The Huskies coaching staff had run like clockwork for so many years. It was head coach Geno Auriemma, associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coaches Jamelle Elliott and Tonya Cardoza. They knew everything there was to know about what it took to run the program. Nothing had to be said. The program basically ran itself from recruiting to molding players into the best they can be in order to annually keep the Huskies at the top of the sport.
But in the past two years the staff has undergone a facelift. Cardoza left to become the head coach at Temple following the 2007-08 season and was replaced by former UConn All-American/Pittsburgh assistant Shea Ralph. Last month Jamelle Elliott left to become the head coach at Cincinnati and was replaced by former Minnesota assistant Marisa Moseley.
Dailey said this week that the additions of Ralph and Moseley have been met by nothing short of a smooth transition.
“It’s been great,’’ Dailey said. “I think it gives us a good opportunity to kind of re-evaluate things and see what changes we might want to make and get new ideas. They both were in two different programs. But it also makes us think because Jamelle had played there and been there so long and Tonya had been there so long they knew the way we did things. They knew the rules. They knew what the expectations were and now we have to verbalize those again. Like even Shea, for the most part, knew as player. But with Marissa we really have to verbalize it and re-think it and it gives us an opportunity just to make things even better. And I’m really excited. Marisa and Shea have spent a lot of time together trying to get organized for recruiting and get a feel for who we want to recruit. It’s really been very positive and really good.’’
I have been in contact with a recruiting source. And they had a lot to say with the process set to heat up July 4. Landing Bria Hartley, a 5-10 point guard from North Babylon, N.Y, remains UConn’s top priority for the Class of 2010. The coaching staff is presently trying to arrange an unofficial visit for the end of this week. The Huskies are also in the market for a post player. Here are a few that they are interested in (in no particular order) – 6-3 Chiney Ogwumike from Cypress, Texas; 6-2 Whitney Bays from Huntington, W.Va.; 6-2 Shawnta’ Dyer from Marion, Ohio; 6-2 Cassie Harberts from San Clemente, Calif., who committed to USC but reopened the recruiting process after coach Mark Trakh resigned in March. She is an AAU teammate of UConn-bound guard Lauren Engeln; and 6-7 Jen Hamson from Pleasant Grove, Utah.
With four players already locked in from the Class of 2010, the Huskies have the luxury of focusing on the Class of 2011 and 2012 next month. If they do land as many as two post players from this current class it would give them option of possibly red-shirting one during the 2010-11 season should the situation warrant such a move.
The Huskies are extremely high on Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a 6-foot guard from Anaheim, Calif., and Betnijah Laney, 6-foot swingman from Clayton Del., in the Class of 2011. Laney’s mother, Yolanda, played for Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer at Cheney State in the early 1980s. But she is not putting any pressure on her daughter to follow in her footsteps. She has remained neutral in the process.
Rich
