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Geno Auriemma never believed his tenure at UConn would last this long. A bad recruiting class or two early on and it might not have reached 24 seasons and counting. Tomorrow at Georgetown, he will coach in his 800th game and will be searching for his 678th victory in what has become a Hall of Fame career.
Geno said this was never the plan when he was hired in 1985. He remembered the factory his father once worked and he knew that he didn’t want to follow that path. Coaching seemed to be a fine option to explore.
“Where my father worked? Anything but that,’’ Geno said. “So this looks like a pretty good alternative. When you get into coaching, you don’t know what’s ahead of you. You don’t know what the outcome’s going to be. You could get bad players 5, 6 years in a row when you’re starting out, and the next thing you know that’s the only coaching job you get. So when I started here if it didn’t go the way it went, that could’ve been my one and only shot at being a head coach. In order to be able to coach 800 games that’s … Well, look up on the wall. It’s 12 First Team All-Americans, five national Players of the Year… and you get to coach 800 games.’’
Many things have changed over the years for Geno, including his pregame rituals. Early on he had to have the same amount of change in his pocket for every game. If he had a crumpled up dollar bill in his pocket he had to have that too. Whatever the amount in change and currency it had to match to keep the mojo going.
He said when he was on his health kick he and Meghan (Pattyson) Culmo had to run a 3.2-mile loop around campus. But since 1995 it has remained the same. And again, it is something tied to Culmo, who was then a Huskies’ assistant coach.
“I remember sitting in the locker room one day,’’ Geno said. “And I was like this (his head down, rubbing his temples) saying `I don’t know if I can do this any more. This is unbelievable.’ I think at the time we were undefeated and I thought, `Man, if we lose a game I’m going to feel (horrible) because these kids don’t deserve to lose. They’ve done all this, this and that, and I’m going to feel terrible if I can’t help them through this thing.’ So Meghan comes over (massaging his shoulders) saying, `Oh, man, it’ll be alright. Relax. Everything will be fine. Just relax.’ So she’s grabbing me on my shoulders saying, `Relax, It’ll be fine.’ We win. It’s the worst thing that could’ve happened because now before every game, somebody’s got to be Bundini Brown (Muhammad Ali’s assistant trainer/cornerman). `You’re the best champ. You’re the best there is. Everything will be alright. Don’t worry.’ Every game.’’
Culmo was ultimately replaced by Jamelle Elliott, who continues to serve as Geno’s Bundini Brown today. Why has Jamelle occupied that role for so long? Geno said he doesn’t want to ruin a winning hand.
The Huskies are a combined 485-41 with five national championships and eight trips to the Final Four since the start of the 1994-95 season.
“The newest guy on the coaching staff is responsible, except Jack (Eisenmann),’’ Geno said. “I have no interest in Jack doing it. No interest in Jack giving me two minutes. So for the last I don’t know however long she’s been here, Jamelle’s the official Bundini Brown. `You’re the best there is champ. Come on.’ And I’ve got to say, `Who’s going to play good tonight? Come on, tell me.’ `I think Tina’s going to play good.’ `No she’s not. She sucked at practice.’ `OK, I think Renee’s going to play good.’ `Nah, she’s got a bad look on her face.’ So she’s just in charge of convincing me that everything’s going to be alright.’’

Renee Montgomery, Maya Moore and Tina Charles are among 20 midseason candidates for the Wooden Award, which is given annually to the top player in the country. The Huskies are the only team with three players on the list, and the Big East leads all conferences with six selections.
Here’s the rest of the list: Jayne Appel (Stanford), Chante Black (Duke), DeWanna Bonner (Auburn), Jessica Breland (UNC), Kristi Cirone (Illinois St.), Alysha Clark (Middle Tennessee St.), Rachele Fitz (Marist), Jantel Lavender (Ohio State), Shalee Lehning (Kansas State), Angel McCoughtry (Louisville), Courtney Paris (Oklahoma), Epiphanny Prince (Rutgers), Andrea Riley (Oklahoma State), Kristi Toliver (Maryland), Ashley Walker (California), Monica Wright (Virginia) and Shavonte Zellous (Pittsburgh).

Rich

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The two days off UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma afforded his players in the wake of Monday’s 28-point rout of No. 6 Louisville were beneficial to those who are nursing nagging injuries. Arguably, no one needed the downtime more than junior forward Kaili McLaren.
McLaren has played just 13 minutes in the last games due to tendonitis in her left knee. She went through the entire practice today at Gampel Pavilion, with Auriemma applauding her performance afterwards.
“Today was the best she’s looked,’’ Auriemma said. “Those couple days off I think do wonders for kids. Kaili looked great.’’
McLaren played exceptionally well in a victory at then-No. 2 North Carolina Jan. 19, finishing with two points, four rebounds five assists, and two steals in a season-high 24 minutes. But in the days following that game she began experiencing pain in her knee.
She played just five first-half minutes at Cincinnati last Saturday, sitting on the bench with an ice bag on her knee in the second half. And McLaren logged just two of her eight minutes against Louisville in the first half Monday.
“There’s just sharp pains in it and it just hurt to play,’’ McLaren said. “The timing was terrible. Clearly I’m frustrated. I can’t let something like that bother me, but it did. It affected me, and I have to get back on track and bounce back. I want to be a positive even if I can’t contribute 100 percent physically.’’
Auriemma said he is uncertain how many minutes McLaren will log Saturday in what will be a homecoming game for her at Georgetown. She said she grew up 15 minutes away from the campus. Her mother, Rosemarie, bought about 30 tickets to the game Wednesday and McLaren also obtained a couple from her teammates.
McLaren’s playing time will largely depend on how she feels. But if it was up to senior Renee Montgomery she would not play at all.
“It’s tough because whenever somebody has a certain type of injury you want them to kind of preserve themselves because you don’t want them to push themselves too far to where they do something where they can’t play any more,’’ Montgomery said. “So if I had a choice I would rather her not even play this game and just rest up because I think it’s important to get healthy.’’

Geno will have a chance to pay his respects to former NC State coach Kay Yow today when services are held at the Colonial Baptist Church in Cary, N.C. She died last Saturday at the age of 66 after battling breast cancer for more than 20 years.
There has been speculation that Yow’s passing might be used as a catalyst to resurrect the UConn/Tennessee series. Geno had worked with Kay in the fight against cancer, while Kay served as an assistant coach under Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team. The game would serve as a fundraiser.
However, Geno quickly squashed the idea of hooking up with Tennessee.
“I think it would cheapen it,’’ he said. “Kay Yow was a lot closer to Pat than she was to me, supposedly. I know Pat was the head coach and Kay was the assistant. Hey, when Kay was alive she never called me and said, `You should play Tennessee and should make a fundraiser out of it.’ So my guess is when she’s up in heaven she’s not sitting up there going, `I should’ve told Geno and Pat to play each other.’’
“I’ve not had any discussions with anybody. I’ve not given it one moment of thought. I don’t intend to and I don’t anticipate anybody bringing it up that would have any significance to me. There’s a lot of things that we could do that I know we plan on doing down the road from a WBCA standpoint, from a Coaches Association and from a Jimmy V Foundation that will involve Kay. Us playing Tennessee, as far as I’m concerned, won’t be one of them.’’

Rich

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The Huskies again were unreal last night in hammering Louisville, the sixth-best team in the country according to those who vote in The Associated Press national poll, by 28 points. But as strong as they look through 20 games, their immediate rotation features only six healthy players at this point.
Junior forward Kaili McLaren played just eight minutes against the Cardinals due to what Geno Auriemma said is tendonitis in her left knee. She played just five minutes at Cincinnati Saturday.
Without a game until Saturday afternoon at Georgetown, Auriemma has given the team today and tomorrow off. The downtime could prove beneficial for McLaren.
“She didn’t practice the last couple days,’’ Auriemma said. “She’s got some tendinitis problems. She gave us a couple good minutes (Monday), but the next two days off will do her a lot of good.’’

Caroline Doty was in the seats behind the bench last night. She was on the court afterwards, giving a bear hug to her roommate Tiffany Hayes after she burned Louisville for career-highs of 23 points and six 3-pointers in 28 minutes.
Doty underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL in her left knee last Thursday. She has already begun squatting in her rehabilitation. Now that’s a gamer.

Rich

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Freshman Caroline Doty underwent successful surgery today to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. Team doctor Tom Trojian said the surgery went fabulous.
There had been some concern that more than one ligament could have been damaged, but that was not the case. The procedure, which was performed by Dr. Robert Arciero, was the second for Doty in 16 months.
There is no definitive timetable as to when Doty will be back on the court. She’s looking at six to eight months of rehabilitation.
“I don’t worry about that,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “That’s the danger if she sets a date for herself and then pushes herself to make that date it could be counterproductive. The way I look at it is when you’re ready you’re ready. Whenever that is. I don’t see her being able to truly feel comfortable, I bet you, until at least November, December.’’

It’s been a good week for Kalana Greene. And it all started with the crowning of the AFC representative in Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa. She is a long-time Steelers fan and she made life pretty miserable for Renee Montgomery, who is a Ravens fans due to her friendship with rookie RB Ray Rice.
Kalana was waving her Terrible Towel for all to see Sunday in North Carolina. Needless to say, she had plenty of fun at Renee’s expense.
“She’s got a little towel that she has,’’ Renee said today following practice. “She’s twirling it around. I’m like, `Get out of my face.’’’
Kalana then went and had a season-high 15 points, three rebounds and three assists in a season-high 33 minutes in Monday’s 88-58 victory at No. 2 North Carolina. She had played as many as 31 minutes during her homecoming game at South Carolina Dec. 29, but she had reached the 25-minute mark in only two other games this season as she continues to work her way back to full strength after undergoing three operations on her right knee.
“It’s important for me, but it’s most important for my team,’’ Kalana said. “When you’re a man down everyone has to step up. Everyone has to play more minutes, contribute more in practice, in the games. I don’t think that I can’t play 33 minutes every night. If I need to … If I have to play 40 minutes I’m going to have to play it. But I just know when you’re called upon to do a task and get things done we have to do it because there’s no one else. You can’t wait for someone else to do it this time of the year.’’
It was the most playing time Kalana had logged since seeing 37 minutes in a season-ending loss to LSU in the NCAA Fresno regional final March 26, 2007. Greene’s 56 minutes over the last two games is also a season-high.
“Kalana has a unique game that kind of complements our offense in that we’re shooting a lot of 3s, we’re putting the ball in the post a lot, hopefully a little of both,’’ Geno said. “And she brings that midrange game that is really important. And when she’s concentrating on that, that attacking the basket, that pull-up jump shot of hers it makes defenses have to prepare not to just come running out hard at the 3-pointer and not pack it in on the block. They’ve got to now defend something different. And when’s she got that going her confidence level and her energy level is what lets her play those 33 minutes. So is that going to be normal for her going forward? I don’t know. Whatever minutes she feels like she can handle that’s how many she’s going to play. But it’ll have a lot to do with where her confidence level is on any particular night.’’

Rich

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Here’s the statement that was issued by the Big East today regarding the postgame incidents that transpired between Geno Auriemma and Syracuse junior Nicole Michael last Saturday at the XL Center.

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.”

Rich

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I don’t know who it is exactly that I annoyed recently. The list could be extensive. But when your flight home from Raleigh is delayed by snow, with no end to the delay remotely in sight you know that someone somewhere is sending a message. We took off with an inch of snow on the ground at Bradley Sunday morning. Not in Raleigh we don’t. I’m not sure if they even have effective snow plows down here, and there has no been confirmation that the de-icing process is done with a hand scraper. It just seems that way.

The Huskies’ victory last night over North Carolina was stunning. Not the fact that they won the game, but the ease with which it went down. A 30-point victory over the No. 2 team in the nation on the road two days after losing a starting guard for the season with a torn ACL? That was an old-fashioned beat down that sent a distinct message to the rest of the nation that this team really is the bonafide cream of the crop at this juncture of the season. And there really is no team close by.
And UConn didn’t even play one of its best games offensively either. They missed a lot of bunnies, particularly Tina Charles. It shot 47.2 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point range.
“I think we did a lot of bad things (Monday) so we can’t really leave this game … We’re on Cloud 9 right now, but we definitely have some things we need to work on,’’ Renee Montgomery said.
What was most impressive was the way the Huskies outworked the Tar Heels on the boards (53-32) and the manner in which they never allowed the Tar Heels to get back in the game once the lead soared into double figures. This was an important step for this team going forward. And if Lorin Dixon can bottle her performance and repeat it Life Without Caroline might be met by a smooth transition.
However, that does not mean that this team is better equipped to deal with Caroline’s injury than it was a year ago. Geno Auriemma said that this team cannot get away with playing predominately six players every game for the rest of the season. The starters played at least 29 minutes last night. Kaili McLaren (season-high 24 minutes) was the lone reserve to play more than five minutes as Tiffany Hayes (five minutes) was a non-factor.
“Last year was completely different,’’ Geno said. “We had more depth in the post. We had more guards available to us even though the two got hurt. This year this is going to be a lot harder. I don’t know that we can play every game and play as few players as we played (Monday) and get away with it. But this is going to be a lot harder.’’

Seeing Caroline at the game was pretty special. And it undoubtedly meant a lot to the Huskies. When she got hurt Saturday there wasn’t much to say that could console her. Geno said he couldn’t find the words.
“There’s nothing you can say,’’ Geno said. “What you say? There’s absolutely nothing you could say that’s going to make a kid whose season just ended feel any better. There are no words. You can’t even try to say anything. What you do is you go up, put your arm around her and that’s it. And walk away. For her to have to go through six, seven, eight more months of what she just went through … But there’s no time to feel sorry for yourself. It’s time to move on. You’ve got to keep moving on.’’
Said Renee: “I went to her room Saturday night after she got hurt. I told Caroline, `When we go to Carolina, I don’t want you jumping around or moving around. Be calm.’ I turned around one time and she’s up cheering and I’m like, `My goodness, what are you doing?’’’

I’m still sitting here at the gate. And it’s still snowing. Now gettinig out of here is becoming a concern.

Rich

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Caroline Doty’s impact had been sizeable for the UConn women’s basketball team this season. Just a freshman, she started each of the first 17 games and provided the top-ranked Huskies with grit and moxie.
But as Doty tried to control a pass from Maya Moore in transition with 27.9 seconds remaining in the first half Saturday against Syracuse, the click she heard in her left knee was unmistakable. She knew that she had torn the anterior cruciate ligament in the same knee for the second time in 16 months.
Doty has experienced a whirlwind of emotion over the last couple of days. Yet, as she sat on the UConn bench prior to tonight’s showdown against No. 2 North Carolina she was in good spirits and poised to provide her teammates with as much support as possible.
“The past couple of days it’s been kind of like a roller coaster,’’ Doty said. “I’m trying to stay as positive as possible, but just the fact that it happened kind of brings me down sometimes. But my teammates and coaches have been doing a good job of keeping my spirits up. So I’m feeling pretty good.’’
Surgery has been scheduled for Thursday.
Doty said her parents, her twin brother, Kevin, and her grandparents were all in attendance at the XL Center Saturday. And after undergoing an MRI at a local hospital, she was met by each of her teammates in her hotel room. They came bearing cakes, hugs and plenty of moral support.
“My ACL is gone,’’ Doty said. “It’s completely torn. But it’s different because I didn’t tear any other ligaments so it feels a lot better. I can put weight on it. I can walk. Not normally, with a limp. It’s different, but it’s curable. I can do the surgery earlier than I did last time. And I guess it’s better.’’
Doty first suffered an ACL tear during a soccer game Sept. 7, 2007. She had surgery Oct. 23 of that year.
Doty was averaging 8.6 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 23.9 minutes for the Huskies this season. She was third on the team with 30 made 3-pointers and in minutes.
“It was tough, especially after the hard preseason we all went through,’’ Doty said. “The Big East just started. Everybody was saying how Big East time is a huge part of the season. It’s fun. I was looking at the Big East tournament. I was looking at this game. I was looking at the NCAA tournament. I was looking at everything in the future. Then, again, I thought I have three more years. I’m still young. I still have a lot of time to play.’’

Rich

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Sophomore All-American Maya Moore was named the Big East Player of the Week today. It is the first time this season she has been honored.
Moore averaged 29.0 points (21-of-37 FG; 11-of-18 3-pointers) and 12.5 rebounds in wins over DePaul and Syracuse. She scored a career-high 40 points and made a team single-game record 10 3-pointers against Syracuse at the XL Center Saturday.

Rich