Even a couple of months after the season, the UConn women's basketball program had a weekend to remember.

The highlight was former national player of the year Kara Wolters becoming the third member of UConn's first national championship team to be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rebecca Lobo was the first former Husky honored as she was a part of the Class of 2010, three years later it was Jen Rizzotti's turn.

Kara Wolters, Louise O'Neal and rest of Hall of Fame class
(photo courtesy of Women's Basketball Hall of Fame)

Wolters gave a tremendous and emotional acceptance speech, paid homage to her late mom and was escorted at the induction by her two daughters.

Wolters wasn't the only inductee with Connecticut ties as former Southern Connecticut State coach Louise O'Neal was a member of the class as well.

O'Neal coached the Owls from 1962-76 and helped Southern Connecticut be the only school to play in the first eight National Women's College Championships (an event that predated the NCAA tournament). The Owls finished third in 1973 and 1974 (losing by a combined six points in the semifinals both years) and also advanced to the semifinals in 1975.

After taking Southern Connecticut from a club program to a national powerhouse, O'Neal continued to make an impact even after her coaching career came to an end. She was the former president of the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women and served on the NCAA Long-Range Planning Committee, Women’s Basketball Rules Committee, Sears Cup Selection Committee and NACDA Executive Board.

Getting back to UConn, 10 former Huskies had double-digit scoring games and for those wondering, second on that list over the weekend was Duke with six followed by Notre Dame's four.

Stefanie Dolson had a career-high 25 points for Chicago while rookie Saniya Chong had her first career double-digit scoring game with 10 points against Minnesota on Sunday which came two days after she netted a career-best seven points. Breanna Stewart (23 points), Sue Bird (21 points), Moriah Jefferson (18 points), Renee Montgomery (13) and Bria Hartley (10) all set or matched their season highs. Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, who each celebrated birthdays on Sunday, had games with 27 and 17 points respectively while Tina Charles had a 21-point game.



UConn legend Diana Taurasi closing in on pair
of WNBA career soring records

Taurasi is now 28 points shy of Tina Thompson's WNBA record for most points scored in the regular season. Thompson had 7,488 points in 496 career games while Taurasi has 7,460 in 375 games. Bird recently passed Delisha Milton-Jones to moved into ninth place on that list although it's going to take a while to move up to No. 8 as she is 243 points behind Becky Hammon. If playoff points were included, Taurasi would trail record-holder Tamika Catchings by 66 points.

On Sunday some players who could land at UConn were able to lead the U.S. to the gold medal at the FIBA Americas U16 Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Aliyah Boston, a forward from Worcester and a player very much on UConn's recruiting radar, was named the tournament's MVP. Boston had 15 points and six rebounds in the win over Canada in the gold medal game. She led the U.S. in scoring (11.8 points per game) and rebounding (8.6) in the tournament.

Fellow Class of 2019 UConn recruiting target Samanta Brunelle averaged 11 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1.4 steals and 2.2 blocked shots in the five games and was the team captain. Paige Bueckers and Zia Cooke were other double-digit scorers for the U.S. in the tourney. In the title game, the top scorer was the team's youngest player Azzi Fudd from Falls Church, Va. The 14-year-old Fudd had 18 points as she was 4 of 6 from 3-point range. She also had five steals. Not bad for somebody who is several months away from the start of her freshman season of high school basketball. I would have to think her high school games will feature just a few college coaches in the stands.

The team was coached by another veteran of UConn's 1995 national championship team Carla Berube, the head coach at Tufts.

“We just kept getting stop after stop,” Berube said in the USA Basketball release on the gold-medal game. “In the first quarter, I thought we allowed them to get a lot of easy drives. They were getting to the rim on us. In the second quarter, we really shut that down and got some important defensive rebounds, and that was leading to easy offense. When you get stop after stop, it’s hard to sustain us in transition, because we have athletes and players who can make plays in transition and make plays for each other. It was awesome to watch. For a team that has not been together very long, they worked really well together.”

Finally, I've been out of the loop a little basketball wise over the last few days because of my responsibilities covering the semifinals and championship games in the CIAC softball tournament. While I was there I caught up with UConn incoming softball freshman Brianna Marcelino.

Marcelino scored from first base on a single and later drove in a run as Barlow won its first state title with a 4-2 win over Torrington in the Class L final.

There will be a story on Marcelino going up on the www.gametimect.com site later today focusing mostly on the state final and fact that Marcelino grew up in Madison (along with fellow UConn signee Hollis Wivell) before the family moved to Easton when she was in eighth grade. Heading into the state semifinals, she was batting .617 with 43 runs, 41 RBIs, 10 doubles, 12 homers, 21 stolen bases and just four errors.

A few numbers worth considering from tonight's Big East final.

Since UConn reached its first Big East championship game in 1989, the Huskies have played for the title every year but 1993 and 2004. If UConn wins, Maya Moore and Lorin Dixon would be the first players to win four straight titles since Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams accomplished the feat from 1999-2002.

If Moore is named the tournament's most outstanding player, she would join UConn's Kara Wolters and Shelly Pennefather of Villanova as the only two-time winners of the award. Wolters, currently the color commentator for UConn's games on the UConn Radio Network, won the award in 1995 and 1996.

Notre Dame is making its fifth appearance in the Big East final but it 0-4 losing to UConn in the 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2001 championship games. The 2001 final is the subject of the "Bird at the Buzzer" book written by Jeff Goldberg, a former UConn women's basketball beat writer for the Hartford Courant.

Maya Moore needs eight points to move into sole possession of 10th place on list of the NCAA Division I all-time scorers. LSU's Joyce Walker currently stands 10th with 2,706 points while Moore has 2,899 points. Penn State's Kelly Mazzante is next on the list with 2,719 points.

With 36 points in the first two games, Stefanie Dolson already stands fifth on Big East tournament scoring list for UConn freshmen. Diana Taurasi set the mark with 53 points in 2001, Svetlana Abrosimova had 49 points in 1998 while Wolters and Carla Berube had 46 and 38 points in the 1994 tourney.

With Seattle completing a sweep over Atlanta with a 87-84 over Atlanta in the best of five WNBA championship series on Thursday, here are a few notes about the UConn's impact on the WNBA.

This is the fifth straight year and seventh time in the last eight years that the WNBA champions had a UConn graduate on the team. The 2005 Sacramento Monarchs are the last title winning team with no former Huskies.

Swin Cash becomes the first UConn grad to win three WNBA titles as she was a member of Detroit's 2003 and 2006 championship squads.

Svetlana Abrosimova becomes the eighth UConn product to win it all in the WNBA and the three ex-Huskies (Sue Bird, Cash and Abrosimova) is the most for a WNBA championship squad.

Bird, also a member of Seattle's 2004 championship team, joins Jen Rizzotti (a part of the 1999 and 2000 Houston Comets title winning squads), Diana Taurasi (who led Phoenix to the 2007 and 2009 titles) and Kelly Schumacher (who won consecutive titles with Phoenix in 2007 and Detroit in 2008) as two-time champions.

The 2000-01 UConn squad features five players who have combined to win 10 WNBA titles as Abrosimova and Schumacher were seniors, Bird and Cash juniors and Taurasi a freshman on UConn's Final Four squad.

The other former Huskies to win titles were Kara Wolters with Houston in 1999 and Ketia Swanier, a member of Phoenix's 2009 title-winning team.

SHERWOOD TO LOUISVILLE
It's still a couple of days before we find out whether Sara Hammond picks Louisville or UConn for her college of choice but Louisville did add former UConn forward/center Liz Sherwood to the coaching staff as a graduate assistant. Sherwood's stay at UConn was a brief one as she transferred to Vanderbilt after playing 25 games as a freshman during the 2003-04 season.

SCHEDULE STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS
The latest is that a draft of the schedule is being sent out tomorrow (Friday) and it still has to be given the final OK before it gets released. While that could happen tomorrow, it's more likely that it will come next week.

Jen Rizzotti completed the USA Basketball Triple Crown by winning gold medals as a player, assistant coach and head coach.

In 1996 she was a member of the championship team at the R. Williams Jones Cup. A decade later she was an assistant to DePaul's Doug Bruno on the U.S. squad which won the 2006 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship for Women. Rizzotti was the head coach of the U.S. squad which rolled to the 2010 FIBA Americas Under-18 Championship for Women title winning its five games by an average of 55.8 points per game.

"It's a great honor," Rizzotti said. "I take a lot of pride working with USA Basketball, it means a lot to me."

Rizzotti, whose agreement with USA Basketball is a two-year commitment as she will be head coach of the U.S. squad competing in the 2011 FIBA U-19 Championship for Women, knows that her role comes with significant responsibility.

"There's more pressure as a coach," Rizzotti said. "As a player you look at these events as being similar to all-star games but as the coach you want to make the players get the best of the experience."

Although Rizzotti is not on the committee which selected the U-18 squad and will select the U-19 team, she knows the squad she coaches next year will be a star-studded one as the pool of players from both teams will vie for 12 spots.

"I got to see the U-17s because they trained with us (in Colorado Springs) and it's going to be very competitive although I think the kids going (to college) could have an advantage."

Two of those players headed to college as UConn signees Bria Hartley and Stefanie Dolson. Hartley said she was planning to fly straight to Connecticut from Colorado Springs on Monday while Dolson is heading home on Monday before making her way to the UConn campus on Tuesday.

Rizzotti had plenty of praise for two of UConn's five incoming freshmen both as players and people.

"She's an outstanding player and she is very coachable, she wants to learn and wants to get better," Rizzotti said. "I think she is going to be a great player at UConn."
Rizzotti has similar praise for Dolson, especially her thirst to be challenged which is a must for any player going to play for UConn's Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma, his equally demanding associate head coach Chris Dailey and the rest of the top-flight Connecticut coaching staff.

"She's an outstanding player and she is very coachable, she wants to learn and wants to get better," Rizzotti said about Hartley. "I think she is going to be a great player at UConn.

"I talked to her about playing hard on every possession and observe how each player plays and what they (are comfortable doing)."

As for Dolson, Rizzotti said "She is a great finisher and I am always teasing her because I expect her to make every shot. She has great hands and great footwork and I think she's going to be a good player at UConn as long as she keeps doing what they ask her to do.

"She wants to get better and wants to be an All -American and she wants them to push her. That's the right attitude for a kid to have who is going to be coached by Geno and Chris.

"She's not going to be compared Tina Charles because she is just a different type of player but think of some of the other bigger players (at UConn) like Kara Wolters, Paige Sauer and Rebecca Lobo."

I asked Rizzotti if it was going to be strange come December when there is no UConn game on the schedule since the former UConn star took her Hartford squad against the Huskies in each of the last six Decembers.

"Not really, I don't think I feel like that at all," Rizzotti said.

Rizzotti said she will play UConn again but her goal at the current time was to entice more teams from BCS conferences to sign up for home and home series with the Hawks something that was never going to happen with UConn.

"We're always going to have a tough (non-conference) schedule even though we aren't playing UConn," Rizzotti said.

UConn teammates Tina Charles and Maya Moore were named to the Associated Press first team All-American squad and were unanimous selections.

They were joined on the first team by Monica Wright of Virginia, Nebraska's Kelsey Griffin and Jantel Lavender of Ohio State.

It is the fourth time that UConn had two players on the AP All-American first team. Moore and Renee Montgomery were both chosen last season, Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph were first teamer in 2000 while Jennifer Rizzotti and Kara Wolters both made the first team in 1996.

Stanford's Nneka Ogwumike, Oklahoma State's Andrea Riley, Brittney Griner of Baylor, Jayne Appel of Stanford and Middle Tennessee State's Alysha Clark. On the third team were Oklahoma's Danielle Robinson, Duke's Jasmine Thomas, Victoria Dunlap of Kentucky, Xavier's Amber Harris and Elena Delle Donne of Delaware.

I should mention that I was one of the voters and my first team ballot consisted of Charles, Moore, Wright, Griffin and Ogwumike.

UConn's 84-62 win over Georgetown clinched the Huskies' 18th Big East regular season title and fourth in a row.

Tina Charles had 33 points as she moved by Kara Wolters and Diana Taurasi and into third place on UConn's career scoring list.

Charles also had 15 rebounds to give her 1,264 career rebounds, four shy of Rebecca Lobo's UConn record.

The Big East championships t-shirts like the ones the UConn players had on following the game are on sale at www.huskydirect.com and also in person at the UConn Co-op Store in Storrs.

INTERESTED VISITORS
Among the 15,733 at the XL Center were UConn incoming freshman Bria Hartley, a 5-foot-10 senior guard at North Babylon (N.Y.) High and Brianna Banks, a 5-foot-9 junior guard from Northgate High in Newnan, Ga.

There figure to be plenty of tears shed, a sense of accomplishment will be hard to miss at the XL Center. And that is before the game against Georgetown when the five UConn seniors are honored before their final regular-season home game. But the legacy of Tina Charles, Jacquie Fernandes, Meghan Gardler, Kalana Greene and Kaili McLaren will be on display after the game as well - assuming UConn takes care of business and beats visiting Georgetown.

When Charles, Fernandes, Gardler and McLaren arrived at UConn, the Huskies had gone two straight seasons without winning the Big East regular-season title which is an eternity at a program like Connecticut's. But a win will give the Huskies a fourth straight outright Big East regular season crown.

"They have a chance to win a Big East championship and what better way to end the regular season - you are a senior, you win the championship," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. "For it to happen that way, if it does happen. It is great for them and a great accomplishment."

While a crowd of more than 15,000 is expected at the XL Center, for those not planning to attend CPTV has a full day of coverage planned beginning in a few minutes with the airing of the Geno Auriemma Show. Here's the schedule:

9 a.m. The Geno Auriemma Show (with special guests Bob Joyce and Kara Wolters from WTIC-AM 1080)
10 a.m. UConn Women’s Basketball: A Tribute to the Class of 2010 – a new CPTV original documentary that profiles the college careers of the 2010 Senior Class: Tina Charles, Kalana Greene, Kaili McLaren, Jacquie Fernandes and Meghan Gardler
11:30 a.m. UConn Senior Ceremony – live from the XL Center, Hartford
Noon UConn vs. Georgetown (XL Center, Hartford)
2:15 p.m. (approx.) UConn Women’s Basketball: A Tribute to the Class of 2010 (encore)
3:30 p.m. Witness to Perfection: UConn Women’s Basketball 2009 – CPTV’s full-length documentary on UConn’s history-making, undefeated 2008-2009 basketball season.


SAD TIMES AT MATER DEI
Today, UConn commit Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis will lead her Mater Dei High of Santa Ana, Calif. against Beverly Hills in the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section 2AA semifinals. But expect Mosqueda-Lewis and her teammates to be playing with a heavy heart after news that Mater Dei highly-touted softball star Nadia Brianne Matthews apparently committed suicide. The sophomore pitcher had already committed to national power Arizona and those who follow the sport had predicted great things for the talented pitcher/third baseman who drew comparisons to former Brakettes star and Olympic gold medalist Lisa Fernandez.

Matthews did not play on Mater Dei's basketball team which is hardly surprising since a top-flight pitcher like Matthews normally focus all their time on perfecting their craft as did former Masuk High star Rachele Fico, who is now a freshman at LSU. But certainly the Mater Dei basketball players are grieving the stunning loss of the 16-year-old Matthews, who also had a 4.0 grade point average.

CPTV sent out a release with a more detailed breakdown of its broadcast schedule for next Saturday when seniors Tina Charles, Jacquie Fernandes, Meghan Gardler, Kalana Greene and Kaili McLaren play their final home game.

Here's the release:

UConn Senior Day on CPTV!
The Day’s Festivities Include the Premiere of the New Documentary,
UConn Women’s Basketball: A Tribute to the Class of 2010
Tune in for All-Day Coverage Saturday, February 27 starting at 9 a.m. on CPTV

HARTFORD, Conn. (February 19, 2010) – It’s one of the emotional highlights of the UConn basketball season: UConn Senior Day; the day when the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team gives their senior players a chance to play their last home game, join their family on the court for a special presentation by Coach Geno Auriemma and offer their official goodbye to the fans.

Tune into Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) Saturday, February 27 starting at 9 a.m. for an entire day of UConn programming devoted to an incredible #1-ranked team and its five extraordinary Seniors: Tina Charles, Kalana Greene, Kaili McLaren, Jacquie Fernandes and Meghan Gardler. As always, CPTV will be there covering all the special moments of the day and offering some unique programming dedicated to the extraordinary 2010 Senior Class.

9 a.m. The Geno Auriemma Show (with special guests Bob Joyce and Kara Wolters from WTIC-AM 1080)
10 a.m. UConn Women’s Basketball: A Tribute to the Class of 2010 – a new CPTV original documentary that profiles the college careers of the 2010 Senior Class: Tina Charles, Kalana Greene, Kaili McLaren, Jacquie Fernandes and Meghan Gardler
11:30 a.m. UConn Senior Ceremony – live from the XL Center, Hartford
noon UConn vs. Georgetown (XL Center, Hartford)
2:15 p.m. (approx.) UConn Women’s Basketball: A Tribute to the Class of 2010 (encore)
3:30 p.m. Witness to Perfection: UConn Women’s Basketball 2009 – CPTV’s full-length documentary on UConn’s history-making, undefeated 2008-2009 basketball season.

Throughout the day CPTV will be offering one-of-a-kind autographed UConn items for auction, including:
• A framed photo of the 2008-2009 UConn Huskies taken right before the buzzer during their NCAA Tournament Championship game
• An autographed poster of the 2009-2010 UConn Huskies
• A commemorative autographed basketball
• A signed program from last year’s Final Four
• A autographed Kay Yow T-shirt

Be sure to tune in for a day of programming devoted to this history-making team and their most experienced players.

Harriet Unger, the executive producer of UConn women's basketball broadcasts for CPTV, wanted to clarify some misinformation being put out there regarding the Feb. 27 Georgetown game.

I'll let her tell you in her own words courtesy of an e-mail she sent out to the Connecticut media earlier this afternoon.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about CPTV’s carriage of the
Georgetown /BE Game Of The Week. It WILL be on CPTV. Each year we have been granted rights to carry the UConn BE Game. We will be carrying the ceremony live from the XL with Meghan (Culmo) and Beth Mowins. When the Senior Day/Night game is a CPTV production, the ceremony always begins at the scheduled game time and the tip is pushed back In this case, that won’t happen so the ceremony will start at approximately 11:37am. I want to make sure folks tuning into the game don’t miss this. Below is our UConn day schedule:

9:00am – Geno Show with special guests Bob Joyce and Kara Wolters
10:00am – A Tribute To The Class of 2010
11:30am – Senior Ceremony – live from the XL
12:00pm – UConn vs. Georgetown
2:15pm* - A Tribute To The Class of 2010 replay
3:30pm* - Witness To Perfection: UConn Women’s Basketball 2009
*time approximate

With Notre Dame's loss to St. John's last night, if UConn runs the table that game should clinch the Big East's regular season title. There's an outside chance that Tina Charles could break either Nykesha Sales' UConn career scoring record (although she would need to average 25 points per game against Providence, Syracuse and Georgetown to get there in three games) or Rebecca Lobo's career rebounding record (Charles needs 33 to tie and 34 to set the mark). Other than that, there's not much going on that day at the XL Center.

While we are on the topic of misinformation, let me address another subject. I usually only provide this service when I am the one making the error and usually that is more than enough to keep my busy but since I have received e-mails on the subject of Stefanie Dolson possibly sitting out next season as a non-medical redshirt, here's what I have to say on the matter.

There is no way that a healthy Stefanie Dolson will be redshirted next season. It is not going happen, no way, no how. Yes, there was some scuttlebutt when UConn was involved with Chiney Ogwumike and Cassie Harberts that if they brought in a six or seven player class that one of the players could sit out the season in an attempt to even out the classes. With a five-player class and with Dolson one of the leading candidates to fill the gaping hoping left by the graduation of Tina Charles, any talk of Dolson or Michala Johnson being intentionally sidelined is an absolute foolish notion. Of course injuries and other circumstances can take place that could change the plan but assuming Dolson is healthy and Johnson doesn't have any setbacks from her recovery from having the ACL in her right knee repaired, I expect the two of them along with classmate Samarie Walker to figure prominently in UConn's plans next season.

The first time senior center Tina Charles heard chatter that people were using here perceived strained relationship with Geno Auriemma against the UConn Hall of Fame women's basketball coach, she could hardly believe her ears.

Sure, Charles did not like being replaced as a starter by classmate Kaili McLaren in the 2008 NCAA tournament but she was stunned that those outside the program believe there's any friction between her and Auriemma.

"I think it is ridiculous," Charles said. "I know they did that with (UConn incoming freshman) Bria Hartley, they would say that Tina doesn't like it here. I had a talk with Bria Hartley to tell her that I love it here."

Charles knew what she was getting into when she signed with UConn. Her high school coach Bob Mackey, who also coached Sue Bird at New York powerhouse Christ the King, told her as much.

Now as Charles is on the cusp of becoming the sixth UConn player to score 2,000 points, will graduate with honors, is in line to be the No. 1 pick in April's WNBA draft and has a bright future with the U.S. national team, she has no regrets. Neither does Auriemma.

"You'd be surprised how many people use it against us in recruiting about Tina Charles hates (Auriemma), she hates it up there," Auriemma said. "I said 'well, she looks pretty happy for a kid who hates it. They have this impression that I don't like her, it is just the opposite. I wish I didn't like her, I like her a lot. I wish she is the kind of kid you didn't like because 'nobody likes you, play your (butt) off.' But she is such a nice kid, she and Sylvia Fowles are identical. Her, Sylvia Fowles, Rebecca Lobo are the same kind of personalities."

Auriemma didn't name any names but I don't think you have to be at the top of the Yale graduating class to take a look at which AAU program Bria Hartley played for to surmise where some of that stuff came from. Enough said.

Changing gears, I spoke to Mackey on Wednesday as part of my advance focusing on Charles getting ready to join Nykesha Sales, Kerry Bascom, Rebecca Lobo, Diana Taurasi and Kara Wolters as the only 2,000-point scorers in UConn history.

I also talked to him about highly-touted Christ the King junior guard Bria Smith. He said Bria has been to a couple of UConn games including the Dec. 23 one against Stanford and to a UConn practice but she is nowhere near making any sort of decision. He's like her to start considering where she wants to take some unofficial visits but it sounds as if this is one recruitment process which will take some time.

I will leave you with this. I hate anonymous comments, rarely respond to them on my blog. Personally, if you aren't going to leave your name (even if it is a fake one) don't expect a response from me. But I did chuckle at an anonymous comment saying that breaking a record with five games to spare does not constitute "shattering." Well, in my eyes breaking Kerry Bascom's mark for being the quickest UConn player to 2,000 points by five games if that is the way it plays out would go down as shattering the mark in my eyes. If Albert Pujols broke the single-season home-run record in 155 games (which would be the same pace as Moore is on in quest of Bascom's program record) I'd be willing to be it would be viewed as Pujols shattering the record. Since this blog is my opinion, I love forward to Maya Moore doing some shattering in early March.

For any of those worry warts - some of whom have been nice enough to drop me a line over the last couple of days - concerned to hear that UConn sophomore guard Caroline Doty was wearing a walking boot.

Doty was held out of last half of practice the day before Tuesday's game against Rutgers to rest her surgically-repaired knee and then was limited to 15 minutes.

However, after Thursday's practice Doty said the issue was much ado about nothing.

"It's nothing to worry about, I just have to be cautious with it, ice after every practice and every game other than that it feels great," Doty said.

Doty admitted that being held out of practice does occasionally impact the crispness of her play but it's a small price to pay for being full speed come March when she attempts to lead the Huskies to their second straight national title.

"It is definitely tough, you have to know it is good for you and there is a time that you can practice and can play and take advantage of it," Doty said. "That is what you need to be able to do."

CLOSING IN
I did some research over the last couple of days to compare how long it will take Tina Charles to reach the 2,000-point plateau.

If Charles scores 17 points Saturday against Pittsburgh, she will reach the mark in her 134th game. Kerry Bascom leads the way by requiring just 113 games to hit 2,000 points at UConn followed by Rebecca Lobo (118 games), Nykesha Sales (128), Kara Wolters (129) and Diana Taurasi (135).

For those wondering, if Maya Moore continues her current scoring pace she would hit the 2,000-point mark in UConn's first game of the Big East tournament, her 108th career game shattering Bascom's record pace.

With the next game taking place in 2010, UConn coach Geno Auriemma took the time to reflect on arguably the most most dominant decade in the history of women's college basketball.

The decade of dominance goes deeper than the five national titles, seven Final Fours and combined 15 Big East titles.

UConn posted two undefeated seasons, a third undefeated regular season and finished the 2000s with a record of 341-28 (a winning percentage of 92.4). The Huskies also had 10 players taken in the first round of the WNBA draft in the decade while four former Huskies (Kara Wolters, Sue Bird, Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi) won Olympic gold medals and Svetlana Abrosimova captured a bronze medal in the Olympics. Auriemma also earned a gold medal as an Olympic assistant in 2000 and was appointed the U.S. coach for the 2012 Olympics.

"I have had people talk to me about it," Auriemma said. "As I think back, I can't believe it's been 10 years already since that game in Philadelphia. It's really amazing that much time has passed already and when I am forced to think about what has happened in those 10 years, I still don't believe it. I know we won five national championships and it is like those people who go fishing and say 'you should have seen the one who got away and I still think about the ones that got away.

"We went to seven Final Fours and we lost in two Final Eight games and you think 'how do we let that happen?' We lost in the national semifinals and I still look at that and say 'how did we let that happen?' It's a remarkable 10 years.

"I just did the CPTV show today and when we honored the 2000 team at the Stanford game, they were showing some highlights and I remember me saying that after the game
that I really wanted to win that one to prove to ourselves and everybody else that we weren't just one of those teams who wins a national championship and disappears
from the scene. So for us to win that was really huge. I don't know what we are trying to prove now?"

With Indiana and Phoenix winning the third and deciding game in the WNBA's Eastern and Western Conference finals, three former UConn players will be in the finals.

Diana Taurasi, who led Phoenix to the 2007 WNBA title, will be joined by Ketia Swanier while Jessica Moore is a member of the Indiana squad. It also means that for the sixth time in the last seven years, an ex-Husky will be a member of the WNBA championship team.

The streak began in 2003 when Swin Cash was a member of Detroit's title-winning team. The next year Sue Bird and Seattle were WNBA champions. Sacramento, the 2005 champs, had no UConn players. In 2006, Cash and Detroit won again. Taurasi and Kelly Schumacher were Phoenix's 2007 team and last year Schumacher won her second title, this time with Detroit.

Here's the breakdown of UConn players in the WNBA finals
1997: Rebecca Lobo and New York lost in championship game
1998: no UConn players in finals
1999: Jen Rizzotti and Kara Wolters were on victorious Houston team. Lobo was a member of New York squad but was injured.
2000: Rizzotti and Houston won again. Lobo was again injured and could not play for New York.
2001: no UConn players in finals
2002: no UConn players in finals
2003: Swin Cash and Detroit win title
2004: Sue Bird and Seattle win championship, Asjha Jones and Nykesha Sales played for Eastern Conference champion Connecticut
2005: Jones and Sales members of Eastern Conference champ Connecticut
2006: Cash and Detroit win second title
2007: Diana Taurasi and Kelly Schumacher members of Phoenix's championship team, Cash played for Eastern Conference champion Detroit
2008: Schumacher wins her second straight title, this one with Detroit.

The results of the conference finals means that Indiana's Tamika Catchings and the Phoenix duo of Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter will not be able to take part in the U.S. Senior National team training camp which starts Wednesday in Washington, D.C. It will be the first training camp with UConn's Geno Auriemma as the U.S. head coach.

Phoenix's win also brought an end to the career of future Hall of Famer Lisa Leslie, one of the faces of the WNBA since its inception in 1997. Leslie held court in the press conference after her Los Angeles team was eliminated and acted with the grace and dignity becoming of her place in the world of women's basketball.

There have been no lack of news to report since UConn cut down the nets in St. Louis following the program's sixth national championship.

But in my mind, one of the most intriguing moves was the Big East's decision to end the annual home-and-home series between UConn and Rutgers. Now Notre Dame will be the conference opponent to face UConn twice during the regular season. The UConn/Rutgers has certainly been good for the Big East (most of the time) but obviously those entrusted in the future of the league view Notre Dame as the latest challenger to UConn's Big East dominance. There was a time when the Fighting Irish managed to find itself on equal footing with the Huskies. Back in the 2000-01 season Notre Dame defeated UConn 92-76 at home and after losing a thriller in the Big East tournament final to the Huskies, Notre Dame won the rubber match with a stirring rally in the national semifinals.

Despite wins in 2004 and 2005 over UConn, the Fighting Irish were never able to build on creating a true rivalry with the Huskies. With the teams playing twice now, maybe that will change.

When the San Antonio Silver Stars were in town, I took the opportunity to sit down with its starting center Ruth Riley, the star of that 2000-01 Notre Dame team.

"It is a great matchup," Riley said. "In college basketball, you live for the great matchups. Just a lot of fun and great competition and a lot of history between the two teams. I am sure the girls will be were excited to play in those games and it is great for your home crowd to see UConn play both at Notre Dame and here as well.

"We are going to have a good team. I think Coach (Muffet McGraw) has had to deal with some injuries, that is tough when you lose two girls to ACLs in the same year. With those girls coming back and (national high school player of the year Skylar Diggins) coming in, they are going to be exciting to watch. I wish them the best."

Despite her busy schedule in the WNBA and playing professionally overseas, Riley tries to keep tabs on her alma mater.

"Well I still talk to Niele (Ivey, the starting point guard on Notre Dame's national championship team), she is an assistant coach (at Notre Dame). Also, I am from Indiana so when I go home to see my family I am only an hour away from Notre Dame so I am able to stay in touch."

I asked Riley of her best memories from the UConn/Notre Dame games, prefacing the request with a "other than obviously winning the national championship."

Here's what she had to say.

"Without a doubt winning at home senior year and that assured that we got our first No. 1 ranking and that was the landmark with how we are able to play together as a team."

SELECT COMPANY
While having three teammates on the U.S. squad heading to the World University Games is an impressive achievement, UConn's trio of Tina Charles, Tiffany Hayes and Maya Moore have some company.

Here's a list of trios from the same schools playing together in the World University Games

Wayland Baptist 1973: Janice Beach, Brenda Moeller and Cherri Rapp.
North Carolina State 1979: Genia Beasley, Debbie Groover and Ginger Rouse.
Tennessee 1983: Shelia Collins, Lea Henry and Mary Ostrowski
Southern Caifornia 1987: Karon Howell, Monica Lamb and Rhonda Windham
Auburn 1991: Ruthie Bolton, Linda Godby and Carolyn Jones.

Charles, Hayes and Moore become the foruth, fifth and sixth UConn players to play for the U.S. in the World University Games.

Kerry Bascom was the first in 1991
Kara Wolters was on the 1995 squad and also made the 1997 team as did Nykesha Sales. All three are still in the U.S. record book.

Bascom's 58.8 3-point percentage in 1991 in a mark for U.S. players that still stands. Wolters' 13 blocked shots is a U.S. record and her five blocks in an Aug. 21, 1997 game against Latvia tied Cindy Brown's mark set in 1985. She also set a record with a 70.7 field-goal percentage in 1997 which was broken by Sylvia Fowles in 2005. Sales had 32 points in an Aug. 29, 1997 game against Cuba, the third highest for a U.S. player in the event and her field-goal percentage of 68.2 is fifth in the U.S. record books.

Since Hayes just completed her freshman year, she could make the WUG squad again following her junior season. Wolters is the only other UConn player to accomplish that feat.

From the much ado about nothing department, the Big East declared the matter of the post-game verbal exchange between UConn women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma and Syracuse junior forward Nicole Michael to be closed.

Here is the statement the conference released on Tuesday.

STATEMENT FROM BIG EAST CONFERENCE COMMISSIONER MICHAEL TRANGHESE

Following discussion and review with both Syracuse Director of Athletics Daryl Gross as well as Connecticut Director of Athletics Jeff Hathaway, BIG EAST Conference Commissioner Michael Tranghese has determined that there will be no action taken by the Conference office following the post-game hand shaking incident that occurred after this weekend’s women’s basketball game between Syracuse and Connecticut .

"Having been assured by both Connecticut Athletic Director Jeff Hathaway and Syracuse Athletic Director Daryl Gross that there will be no reoccurrence of the events following the Connecticut and Syracuse game -- and that both are committed to our principles of sportsmanship -- the BIG EAST Conference has determined that there is no need for any formal Conference action.”

“Daryl and Jeff have also assured me that Geno and Nicole are prepared to move forward and to conclude the season without further incidents.”

While I do not condone Auriemma dressing down a member of another team and think he and his program would have been better served had he just ignored Michael after the game rather than ask her what her problem was, if words were exchanged and a coach stumbled over an opposing player's foot in the post-game handshake line in either college football or men's basketball, it would not rate a blimp on the sports radar screen. But ESPN turned this truly into a women's basketball version of a mountain out of a mole hill. Reminds me of their treatment of the issue of UConn facilitating a tour of the ESPN studios for Maya Moore and her mom. It's truly a shame that ESPN, a network which could be promoting women's basketball, instead continues to lower itself to being a step above Jerry Springer in its sensationalized coverage of women's basketball.

Changing gears, it took a little longer than anticipated but the Connecticut media returned from North Carolina. How do I know this? Well, four of the seven newspaper sports, the UConn Radio Network on-air team of Bob Joyce and Kara Wolters as well as Rebecca Lobo, who was the sideline reporter for the ESPN2 coverage of UConn's 88-58 win over North Carolina were on the same flight home. The non-stop flight from North Carolina to Windsor Locks took off 3 1/2 hours late because of the snow storm which hit the Raleigh/Durham area. It appears to me that airport officials were as ill-equipped to deal with the snow on Tuesday morning as the North Carolina team was in running a half-court offense on Monday night.