UConn women's basketball

Geno Auriemma turned 55 Monday. The Huskies made sure that he knew they didn’t forget. The minute Geno came into sight as he made his way up the stairs to the interview area, Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore began to serenade him with a verse of “Happy Birthday.’’ Geno shook his head in disgust as he took his seat, uttering `That’s inappropriate’ and `That’s stupid.’’ Clearly, he was a bit embarrassed.
The birthday antics were expected to intensify during practice.
“We will make him run around and skip around the gym like he’s an idiot,’’ Kalana Greene said. “He has to do it. He makes everyone else do it so he’s not an exception to the rule. We’ll probably laugh at him and he’ll do something corny. All the other stuff – a cake and presents – is coming. But he’s a good guy who’s never about himself. I told him `happy birthday’ today and he said, `What do you care?’ That’s what makes him a great guy.’’

The attendance of 8,548 at Gampel Pavilion Sunday was the second largest of crowd at any of the 16 first round sites. Maryland as No. 1 at 10,847. Notre Dame was third at 6,395.

There are still a limited number of tickets available for tomorrow’s game against Florida. They can be purchased online at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 860-525-4500 or 203-624-0033.
Tickets are $22 for adults and $15 for youth and senior citizens.

Rich

Tina Charles began the NCAA tournament last season fastened to the bench. Due to her continued inconsistent play, UConn coach Geno Auriemma stripped her of her starting role.
Auriemma took the opportunity to remind her of the past prior to Sunday’s first round game against 16th-seeded Vermont. He also reminded her that she has not been a dominant presence with any regularity in her first nine tournament games, averaging a modest 11.1 points and 6.6 rebounds.
Charles took every word Auriemma said to heart. And it parlayed into one of the most prolific performances in the team’s rich NCAA history as she generated a season-high 32 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes to lead the top-seeded Huskies to an impressive 104-65 victory.
“I just wanted to prove that I can be a part of the reason why we win games,’’ Charles said. “Coach was talking about, `You haven’t had a good tournament,’ and I just wanted this to be the one. And I just want to just keep going out there and playing hard.’’
Charles was 13-of-14 from the field and added three blocks in 24 minutes. Her scoring output was two shy of her career-high and it was the third highest single-game total in team NCAA tournament history. Kerry Bascom had 39 in an 81-80 victory over Toledo in the second round March 16, 1991. Diana Taurasi had 35 in an 81-66 victory over TCU in the second round March 26, 2003.
Charles scored 18 points in 18 minutes in the first half. She followed by scoring 14 (6-of-6 FG) in just six minutes in the second half before leaving the game to a standing ovation with 13:37 remaining.
“When Tina wants to dominate, there’s nobody that can stop her,’’ UConn sophomore Lorin Dixon said. “I’ve been around Tina for many, many years. When Tina has her mind set on taking over a game, I don’t think there’s anybody who can contain her. (Sunday) she just went out with the mindset `I’m going to dominate’ and you could see it in everything she did.’’
It was the second straight double-double for Charles, her 10th double-double of the season and the 35th of her career. She has also scored in double figures in a career-high 12 straight games.
Another motivational tool Auriemma used on Charles leading up to the game was he urged her to flashback to a particular game in which she played exceptionally well and had great intensity. She chose her performance at Madison Square Dec. 14 when she had 29 points and a season-high 18 rebounds against Penn State.
Considering the setting Charles was even better Sunday.
“I think that’s what coaching is all about,’’ Auriemma said. “You have to try to figure out how far can you push somebody and what opportunities do you really have as a coach to make your point. I think Tina’s old enough now at this stage of her career that you can’t sugarcoat it. I think her first two years here at Connecticut, Tina was kind of waiting for it to happen for her. The bottom line is, if Tina plays like she played (Sunday), we have a chance to win every game we play from here on in.’’

Rich

The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) named UConn’s Geno Auriemma the Division I Coach of the Year today. This is the second straight season he has been honored by the organization and the fifth time in his 24-year tenure with the Huskies.
Auriemma is the only Division I head coach that has earned the award in back-to-back seasons.
“I’m honored by the award because I think it reinforces what I think we believe in,’’ Auriemma said. “When we have good players we beat everybody and beat them by a lot. And that’s a credit to our coaching staff and how we prepare every single day for every opponent regardless of who they are, where they’re from and that’s something that I think should be recognized. And by this award it is being recognized.’’
Auriemma, the current WBCA vice president, has led the top-ranked Huskies to a 34-0 record to this point. They finished the regular season unbeaten for the fifth time and won the Big East regular season and tournament championships.
Entering tomorrow’s NCAA tournament second round game against eighth-seeded and No. 22 Florida at Gampel Pavilion, Auriemma is 690-122 overall (.850) and 66-15 in the NCAA tournament (.813). He has led the Huskies to five national championships and nine trips to the Final Four.
“I think it’s well-deserved,’’ junior Tina Charles said. “I think some players who have a lot of talent don’t have the kind of relationship with their coach that we do. We love to be around him and listen to what he says. He definitely has gotten a lot out of us this year. It’s totally different than last year and the other teams I’ve been around.’’

Rich

Kalana Greene looked right at Maya Moore when she was describing how she got the cut on her lower lip today. It came in the first half and it was bleeding so much that it forced her to come out of the game.
“Maya head-butted me after a play,’’ Greene said looking directly at Moore. “It was bleeding a little too much for me. It was everywhere.’’
Here’s the best line Greene had as she continued to poke fun at Moore in the locker room:
“If I were to kiss someone tonight it wouldn’t happen because of this,’’ Greene said.

Jacquie Fernandes had a career-high six points on two 3-pointers in nine minutes. This truly was a team win today. And it’s always nice to see the non-high profile players have success.
“It feels great to come off the bench,’’ she said. “For me, when I come in the game, it’s like 0-0 to me. The score doesn’t matter to me and I give my all just like the starters do at the beginning. It was a team effort and everybody played great.’’

Here’s a quickie from Florida coach Amanda Butler on her thoughts on the Huskies:
“I think the thing that is most impressive about Connecticut in the times that I’ve watched them play on TV is that I think they play with a tremendous amount of pride,’’ she said. “And I think that’s going to be important for our team to match. I think we kind of play with pride, pride in the way we do things and take advantage of this opportunity.’’

Rich

The career of UConn sophomore point guard Lorin Dixon has been laced with uncertainty. She has proven she can be a valuable asset to the Huskies, as she was at North Carolina Jan. 19. And at the same time she can be a player that coach Geno Auriemma does not enough confidence in to provide her with meaningful minutes.
Dixon admittedly finds herself spending too much time sitting back and watching the Big Three –
Renee Montgomery, Maya Moore and Tina Charles – dismantle the opposition rather than stepping forward and making a notable contribution of her own.
“I feel like maybe I don’t have to do this because Renee and Maya will do it,’’ Dixon said. “I think that’s something I need to get out of. I have to understand that I need to go in there and do my part even though you do have great players all around you.’’
Dixon entered Sunday’s NCAA tournament first round game against 16th-seeded Vermont with this type of mindset. She wanted to be a player that makes things happen, and in 22 minutes off the bench she succeeded.
Dixon had three points, four assists and did not commit a turnover in the Huskies’ 104-65 victory.
“Lorin’s a lot like Tina (Charles),” Auriemma said. “Maybe there’s something in the holy water at Christ the King. They are very similar in that too many times they just allow themselves to be in the game as opposed to impacting the game. We talked to Lorin about ‘Lorin I have seen you play like you played in the Carolina game, where you looked like as good a guard as there is in the country. And I’ve seen you play like you shouldn’t be on a Division I team. So what are we going to see tonight and the next night and the next night. Because if we see the Lorin that we saw against Carolina then we have a chance to win every game.’
“You know what, she went in today and did all the things that Lorin’s good at. I don’t care how much you play off of Lorin. I don’t care if you play 10 feet off of her. When she dribbles at you, you’re not going to be able to keep her from going by you. And once she goes by you she is doing something she couldn’t do last year. Instead of just going in there and throwing something up and bouncing the ball off the back of somebody’s head, she gets in there and she just kind of puts it right on a silver platter for you and all you have to do is lay it up. To have that as an alternative to Tiffany (Hayes) and Renee I just think gives us a lot of different dimensions.”
It was the highest assist total for Dixon since she had six against Pittsburgh Feb. 15. It was the most playing time she has seen since also logging 22 minutes against Villanova Feb. 24.
Dixon, who has committed one turnover in 75 minutes over the last four games, said she played with an aggressiveness Sunday. She also was not afraid to try to make a play even if the results might not be favorable.
“Everybody needs to contribute now that we’re in the tournament,’’ Dixon said. “This is the biggest time of the year so I just felt coming out (Sunday) I owed my team (to play) the way I know I can play even though I haven’t played like that lately. So I just wanted to come out and play really good or at least try.’’

Rich

Of all the players that have passed through the UConn women’s basketball program over the years Brittany Hunter was near the top of those who Geno Auriemma never imagined would join the coaching profession.
It didn’t seem like an option for Hunter either when she graduated last year. She has aspiration of being a sports agent and was enrolled in graduate school at UConn. She was working at a bank in Glastonbury. She had found a roommate and an apartment and was poised to move in in about a week when her phone rang during her lunch break one day.
Kalana Greene was on the other line informing her that Tonya Cardoza had left the Huskies after serving 14 years as an assistant coach to take the head job at Temple. The news initially saddened Hunter, but the news that followed floored her.
“She was like, `Oh, she wants you to come with her.’ I was like I don’t know what you’re talking about,’’ Hunter said. “I was like, `What are you going to the mall? What do you mean go with her?’ Maybe when I was here me and Tonya exchanged maybe 50 words. Not that we didn’t like each other. She just wasn’t my coach. I just talked to J (Jamelle Elliott) and C (associate head coach Chris Dailey) all the time. So I just thought it was weird. I asked Tonya, `How do you want me to go with you? I don’t understand.’ She said, `Well, you know, I like your personality and your intensity and I like the way you work in camp.’ I just kind of weighed the options.’’
It didn’t take long for Hunter to make up her mind once she finally talked to Cardoza officially. She called her back the next day to tell her she’d be happy to join her staff. But Cardoza didn’t accept her decision. She wanted her to put some significant time into it before making a final decision.
“I was like, `No, I’m not going to take your answer until Sunday so hang up and call me back on Sunday,’’’ Cardoza said. “It’s not something you can jump into and make that decision overnight. It has to be something that you’re fully committed to. So take some time and think about it.’’’
Hunter spoke with the professor she was doing her graduate assistant with and was told that if she wanted to leave and come back in two years that it wouldn’t be a problem. That pretty much sold Hunter on the issue. That and the fact that she wanted to provide Cardoza with a helping hand in whatever manner she could and to simply try coaching.
Her decision to accept the job was shocking to many people, including herself.
“Everyone was shocked that she asked me,’’ Hunter said. “And then everybody was really shocked when I said, `Yes.’ I was shocked too. I was just going with the flow. I was like, `Why not?’ An experience comes like that you don’t ever want to look back and say … I could’ve always come back from it. I can always go back to grad school. I can always do the things that I want to do. But I don’t ever want to go through life and say, `This opportunity presented itself and I didn’t take advantage of it.’’’
Here’s Auriemma’s reaction:
“I think surprised is a mild term,’’ he said. “I was shocked. I was stunned. I don’t see Brittany Hunter being a coach. I don’t see it now and I don’t see it in the future. I think it’s just something that Brittany’s doing right now so I was really surprised. Sometimes you’re fooled. Like Jen Rizzotti becoming a coach kind of followed me a little bit. Carla Berube kind of fooled me a little bit. Some guys don’t fool me. You can see it while they’re here, like Morgan Valley. That’s what they want to do all their lives. But, yeah, Brittany just took me completely by surprise because the whole time that I knew her when she was here I never remotely thought that would get into coaching. Never.’’
Cardoza said she liked Hunter’s presence and she wanted her to be a buffer between herself and the players. “She’s a huge figure,’’ Cardoza said. “She’s really, really loud. Not that we’re old, our staff. But we’re older and I just wanted someone that the players (could relate to). When you lose a whole staff and you lose someone that you really, really respect, you have to find a way to bridge that gap for the players. And I thought by bringing her in they were able to relate to her and she could make the transition for them a lot easier.’’
There is a strong likelihood that Cardoza will be looking to bring in someone else next season. Hunter made it clear today that coaching is not something that she wants to do.
“I don’t want to coach,’’ Hunter said. “I’ve done it and it’s different. I see why some people would want to coach, but it’s not for me. But it’s OK. I like the girls so it was fun. I definitely want to go back to what the original plans were, though. I’m definitely just not going to ignore that.’’
Nothing has been finalized yet regarding Hunter’s position for the 2009-10 season. Cardoza and Hunter will discuss that some time after the season ends.
“I think with anyone that’s just fresh in the business and not really sure that this is what they want to do, and after being around for a year maybe it’s not,’’ Cardoza said. “For someone like Brittany or young people, they don’t really know what it takes and how involved you have to be. That it’s not just 9-5. It’s your livelihood. It’s every single day, every single hour you breathe being a coach. She’s not sure if this is the avenue she really might want.’’

Here are a couple of other topics Hunter touched upon outside the Temple locker room:

Working with the post players
“It’s just about footwork and intensity,’’ Hunter said. “I don’t ever get mad about missed layups. I think from playing that’s the most … Those are some of the things that I picked up on. You don’t really want to hear all the negatives all the time. You just kind of want to hear the good things that you’re doing. You know when you mess up so I just try to be the positive person. They call me `Positive Patty.’’’

The status of her problematic right knee
“It’s there,’’ Hunter said. “I can’t play basketball very much, but I’m going to do it anyway. I try to like play defense in drills and that’s just a disaster. I’m out shape so they make fun of me. They always say I’m sweating my bangs out. I cut bangs in my hair and they start getting puffy because I sweat them out. And they make fun of it. But I block their shots because it’s an ego thing. I can’t let them score on me. I’m supposed to play dummy defense, but it doesn’t work out.’’

Stressing out as a coach
“I got stressed out,’’ Hunter said. “And I was like, `I would never be Coach (Auriemma). I would never stress about anything.’ Players mess up. They have bad games. Things like that happen. You just kind of talk to them. You try to give them confidence and keep them moving. But I would just get so stressed out. I would really be upset after a loss. I would really be mad and I would really go to the drawing board like, `OK, what did I not do right here.’ Coaches would always say they feel responsible when a team loses and I never understood that. How do you feel responsible? We’re the ones playing. You really feel responsible. It’s like, `What didn’t I go over? What didn’t I tell them during the game? When they were looking sad why didn’t I say anything?’ You take a lot on your shoulders, which I never really anticipated doing.

The Difference at Temple
“If (Auriemma) was here he’d probably have a heart attack,’’ Hunter said. “It’s just a different mindset. The goals are different. You go into Temple and they’re not necessarily looking to win a national championship. Everybody will say that, but that’s not really feasible with personnel and just the things that you have to work with. But just the goals that we do have – winning the A10, winning regular season. Those are big deals to them. It’s not really taking a step down. You just embrace what it is they want to do and go with it.’’

One of the attendants wearing a yellow coat at Gampel Pavilion kicked Renee Montgomery out of the gym area today as she tried to watch the last few minutes of Temple’s open practice. By open practice, I mean free to the public. I guess opposing players can’t watch, though. Hey, didn’t the guy see her No. 20 hanging in the Huskies of Honor for God’s sake. That’s ridiculous.

There were only about 700 tickets left for tomorrow’s game as of noon today.

Rich

The Big East, with the help of its fans at the recent conference women’s basketball tournament, raised $3,000 that will donated to the Connecticut Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and The Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund. The monies will be split evenly between the two highly regarded charities that are committed to finding a cure for breast cancer.
Fans were asked to donate a minimum of $2 to enter their name and be eligible to win one of 16 pink T-shirts signed by all 16 Big East head coaches. Here is the list of winners: Jean Campbell ( Danbury), Ginny Christiana (Oxford), Georgia Ciganik (Newington), Renae Cosgrove (St. Joseph’s, Mich.), Laura Demartino (Hamden), Sharon Endy ( Tolland), William Esborn (Mifflintown, Pa.), Alfred Gerena (East Hartford), Sarah Huelin ( Unionville), Cynthia Huge (Hartford), Pamela Perrone (Norwalk), Mark Russo (Stamford), Pat Sidoti (Middletown), Doreen Taylor ( St. Joseph’s, Mich.), Lauren Whitaker (Newington) and Virginia Whitehouse (Niantic).
The conference has also already auctioned off one autographed T-shirt at www.bigeast.org and more will be up for bid in the near future.

Rich

Former UConn middle linebacker … I mean, hard-nosed 3-point shooting guard Mel Thomas has been added to the Seattle Storm’s training camp roster, the team announced today. She is currently averaging 22.3 points – fourth in Basketball Ireland’s SuperLeague – 5.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.3 steals for the Bausch and Lomb Waterford Wildcats.
Mel is also tied for first in the league in assists and is fifth in made 3-pointers (23) and ninth in steals.

You saw the Huskies win their 15th Big East tournament championship with a resounding victory over Louisville March 10 at the XL Center. Now you can own the game ball from that memorable night. It has been signed by Huskies coach Geno Auriemma and is up for bid at www.bigeast.org.
The bidding closes Monday.

Rich