Some of the UConn women's basketball team's recent games, especially the ones played in the state of Connecticut, have not exactly been of the nail-biting variety.

In the seven games played at Gampel Pavilion, the XL Center, Mohegan Sun Arena or Webster Bank Arena, UConn's average margin of victory has been a shade under 38 points per game.

However, it would not unfair to say the Huskies have not been tested since the November 17 loss to Stanford. Whenever the team met for practice, UConn coach Geno Auriemma and his staff has attempted to put them in positions where failure is an option. In recent weeks that has been easier said than done since most of the male practice players live too far away during the break between the fall and spring semesters. However, with the classes in the spring semester starting on Tuesday, the male practice players were back and put to good use.

There was one spirited portion of practice when the game was tied at 49 and UConn had the final possession. Moriah Jefferson had the ball and was about to run a play - presumably for Breanna Stewart - when practice player Collins Nwafor reached in, poked the ball away from Jefferson and raced down the other end of the court for the go-ahead layup with about 2 seconds left. Kia Nurse's desperation heave from about 30-35 feet actually caught iron before bouncing away harmlessly.

"Coming out and playing against these guys, they are bigger than us, faster than us and it makes you have to play smart basketball," Jefferson said. "As you saw, any mistake you make they are going to steal it and it is going to be a turnover.

"I had a play in my head and it didn't work out so I try to run another play, he came out and stripped the ball right out of my hands. It hurt but you have to keep moving on."

In the next period, the final one in the practice, the UConn team fought back the best way they know how but making shots. It ended with Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis draining a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer.

"I think we do need those situations," Stewart said. "Those practice players they are the best people we are going to see all season and they make it really competitive for us. You want to play those kinds of games, those are the types of things you want to do in practice. You want to win so when you lose, you want to keep playing. We won that last (period) but we were down by so much that we couldn't come back. A competitive game in practice, it kind of keeps your head level."

Assistant coach Shea Ralph, who spent a good part of practice coaching up the practice players, knows that the lessons learned from a spirited practice like the one on Friday could be invaluable for the team at some point this season.
"I know our staff feels like it is our job to prepare them for what they are going to see not only on a day to day basis but in our conference," Ralph said. "We need to win every game in our conference and that is important to us. We also understand we are going to face some teams that are going to challenge us so it is our job to make sure they are prepared for that."

When the media was able to check out practice UConn had its three freshmen (Kia Nurse, Courtney Ekmark and Gabby Williams) playing alongside sophomore Saniya Chong and Stewart. There were some rough patches as some of the team's most experienced players were on the sidelines and that is the point. UConn coach Geno Auriemma is known for putting his players in the most difficult scenarios during practice and the more lopsided the final margins are in actual games, the more challenging he tries to make practice. That was most certainly the case on Friday.
"They want to compete, they want to challenge themselves so we want to do that as much as we can, we try to put them out there and when they are playing our practice players they can do everything exactly right and still get their butts beat and I think that is good for them," Auriemma said. "It forces them to do things that ordinarily they wouldn't have to do.

"The practice level is obviously much different (with the practice players), we play more 5 on 5 when they get here, more core stuff when they get here and I look forward to this time of the year when the practice players are back," Auriemma said.

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.

While I haven't been able to interview UConn sophomore guard Brianna Banks since she suffered a season-ending knee injury in a Feb. 2 win over St. John's. I have been hearing nothing but glowing reports on how she is dealing with the torn ACL emotionally.

I interviewed assistant coach Shea Ralph, no stranger to ACL tears, for another story I am working on and figured there would be no better person to discuss how Banks is handling the reality that she won't play again this season.

"Everybody wants to talk about it right after it happens and nobody wants to talk to you three months in, four months in when you are the in between (period)," Ralph said. "They want to talk to you six months in when you are about to get on the court. Right after it happens everybody is 'hey, how are you doing?' She is doing great because there are a ton of ways that you can react to something like that and she is doing awesome.

"She hasn't had surgery yet and that is kind of the reality check and the first couple weeks of rehab are hard so I think if she keeps the mindset she has now, it is going to be a lot easier for her to get through it but she always has a lot of great support. Our training staff and players are awesome with her. It is easy to cave into your own world and feel sorry for yourself and I have not seen that from her one time. She is out here involved in practice, it is kind of neat to see. She has grown up a little bit."

One thing I have noticed in the years covering UConn is that injured players are always involved with the team. You can see it on game days as players, torn ACLs and all, help shag rebounds or do whatever they can. I can't tell you how many times I have seen players on other teams sitting on the bench during pre-game warmups. I asked Ralph if that is an indication of the high quality caliber of kid the Huskies look to recruit.

"We try to do that with our recruiting, bring those type of kids in but it also tells you a lot about them but about how we expect things to be done here," Ralph said. "There have been a lot of kids here who have gone through injuries, Brianna Banks is not the first one and we will remind her of that. I told her I wasn't even good until after my second ACL and I joke with her because I don't ever talk about that stuff like that."

Geno Auriemma's blood pressure and ornery state of mind seemed to increase with each possession that came and went without a basket during Thursday's practice.

Auriemma voiced his displeasure to assistant coach Shea Ralph for a few minutes and when Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis ended the scoring drought by draining a 3-pointer, Auriemma walked across the court and  gathered the team around him.

"Do you think this is going to fix itself," Auriemma bellowed to the team members before continuing to challenge the team's competitive fire. When he was done, practice was over. The 5-spot drill which has signaled the end of UConn's practices was not used as the players headed off the court to do a weight-lifting session.


"It is February and as we get closer to March we want to make sure that when you make substitutions, you get people in and out of the lineup that productivity doesn't change that much and we are still not there yet," Auriemma said. "We still have a core group of guys that when they are on the floor things happen with a certain sense of precision, we get the shot we want, we get the screen set the way we want and things happen. We are not quite there yet that they continue like that regardless of what the substitution (pattern). We have to keep working on that and we have to get better at that as the season winds down."

When we were allowed into Gampel to witness practice I saw the Huskies run eight possessions in the half-court without scoring and as a matter of  fact, other than a missed layup by Dolson they weren't even close to converting before the Mosqueda-Lewis 3-pointer. Even that wasn't so much accomplished with great execution as she took a handoff from Hartley, made one dribble and fired up a contested 3.

Considering how little the Huskies have been challenged in recent games, it is only natural that Auriemma turned up the pressure in practice especially with a game against No. 1 Baylor quickly approaching.

"You always have to take what Coach says and listen to it, embrace it and then respond to it," UConn center Stefanie Dolson said. "We might have had a bad practice but tomorrow we have to come out and work just as hard and harder to prove to him and respond to what happened today.

"We always say that we make practice 10 times harder than the game is going to be because it is going to prepare us for those games "

As promised yesterday when I wrote about Saniya Chong's letter signing, we would have a chance to ask Geno Auriemma about the only member of the next incoming freshman class.

Both Auriemma and assistant coach Shea Ralph, who will be Chong's position coach for the Huskies, raved about the electrifying 5-foot-9 guard from Ossining, N.Y.


"I don't know how to describe her really," Auriemma said. "She puts points on the board, she is just one of these kids that scores points. I watch her sometimes and at the end of a half I'll say to somebody 'how many did she have?' They will tell me and I'll say that is impossible. She is fast, she can handle the ball, she is a tough kid, she scores and she likes to pass the ball which is unusual for kids who score that many points.

"She reminds me a little bit of Shea (Ralph), she is not as big and strong as Shea except she shoots the ball better from the perimeter. Shea wasn't a 3-point shooter when she got out of high school but she reminds a little of Shea in that she just scores points a lot of ways, she gets to the free throw line a lot. She is a little bit better passer than Shea although that is hard to say because I did not see Shea pass the ball. I just like her. She is a nice kid and the kind of kid who will be successful here at Connecticut."

Ralph was a dynamic scorer coming out of high school in North Carolina (where Chong lived for several years before her family relocated to Ossining four years ago).

Ralph compared her more to current freshman Moriah Jefferson than to the way she played in high school.



"She is going to be great in our system," Ralph said. "She loves to play full court, she is a great passer, she can shoot it from 30 feet out. Those are things that you can't teach.
.
"She plays 100 miles an hour all the time which I like but we are just going to have to show her that you can't do that all the time. She plays with that kind of energy, she kind of does whatever. She is going to have to learn that kind of aspect of how we play. I think it is easy to pull the reins on kids rather than  get them to go harder. She is a 1 (point guard) but she is a scoring 1. She is a little bigger than people think. She is comfortable with the ball in her hands.

"She is different from me. She is more athletic than me, she is a better shooter than I was. She is not as big, I was just mean. She is not mean, she can get into spaces and find people. I shot it more. She shoots it so well. I remember we took Coach (Auriemma) to a game and she made eight 3's in a row and seven of them were right in front of him."

UConn freshman forward Breanna Stewart played against Chong in last year's New York Class AA tournament. Stewart led her Cicero-North Syracuse team to a 79-51 win over Chong and Ossining in the AA semifinals. So naturally I wanted to get Stewart's scouting report on the kind of player that Chong is.


"I am really excited for Saniya," Stewart said. "I think we had a lot of fun when she came on her official  this year because I didn't know her that well during high school and we had a good time together. She is just a really quick guard. She is long, she is taller and she is always looking for her teammates first but then at the same time you have to be careful because she can shoot the ball."

The signing of Chong wraps up UConn's recruiting class. It has been an intriguing process for the UConn coaching staff to say the least so I asked Auriemma to describe what it was like trying to secure a class the year after signing one of the most highly-touted classes in program history.

"We knew going in that it wasn't going to be one of those recruiting classes that we had last year but what is better, one player who you know is going to play 30 minutes maybe or five players who only two of them are going to play," Auriemma said. "I think for us, with the advent of practice players and the fact that we have such a good history here with them I don't really worry about how many people are on our roster. The danger with a program like ours, everybody thinks you should have 15 players, there are coaches who think you should have 15 players to offset injuries. Tell me how you are going to get 15 players to stay happy at the University of Connecticut especially when the first five are all first team All-Americans and a couple of them are national players of the year? Do you really think that the bottom five are going to be at that level? Probably not.

"I would say that recruiting this particular class is a little interesting. It had a lot of peculiarities to it to say the least. The trick is to identify those kids that you think can come in and play for you right away or have a chance to play for you down the road. The problem you have at Connecticut is that if you don't play by the time you are a sophomore you are hoping that we don't have great recruiting classes behind you because it you are not playing here by the time you are a sophomore and we are still recruiting high school All-Americans behind you, by the time you get to be a junior you are stuck. It is hard. You have to identify who are those kids who can come in and play for you right away and who are the kids that you know are content to wait a couple of years before they play. That is getting harder and harder to do."

Back in the late 1990s UConn was a very strong program but still yet to establish itself as the super power it is the current time.

Eager to prove that the Huskies run to the 1995 national title was not a one-time only experience, UConn coach Geno Auriemma and his staff felt it was imperative to get more athletic.

It started with the recruitment of Shea Ralph. The following year Svetlana Abrosimova came in and then came the coupe de grace with the signing of perhaps the best recruiting class in women's basketball history.

Sue Bird and Keirsten Walters added speed at the guard position but it was the signing of forwards Swin Cash, Asjha Jones and Tamika Williams which changed the way the Huskies played the game.


"We were going through a lot of changes from our first Final Four in 91, the kind of team we had - small and not the most athletic bunch in the world," Auriemma said after Sunday's U.S. senior national team practice at Armerican University. "The '95 team that won a national championship was unbelievably good but other than Nykesha (Sales) we weren't the most athletic bunch. Little by little, adding Shea, adding Svetlana we started looking more like teams around the country that we had to beat. Asjha, Tamika and Swin made is possible for us to really expand all the things that we wanted to do our on the court. We became a much more aggressive team in terms of  how we wanted to play defense and how we could influence other teams. I remember their freshman year it seemed like we averaged 100 every night. It was fun to watch because I hadn't experienced anything like that. They did have a huge impact on not just UConn but how people viewed our program."

I was on the verge of coming onto the UConn women's basketball beat for the first time when the recruitment of that class was in full swing. I remember the naysayers saying it made no sense to bring in Cash, Jones and Williams since they were pretty much the same player. Some people would go as far as predict that there was no way the three of them would play together for four years.

Well, they not only stayed but they thrived. They led UConn to a pair of national titles and if Abrosimova and Ralph had stayed healthy during the 2000-01 season, it's not out of the question that UConn could have won three straight national titles.

Considering that Cash and Jones join Bird as members of that recruiting class to be named to the U.S. Olympic team I asked Auriemma about the reaction now to those who questioned his basketball sanity for bringing in Cash, Jones and Williams in the same class.

"People have always misunderstood my kids go to a certain school or why kids want to play with other players," Auriemma said. "Asjha, Tamika and Swin are not at all alike and that is what people on the outside fail to see. Their games are not alike, they are not alike in personality, they are just three different people who came to our school and played three distinct roles. The three of them were able to create something that had they gone to school individually, it would never have been able to happen for them.The outside world doesn't understand that part of recruiting."

Securing that class was not an easy chore.

"Tamika Williams was the national high school player of the year but the player I wanted was Asjha," Auriemma said. "We knew we were going to get Tamika because I think I was the first coach to see her when she was in ninth grade or something like that so I knew we were going to get Tamika. We had to work our butt off to get Asjha but that was who I wanted. I said 'she is the best offensive player out of all three. Swin, we just gave up on. I said the hell with it, she is not interested in Connecticut, I don't want her anyway and then she called us and said 'why aren't you recruiting me?' I said 'I didn't think you wanted to come.' She said 'I want to come to Connecticut.' I said 'you know where we are so let's go.' Between the three of them, they all came for different reasons at different times but what has happened to them since they left Connecticut, in some ways I am not surprised. They were great people then, they are great people now. They were great players then and are even better players now."

As Caroline Doty has had to deal with yet another torn ACL, her teammates have been incredibly supportive but they are not the only ones.

When Doty met with the media on Wednesday, she was quick to credit assistant coach Shea Ralph, herself a victim of a multitude of serious knee injuries, as well as trainer Rosemary Ragle for helping her as much emotionally as physically on the long road to recovery.

"It gets better every week. During individuals with Shea, she says it looks better than last week and as long as I keep hearing that and knowing that, I will continue to get better. It is still a while to that first game so I have to keep that in the back of my mind too. If I can't do something this week, I still have next week. I am going to keep working at it, get in the gym and make as many shots as I can and working on my weaknesses so I am ready for the games come November."

As for Ragle, here is what Doty had to say.

"She's helped me keep the eye on the prize and I commend her for doing everything that she does, kind of keeping that drive within me, competing every day. Rehab this year was more of being competitive with myself, trying to push myself and get stronger at the same time. I have seen a difference through the past year because of rehab and the intense weight training.

Also, here is what she said about whether she will apply for a fifth season of eligibility, something she is eligible to do because she missed the entire 2010-11 season.

"I really haven't thought about it," Doty said. "I am going to take it day by day. I am going to focus on this season. We have a great schedule, our goal is to go to the Final Four and win a national championship and that is the main focus for now."

The Huskies scrimmages briefly, 10-15 minutes maximum and I was out there for some of it. A couple of impressions. First, Brianna Banks may not have the same range as Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis on her jumper but she is not far behind. Also, in the brief time I was out there I saw Bria Hartley drive aggressively to the basket more than I did in any practice I watched last year. If she adds that to her game on a regular season, she may end up being close to an impossible matchup for opposing teams. Hartley was also playing mostly off the ball which I see happening quite a but this year with Doty returning.

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."

Several years ago I was talking with Geno Auriemma after a game in Hartford in general terms about recruiting when he said - and I am paraphrasing a bit "we tend to recruit a small number of players and the players know we are only recruiting a small number of players." It was so simple yet incredible effective.

The end result is usually pretty impressive like the time UConn signed Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Keirsten Walters and Tamika Williams or more recently when Tina Charles and Maya Moore committed in consecutive years or the recent commitments from the top-ranked senior (Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis) and junior (Breanna Stewart) in the country. It also leads to situations when the Huskies land just one kid as they did in between the Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi classes and did a couple years back when Kelly Faris was the only recruit to sign with the Huskies. UConn wanted a post player to take over when Tina Charles graduated but zeroed in on a select few which they failed to get until Stefanie Dolson signed with the Huskies. Players like Kelsey Bone and Chelsey Lee opted to head elsewhere but even when that was happening, the UConn staff was not about to recruit a big kid just for the sake of it. Now they have a player like Dolson is seemingly is improving with each passing day. Yes, UConn's selective style of recruiting does leave holes every once in a while but has also resulted in the compilation of some of the sport's best teams.

In the press conference following Saturday's win over DePaul, Auriemma provided some insight into how the Huskies recruit and it was pretty captivating stuff.

"What's happened in the AAU world, these kids don't play to win," Auriemma said. "They just play to play. They show up in a tournament on a Friday night, play a couple games. Show up on Saturday, play four or five games. Show up Sunday and you play all morning maybe and let's go do it again next weekend. The difference is when you watched Maya played is Maya played to win every game. She tried to win every possession. It sticks out so obviously because everybody else is just running up and down the floor waiting for Sunday to they can get in their van, stop at McDonald's and she never played like that. Neither kid Kelly Faris, neither did Tiffany Hayes. I saw Tiffany Hayes at the Tournament of Champions in Arizona. The other team tied the score with five seconds left and I just smiled and said they are going to throw it to her and she is going to score and they are going to win. That is exactly what they did. You try to find those kids who aren't just running up and down and playing, who are trying to win all summer long, 90 games - however many games they are trying to go 90-0. Not every kid wants to do that, Maya does. Hopefully we keep recruiting kids who are like that.

"I am at a age at my life now that I say 'I want you to go (pointing in a straight line) and do that' and a kid says 'why?' then I don't want you on my team. There are a lot of kids coming out of high school today that you have to explain to them why you want things done and I am not in the mood to explain why I want things done. So if I recruit you and say this is what I want you to do, then you just do it. If you are the kind of kid who I watch you play in high school and you don't, then I don't think you are going to do it for me."

Auriemma has said in the past he looks for certain things when he sees a kid play and it has little to do with the way they fill up a box score. Does a kid compete regardless of the score, how do they interact with their teammates, what do they do when the ball is not in their hands. Case in point is a story he told in Saturday's press conference about a high school game he went to see earlier this season.

"This is the thing I don't understand. Doug (Bruno, DePaul's head coach) was there and we sat there was watched the game. We watched the kids play. We looked at each and said 'they all know we are here.' There is nobody sitting in these bleachers but us and these guys are dogging it. I am saying 'if you are not going to play really well now with us two sitting in the stands, when are you going to play hard?' I think the good coaches, we are constantly looking for kids who you say 'go' and they go. I think that's why we win all the time. These other coaches, I think they have to take those chances. If I was trying to build a program here or if I was trying to get to the level we are at right now, I would probably take more chances on kids and I would probably fail more often than not.

"People think recruiting is easy for us. Recruiting is harder for us than it is for anyone else. There are only five kids in America who can play for you. When you think about it. You can’t just go to an AAU tournament and go 1-2-3-4-5 and count 25 kids and go, ‘Yeah, they are on our list.’

Auriemma is blessed to have a staff who share his recruiting philosophies. Associate head coach Chris Dailey was recently named one of the top five college recruiters (regardless of sport) in an ESPN the Magazine piece. Shea Ralph played at UConn so she obviously knows what Auriemma and Dailey are looking for and it did not take second-year assistant coach Marisa Moseley to figure things out.

"Marisa Moseley found that out three days after she got hired at Connecticut," Auriemma said. "She was sitting there next to CD (Dailey) and she goes, ‘That kid right there, we’re not recruiting her, huh?’ and CD goes, ‘Nope.’ She goes ‘How about that kid? We aren’t recruiting her either, huh? Nope.' Then she watches a little more and she goes, ‘That kid right there. We are recruiting her, huh?’ Chris goes, ‘Yeah.’ You learn that the kind of kids winning coaches want or that winning programs want. They stand out and not because of how many points they score. That is not important. So the more of those kids you can get on your team, the more opportunities we can play like we played today or last Monday.

"You saw all the good stuff Kelly Faris did today. Well some people when she was in high school only saw the Kelly Faris that we saw during those three games where she was horrible. So that is what they saw. They thought ‘So that is what that kid is going to be.’ I’m like OK, but I see something different. She is good. She is a winner."

After rolling to halftime advantages of more than 20 points in the last three games against Pittsburgh, things were a little more challenging on Saturday night.

Pittsburgh cut a 13-point first-half lead down to four and only trailed 34-28 at halftime. With less than 12 minutes to play, the Panthers were only down six with possession of the ball before the Huskies put the game away with a 15-2 run.

"I am proud of how we pulled it out, we couldn't pull it away more than 10 points but we kept fighting," said UConn senior forward Maya Moore. "I think the coaching staff said it really well that it is OK to struggle. We are not machines, we have off nights shooting but as far as the effort that can't happen and I thought in the second half we brought better effort and I thought that is why we are able to pull away more."

UConn coach Geno Auriemma cited an unlikely source for playing a key role - senior guard Lorin Dixon. Dixon missed her only shot, was scoreless and had two rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes but Auriemma felt that Dixon's speed and ability to push the ball helped open avenues for her teammates.

"I didn't see a whole lot, there wasn't a great flow to the game," Auriemma said. "It seemed to be a chore, a struggle to get anything done for whatever reason. Except when Lorin Dixon was in the game, there didn't seem to be a lot of good stuff happening. It seemed to be forced. Lorin I thought changed the game the whole time she was in there. Pittsburgh did a really good job of keeping the tempo at a walk, making sure we didn't get too many run outs. It wasn't until the second half that we really got organized better defensively and it made all the difference in the world."

Pittsburgh coach Agnus Berenato, while proud of the moxie her team displayed, was not quite as pleased with the disparity in fouls called and free throws taken as the Huskies attempted 20 free throws to just four for the Panthers.

"I'll be very select in my words because I felt like we really did attack," Berenato said. "In the first half we had 22 points in the paint and imagine that, we did not have a free throw. We did not have a free throw until the end of the game. I guess we weren't working hard enough to get to the free-throw line. I don't know. It is amazing to me. We like to attack. It's not like our posts are the only ones to attack, we really like to go up and down. It was a pretty fun game to watch and I guess they didn't want to stop the clock."

Berenato was also asked about UConn playing the rest of the season with six or seven players in the main rotation following Samarie Walker's decision to transfer. It is something she dealt with in the last year on her own team. She didn't seem to think it should be a cause for concern.

"I just think that if you look at his stats, he only plays about seven people anyways, that is where it comes into play," Berenato said. "The tricky part is your practices. I know they have a fun squad of men's practice players, it really affected us. We had a few injuries. (Assistant coach) Mallorie Winn plays for me. I just don't see Shea (UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph) playing for them in their practices because they have so many practice players. I don't look at that as a negative. I think whatever hand you are dealt with, with him seven, eight or nine. You want the people who want to be there and you want the people there who are committed. You only need five to win and there are many games in the history of basketball that have probably been won (with five players). If I were a player, (Stefanie) Dolson averages 19 minutes, I am think cha ching, cha ching. If I am Heather Buck, I am thinking cha ching, cha ching that is more minutes for me."

UConn junior forward Maya Moore has been named the ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-America of the Year. In the process she joined Leigh Curl and Rebecca Lobo as the only UConn women's basketball players to earn Academic first team All-American honors in consecutive years. Moore now has a chance to become the program's first three-time first team Academic All-American.

Moore is averaging 18.1 points and 7.7 rebounds and is the team leader with 104 assists, 56 steals and 52 3-pointers.

She also has a 3.70 grade point average in an individualized major titled "
sport, media and promotion" which combines journalism, communications and education kinesiology.

STOKES DRAWING A CROWD
According to a blog post, UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph is expected to be in attendance at tonight's Linn-Mar vs. Bettendorf at Tipton Middle School. Tennessee coach Pat Summitt and Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale were reported as planning to watch highly-touted Linn-Mar 6-foot-3 junior Kiah Stokes play.

The fact that Ralph was planning to make the trip should make it clear that the Huskies are still interested in Stokes even if a scholarship offer was not immediately granted to Stokes when she made an unofficial visit to UConn earlier this month. The UConn staff considers landing a top-flight post player a priority in the next recruiting class but is still in the early stages of accomplishing that goal. Stokes of Marion, Iowa and Elizabeth Williams of Virginia Beach, Va. are still very much on UConn's recruiting radar.

There's plenty of UConn-related events going on in the coming days to make even the most loyal member of Husky Nation in need of a daily planner.

On Thursday from 8-9 p.m. the latest episode of the Geno Auriemma Show will be televised. It will be called "Geno Live" and will feature Auriemma and assistant coaches Chris Dailey, Shea Ralph and Marisa Moseley fielding live questions from the studio audience hence the word "live" in the title. If you don't have a ticket for the event, you aren't getting one so just tune in at home.

On Friday at 3:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. the first of the segments featuring the video shot by UConn seniors Kaili McLaren and Jacquie Fernandes will air on ESPNU.

Of course, Saturday UConn is back on the court at the XL Center for a 1 p.m. game against Providence.

Going back to Thursday, it will be the date of the postseason openers for UConn signees Lauren Engeln and Samarie Walker.

Engeln, a 5-foot-11 senior guard, leads her Laguna Hills team against Rowland in the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Class 2A opener.

Samarie Walker, a 6-foot-1 wing, leads her Chaminade Julienne of Dayton, Ohio squad against Stivers in the first round of Ohio's Division II Springboro Regional.

For those fans who want to sit in and ask questions of a Connecticut basketball coach, Connecticut Sun head coach Mike Thibault, assistant coach Scott Hawk and general manager Chris Sienko will field questions from fans on Monday from 6-8 p.m. at Mohegan Sun's Cabaret Theatre. Questions can also be e-mailed to askthesun@connecticutsun.com.

Just want to pass on some info from press releases that have been come into my mailbox over the last week or so.

First, CPTV will be airing a live edition of the "Geno Auriemma Show" called appropriately enough "Geno Live!" on Feb. 18 at 8 p.m. from the Hartford Club.

Meghan Culmo, a member of UConn's first Final Four team and long-time color commentator on UConn women's games aired on CPTV, will be joined by Auriemma and the rest of his staff (Chris Dailey, Shea Ralph and Marisa Moseley). Questions will be taken from the live studio audience.

The studio audience will consist of CPTV members who have made a donation/donations. There will be no tickets available at the door.

The show will be rebroadcast on Feb. 19 at 11 a.m. and Feb. 20 at noon.

CONNECTICUT SUN MINI-PLANS ON SALE
The Connecticut Sun recently put mini-plans on sale starting as low as $110 per package, with all tickets in the plan discounted from the box office price, both Mini Plans include priority purchase standing for the 2010 WNBA Playoffs.

The Big Game Plan includes eight games as well as the 2010 WNBA All Star Game while the Weekender Plan allows fans who cannot attend games during the week the opportunity to see the Sun play in five games during the weekends. Two other plans, the Pick 6 Plan and the 4 for $48, will go on sale beginning in March.

Mini Plans are available for purchase by either calling 1-877-SUN-TIXX and speaking with a Sun ticket representative or online at www.connecticutsun.com.

ESSAY CONTEST
The Sun is inviting Connecticut students in grades 4-8 to participate in the Second Annual Women in Sports Essay Contest. Students may submit a one-page essay answering the question: Who is your favorite female athlete and why? All essays must be received by the Connecticut Sun front office by Friday, April 9. Sun players, along with members of the organization, will judge the essays.

Entry forms are now available on www.connecticutsun.com .

One grand prize winner will receive an exclusive school assembly with Sun mascot Blaze and/or players to recognize the winning student, essay and school. The winner will be recognized at a Sun preseason game, receive four tickets to a preseason game and have their essay posted on www.connecticutsun.com . Five runners-up, one from each grade level, will receive four tickets to a Sun preseason game and their essays posted on www.connecticutsun.com . The first 50 entrants in the contest will receive a special gift from the Connecticut Sun as well as two complimentary tickets to a Sun preseason game.

It should come as little shock that UConn's Maya Moore and Tina Charles were selected to the preseason Associated Press All-American team.

Moore, the reigning consensus national player, was an unanimous pick after a brilliant sophomore season when she averaged 19.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.5 blocks.

Charles, the most outstanding player in the 2009 Final Four, averaged 16.5 points, 8.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks as a junior.

Moore and Charles were joined on the first team by Stanford's Jayne Appel, Monica Wright of Virginia and Jantel Lavender of Ohio State.

This is the first time two teammates were preseason AP All-Americans since UConn's Svetlana Abrosimova and Shea Ralph were so honored in 2000. Considering that neither Abrosimova nor Ralph were able to finish the season because of foot and knee injuries respectively, I am sure the UConn faithful is hoping this is one bit of history that is not repeated.

For the sake of full disclosure, this is my first year as a voter in the AP poll and my picks were Moore, Charles, Appel, Wright and LSU's Allison Hightower.

UConn plays its first exhibition game on Thursday against the College of Saint Rose. The game will start at 7:35 p.m. at Gampel Pavilion.

DRAFT LOTTERY SET FOR THURSDAY
Speaking of Charles and Appel, the winner of Thursday's WNBA draft lottery will get the chance to pick between the two gifted post players.

The Sacramento Monarchs have a 42 percent chance of getting the top pick. Minnesota, which owns both its pick and New York's lottery selection, have 42.8 percent of picking first while Connecticut and Chicago each have a 7.6 percent opportunity of securing the top pick.

Here's the portion of the release which mentions how the lottery will be conducted.

WNBA officials and a representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will conduct the Draft Lottery in New York City. The lottery will establish the first five picks of the draft. The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third round is determined by inverse order of the teams' respective regular-season records.

Fourteen balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls will then be drawn to the top to determine a four-digit combination. The team that has been assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second and third picks.

There are 1,001 possible combinations when four balls are drawn out of 14, without regard to their order of selection. One thousand of those combinations will be assigned to the five non-playoff teams based on their order of finish in the 2009 regular season. The remaining combination will be unassigned. If the one unassigned combination is drawn, the balls will be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated until an assigned combination is drawn.

Following are the number of chances for teams in the WNBA Draft Lottery:
2010 WNBA LOTTERY TEAMS
Team Record Chances (out of 1,000)
1. Sacramento 12-22 420
2. Minnesota (from New York) 13-21 261
3. Minnesota 14-20 167
4. Connecticut 16-18 76
5. Chicago 16-18 76

Following is the remaining order for the first round as determined by overall records from 2009:

REMAINING ORDER FOR FIRST ROUND
Team Record
6. San Antonio 15-19
7. Washington 16-18
8. Tulsa 18-16
9. Los Angeles 18-16
10. Atlanta 18-16
11. Seattle 20-14
12. Indiana 22-12
13. Los Angeles (from Phoenix) 23-11

At first glance, it would seem as if Danielle Donehew's background at a certain women's basketball powerhouse in the SEC might have been a detriment in the Big East's newly hired Assistant Commissioner for Women's Basketball's attempt to build a relationship with the conference's most prominent women's basketball coach.

Nothing could be further from the truth. UConn's Geno Auriemma is aware that Donehew spent seven years working for Tennessee women's basketball coach Pat Summitt before spending the last two seasons as the executive vice president of the WNBA's Atlanta Dream.

Donehew, who worked side by side with Summitt and was a part of a program Auriemma dubbed "The Evil Empire" during the height of the fierce UConn/Tennessee rivalry, will be the person entrusted with all things women's basketball in the Big East's Providence, R.I. headquarters.

Donna DeMarco, a UConn grad who earned respect and admiration from Auriemma from her work when she held the job Donehew will assume starting on Nov. 16, was the one who broke it to Auriemma that Donehew was emerging at the top candidate as DeMarco was moving over to take the Assistant Commissioner/Administration job left vacant when John Marinatto was named the Big East Commissioner.

"I remember Donna DeMarco and I had a conversation when they came down to the last couple and Donna said 'I think we are going to hire her,'" Auriemma said. "She chuckled and said 'what do you think about that?' I said '99 percent of the people in Tennessee I like.' I don't have a problem with that at all. She is the best person for the job. I am happy to get her."

Donehew knew her time in Knoxville would come up in her initial chat with Auriemma, which is did. She was thrilled that while her choice of employers was good for a chuckle or two, she wants the same thing as Auriemma - whatever is best for the Big East.

"He knows, we talked," Donehew said with a laugh. "He knows I am going to be cheering for him. I am real excited that he is the Olympic coach and I am also excited about his team this year. I think they are going to be fun to watch and a great asset to our conference."

I also asked Donehew about the future of the Dream considering some rumors have been circulating about their staying power.

"I have high hopes for the Dream and for the future of the franchise. Over the last two years we built a great product. We were able to take an expansion team that only won four games in the first year to 18 wins in the second year and a playoff berth. I am really pleased with what we built. I think over the time the Dream will continue to build and be something that the WNBA will be very proud of.

"There are always rumors, in an economy such as this funding is always tough but I am excited to say that there are some new investors at the table," Donehew said. "I can't get into any details right now but I do think over time there will be some new investors that are going to come in and make a huge difference."

GENO'S CANCER TEAM EVENT
Auriemma and Barbara Oliver, a 22-year cancer survivor, will be speaking at an event to benefit the Kay Yow WBCA Breast Cancer Fund and The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Two student-run a capella groups performing as well at the event inside UConn's Student Union.

The event will run from 7-9 p.m. Monday at the Student Union Theatre.

RALPH HEADED TO NEW HAVEN GALA
UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph is among those expected to take part in the Strike 3 Foundation First Pitch Celebrity Sports Gala at the Omni Hotel in New Haven on Nov. 7.

Here's the info I have about the event.

Join Oakland A's pitcher Craig Breslow at The Strike 3 Foundation First Pitch Celebrity Gala to benefit pediatric cancer research at Yale New Haven Hospital and the Connecticut Childrens Medical Center.

Celebrity attendees include Nomar Garciaparra, Andrew Bailey, Jack Cust, Bobby Valentine, Vin Mazzaro, Rajai Davis, Pete Walker, Roger LaFrancois, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Shea Ralph, Ed Randall, George Grand, Tom Verducci and Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino.

The evening includes dinner, live entertainment and a keynote address by Nomar Garciaparra. Our extensive auction item list contains golf packages, weekend getaways, dining experiences, Yankee and Red Sox field passes and countless autographed memorabilia including Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, CC Sabathia, Dustin Pedroia, John Lester and many others.

For more info, visit http://www.strike3foundation.org/ If you are going specifically just to see Ralph at the end, I would contact the organizers just to make sure because speakers and celebrity appearances at events such as this one are subject to change.

UConn assistant coach Shea Ralph recently headed to take a look at North Babylon (N.Y.) High junior guard Bria Hartley and recruiting sources indicate that Ralph was impressed enough that now her boss Geno Auriemma is planning to find room in his busy schedule to see the 5-foot-7 Hartley in action.

Hartley is enjoying a brilliant junior season with North Babylon. She began the year in style, dropping 38 points in a 77-52 win over Molloy. Her best effort may have come in North Babylon's only loss of the season as she had 30 points, five assists and three steals in an 87-73 loss to a Murry Bergtraum team ranked seventh in the latest USA Today national high school poll. Most recently Hartley had 19 points and six assists in Thursday's 86-25 win over Centereach as North Babylon improved to 16-1. Hartley is averaging 22.1 points and 5.9 assists per game.

Unless Auriemma gets out to North Babylon's game on Monday at Copiague, which seems unlikely because of UConn's planned practice, he will likely have to wait until North Babylon begins postseason play to see her play since North Babylon's regular season finale is the same day as UConn's game at St. John's. Speaking of the postseason, Hartley had 23 points as North Babylon won the 2008 Suffolk County Championship game with a 54-34 win over Hampton Bays.

While it is uncertain when Hartley will be making a campus visit to UConn, Laguna Hill (Calif.) wing Lauren Engeln and her family are still working on the details so she can be on hand when UConn hosts Pittsburgh on Jan. 15. Engeln was planning to be in attendance at the Nov. 30 Oklahoma/Connecticut game but when those plans fell through, her family has been trying to reschedule. With Laguna Hills having a break between the end of the regular season and beginning of the postseason, this would be a perfect time for Engeln to see UConn up close and personal.

There's not too much to report from Thursday's practice. It was mostly a film study day for the Huskies who only went through about 30 minutes of practicing before going to lift.

All signs point to freshman Tiffany Hayes making her second consecutive start when UConn plays at Marquette on Saturday.

I asked Renee Montgomery and Tina Charles what they remembered from the last time UConn played at Marquette. Montgomery recalled the lively student section making for a rowdy atmosphere. She did not recall missing the front end of the 1-and-1 late in the game which nearly proved costly as Marquette Christina Quaye (who was briefly in the Connecticut Sun's training camp in 2008) had a good look at a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left which would have given the Golden Eagles the lead. Quaye missed, Montgomery grabbed the rebound and was fouled. She hit both free throws to clinch a 52-48 win.

Charles, who had 20 points and 10 rebounds, also recalled the atmosphere as well as the challenge posed by the senior-laden Marquette frontcourt. This time the Golden Eagles are expected to start two freshmen forwards so it could be a chance for Charles to shake off her worst effort of the season in a win over Rutgers.

Marquette women's SID Amy Ufnowski said that while some tickets are still available, the university is hopeful that UConn's presence will lead to the second sellout of the season.

Marquette senior guard Krystal Ellis will be honored before the game for becoming the Golden Eagles' all-time leading scorer.

Perhaps the funniest moment of the day came when during an interview with Maya Moore on her being named to the CoSIDA District 1 University All-Academic team (couldn't they have made that title just a little bit longer) I asked her what her most difficult classes in the fall semester were. Moore pondered the question as she is prone to do before giving her answer and pondered and pondered. Moore got a sheepish grin on her face as she struggled to remember even one of the classes she had in the recently-completed fall semester.

"Let me think. Sorry, you're going to have to wait. Wait a minute. Wow. Randy (UConn women's basketball SID Randy Press) name some classes."

"Sociology, psychology," Press said.

"Chemistry," Moore exclaimed. "I took chemistry. Keep going."

"Biology, math, English, literature, science, government, liberal arts, history, Western Civ," Press said.

"OK, I took a chemistry class, I took a nutrition class," Moore said. "This is really funny. It's been a long day. Those two (classes) were great. The other two, if I think of them during this interview, I will tell you."

It appears as if Louisville's Candyce Bingham's post-game comments after Tuesday's win over Cincinnati have riled up some in Husky Nation.

So what did Bingham say to create such a stir?

Well, according to the Associated Press' recap, here are her words: "It's UConn, they're good, they're supposed to be good, but they're very beatable. It's not invincible. It's not anything undoable."

What's the big deal? Apparently Bingham didn't get the memo that all opponents are supposed to bow down to UConn. After all, didn't the season come to an end following UConn's 30-point win at No. 2 North Carolina Monday? Haven't they already awarded the Huskies the 2009 national-championship trophy after humbling the Tar Heels?

Apparently the No. 7 team in the country who are winners of 14 straight games and feature a player (Angel McCoughtry) who could very well be the No. 1 overall pick in April's WNBA draft isn't supposed to believe it can play with UConn.

Maybe it's time for some of the UConn faithful to reflect back on the last time Louisville played a game in the state of Connecticut. Despite McCoughtry and Bingham going a combined 13 for 37 from the floor, the Cardinals only trailed UConn by a point with 5:20 to play in the Big East tournament final at the XL Center, one of the Huskies' home courts. Had Bingham hit a jumper at the 5-minute mark, the Cardinals would have had the lead. UConn lost Charde Houston and Ketia Swanier, who combined for 22 points, 15 rebounds and five steals in UConn's hard-earned 65-59 win as well as Brittany Hunter while adding freshman Tiffany Hayes and welcoming Kalana Greene back from injury. Why shouldn't Louisville think they can come up and give UConn a game while facing pretty much the same team it went toe to toe with last March?

Why is it necessary that every UConn opponent has to proclaim that the undefeated Huskies are the greatest team in the history of the world? Let's not forget that Renee Montgomery was 4 for 19 from the floor in the Big East final and fellow All-Americans Maya Moore and Tina Charles were only 7 for 20. Lorin Dixon, recently inserted into the starting lineup after the season-ending knee injury suffered by freshman Caroline Doty, played just four minutes in the 2008 Big East final and did not score. Key reserve Kaili McLaren had just two points in 32 minutes. So remind me again why should Louisville be shaking in its shoes?

Will Louisville beat UConn? Only time will tell. Should they think they can beat UConn? Why not?

Spare me the garbage of UConn using Bingham's quotes as bulletin-board material. If any UConn players need Geno Auriemma or Chris Dailey to highlight Bingham's quotes in order to get fired up to play the only other team still undefeated in Big East play then they did a poor job in the recruiting process. I doubt that a Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Swin Cash, Rebecca Lobo, Shea Ralph, Svetlana Abrosimova or Kerry Bascom would need some outside help to get ready to face the conference team best equipped to knock the Huskies off. If any UConn player needs any additional motivation for Monday's game, it is time to take a long look in the mirror. These are the kinds of games they should be clamoring to play in, facing a veteran, confident team with Final Four aspirations bulletin-board material or no bulletin-board material.