Caroline Doty has undergone so many surgical procedures on her knees that it would be easy for the UConn guard to throw up her hands in frustration.

But Doty was rather upbeat even if her latest surgery will keep her out of practice for the next 7-10 days.

Doty was dealing with persistent pain in her surgically-repaired left knee since being given the OK to practice on Aug. 27. After consulting with UConn medical staff and her coaches, Doty decided to have a minor procedure to have some hardware removed from the knee.

"It is nothing big, I will be back within a week, a week and a half," Doty said. "They had to take care of something inside there. It was unfortunate. I really want to be out on the court for the first practice (on Saturday) but I know it is going to be the last thing I need to worry about. I don't have to worry about anything else but to get better and working on my game later on.

"It was bothering me during preseason, I went through preseason with this nagging pain and towards the end, we felt like if we were going to take care of it, we didn't want to wait until December until you are in the flow of everything. Let's just take care of it now and be good for the rest of the season."

The good news is that doctors got to look at her knee during the surgery and they liked what they saw.

"Everything is great, it looks stronger than ever," Doty said. "All I can do is let the wound heel and the
soreness go away. It is just like weight lifting, you are sore for a few days and then you will fine after that, just
bigger and stronger. It is going to take a few days, it will be sore."

AURIEMMA TO RECEIVE PRESTIGIOUS AWARD
UConn coach Geno Auriemma will become the second women's coach to receive the John R. Wooden Award's Legends of Coaching Award.

The award was first given out to North Carolina's Dean Smith in 1999 and the 2008 winner, Pat Summitt of Tennessee, is the only other time the award went to a women's coach.

"When I got that notice, it was totally unexpected. I had no inkling whatsoever that was going to happen so when it did happen, I was really taken aback by it," Auriemma said. "I think because it was John Wooden and because of what that name represents and all that goes with it, I think any award you get is worthy of something but when you get something like that from that organization, you have to view that differently."