

Auriemma said he hasn't heard about the availability of former UConn star Asjha Jones for the national team camp. Jones was sidelined with a strained Achilles tendon, forcing her to miss the last 11 games of the season with the WNBA's Connecticut Sun. There are four players among the 22 confirmed invitees not expected to play because of injury (Seimone Augustus, Kara Lawson, Jayne Appel and Lindsay Whalen). That doesn't factor in those who will have conflicts because they are playing in the WNBA finals. Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter of Phoenix, Candace Parker of Los Angeles and Tamika Catchings of Indiana have their teams in the conference finals so anywhere from 1-3 of those players will miss training camp because it runs at the same time as the WNBA finals.