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The Huskies return four starters from last season’s unbeaten national championship team, including All-Americans Maya Moore and Tina Charles. Hey, you can say they return five starters if you count Caroline Doty. So it was no surprise that they were the unanimous choice as the No. 1 pick in The Associated Press preseason poll, which was released today.
UConn, who sits atop the preseason poll for the second straight year and for the seventh time overall, received all 40 first-place votes. Stanford, which like the Huskies has reached the Final Four the past seasons and returns four starters led by Jayne Appel, Jeanette Pohlen and Kayla Pedersen, was second. Ohio State, Notre Dame and North Carolina rounded out the Top 5.
The Huskies will host the Cardinal at the XL Center Dec. 23. They will host North Carolina at Gampel Pavilion Jan. 9 and will host Notre Dame at Gampel Pavilion Jan. 16 and travel to South Bend, Ind. March 1.
Big East rivals DePaul (No. 17), Louisville (No. 23) and Rutgers (No. 25) were also ranked.

While the Huskies again are in a familiar position heading into the season, coach Geno Auriemma commented on two other things this week regarding his team.
“Two things are written in stone for us,’’ Auriemma said. “Maya will try to get an assist or two for the year and Caroline will make an attempt to guard somebody. Now, if I say to you that that’s written in stone then Maya will get six assists one game because instinctively she’ll just make the right pass at the right time. But if I say to Maya, `Maya, try to average two assists every game’ then she won’t get any because she’ll try too hard to be a passer rather than a scorer. If I keep harping on Caroline … `Caroline, you can’t guard that way. You’ve got to guard this way.’ Then she becomes like all tied up in the thought of it rather than doing it. So some things you just have to let it play out. Just let them play.’’

Rich

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The Huskies will not play an NCAA tournament game in the state of Connecticut for the first time this season. That will change in 2010-11.
The NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee announced today that UConn will be one of 16 first- and second-round regional sites for the 2011 NCAA tournament. The games will be played at Gampel Pavilion.
It will be the 17th time that UConn has hosted NCAA tournament games at Gampel Pavilion, including last season en route to a sixth national championship. The Huskies are 28-2 in NCAA tournament games at Gampel Pavilion.
Other cities chosen to host 2011 first- and second-round games are Albuquerque, N.M.; Auburn, Ala.; Charlottesville, Va.; Cincinnati, Ohio; College Park, Md.; Columbus, Ohio; Durham, N.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Wash.; Shreveport, La.; Stanford, Calif.; University Park, Pa.; Waco, Texas; and Wichita, KS.
The regionals will be held in Dayton, Ohio; Philadelphia; Dallas; and Spokane, Wash.
“The committee was pleased with the level of interest in our championship that we found from cities, institutions and conferences across the country,’’ Iowa senior associate director of athletics and chair of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee Jane Meyer said. “Of the 20 preliminary sites for 2011, we have 11 different conferences represented, with Wichita and Shreveport hosting for the first time.’’

Rich

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Geno Auriemma told Tiffany Hayes point-blank that she needed to step up and seize more of a leadership role this season for the Huskies. The way Geno looks at is the people who are going to have the ball in their hands the most need to be among the team’s greatest leaders.
It is still early in the preseason, but it appears that Hayes has taken the challenge and run with it. All-American Tina Charles was raving about Hayes’ leadership Tuesday.
“She’ll huddle us together and she’ll be the one talking,’’ Charles said. “So I think that’s great just her being a sophomore …. Off the court, she’s talkative. She likes to be in everybody’s business just the way Renee (Montgomery) was sometimes. So it’s not a surprise.’’

The Huskies’ game at Holy Cross at the DCU Center Nov. 20 will now start at 7 p.m. It had been listed as a 7:30 start.

Rich

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Tennessee filed a complaint against UConn with the NCAA through the Southeastern Conference office in 2007. It was regarding a tour of ESPN that the Huskies set up for Maya Moore and her mother, Kathryn, during a recruiting visit in October of 2005. The complaint resulted in the Huskies being charged with a secondary violation.
Tennessee has recruiting issues of its own these days. According to the Knoxville News-Sentinel, the university last week reported a secondary violation to the SEC office after a photo of Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt, assistant coach Dean Lockwood and recruit Meighan Simmons at her high school in Texas appeared in two publications. The report will eventually be forwarded to the NCAA.
The photo, which was taken Sept. 23, originally ran in the San Antonio Express-News last month and again in the News-Sentinel. It violates NCAA guidelines prohibiting publicizing contact with a recruit.
When asked to comment on the situation Tuesday, Geno Auriemma first looked as if he was unaware of it before providing a response.
“My official comment would be stuff happens in life,’’ Auriemma said. “I’ve even been known to make a mistake once or twice. So who am I to cast any stones. The intent of most rules is whether there’s anyone there or isn’t anybody there … It’s like do you stop at a red light only when you see a cop there or do you just go through the red light because there’s nobody watching? Obviously, there’s an intent to the rules and sometimes the intent doesn’t necessarily make sense. The actual rule and what the intent of the rule is, they don’t jive. But we’re always judged on what the intent of the rule is. There’s 500 pages of rules or whatever the NCAA rules manual is, and some are easy to figure out and some are not.’’
Simmons has since given an oral commitment to play for Tennessee.

The first week of practice is over and Auriemma believes that the Huskies could play a game right now if they had to. They still do not have a definitive starting point guard, though. Auriemma is not yet ready to name Lorin Dixon, Tiffany Hayes or Caroline Doty as the starter.
“It’s not necessarily any competition as such because we’ve played with three guards pretty much ever since I’ve been at Connecticut,’’ Auriemma said. “I think it might just come down to different situations and different times. That’s one thing I learned coaching the National Team this last trip is you can adjust some times based on who you’re playing. Yeah, you’d love to have, `Ok, these are our five.’ But some games maybe you just might want to say, `Hey, look, I think it works better this way.’ So when you look at our guard situation with Kalana (Greene), Tiffany, Lorin, Caroline and Kelly (Faris) you’ve got five guys that can rotate in those three spots pretty easily. And then you’ve got Maya moving over there sometimes when you go with the two big guys. So you’ve got a lot of different ways to go that depending on what the situation is … And then you’ve got to find out too who’s good coming off the bench, who has to start because they’re psyche can’t handle not starting. So it’s all those little things that go into it. We’ll see. Maybe during the exhibition games we’ll zig and zag and see what happens. Maybe the first couple games of the year we’ll see what happened and go from there.’’
Auriemma said that Hayes, Moore and Tina Charles have been the three best players at practice. No shock there. He continues to praise Faris, the team’s lone freshman, for her performance. He expects her to play 15 to 20 minutes a game this season.
And, overall, he is pleased with how the first week went.
“Given the first week, I think there’s a pretty good vibe that I get from this group,’’ Auriemma said. “It’s not the easiest thing to get acclimated to a new floor leader. If you had a different one every year then you could say, `well, kids are used to making that adjustment.’ But when you have had the same one for four years, it’s very difficult all a sudden for somebody to switch gears and say, `Oh yeah, this is just going to be just like …’ So that’s probably been the hardest adjustment is getting used to a different way of the offense getting into its flow, just a different feel that exists in the gym without Renee (Montgomery) being here. Because they’ve all been through it, they know the drills in practice. They know the routine. They know what we’re trying to do. Certainly we’re a lot further ahead. We could play a game if we had to right now, which if you ask me that question next year I would say we might not be ready to play a game when the Big East season starts. But right now because of all the returning veterans we’re in pretty good shape I think.’’

Rich

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The College Program of Geno’s Cancer Team is hosting an event tonight from 7 to 9 at the UConn Student Union Theatre. It will benefit the Kay Yow WBCA Breast Cancer Fund and The V Foundation for Cancer Research. Along with Auriemma, Barbara Oliver, a 22-year breast cancer survivor who has served as the Executive Director of Y Me? Connecticut for 16 years, will speak. Two student-run a capella groups will also perform during the event that will honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month and feature the theme “Remember. Celebrate. Believe.’’

Rich

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Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma wasn’t sure if the rest of the Big East coaches were paying attention last season. But all uncertainty was put to rest Thursday when sophomore Tiffany Hayes was one of 12 players named to the Preseason All-Big East team.
Hayes was joined by All-American teammates Maya Moore and Tina Charles. Both Moore, the conference preseason Player of the Year, and Charles were unanimous selections.
“I’m honored to be on the team,’’ Hayes said. “It’s definitely a proud moment for me knowing where I started last year and coming this far. Making this team just shows that other people are watching and knowing that I’m working hard to help the team out more this year.’’
Hayes was named to the conference all-freshman team a year ago when she averaged 8.4 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 25.7 minutes in 39 games (17 starts). This season she is expected to see her role with the defending national champions further expand.
“She’s really good,’’ Auriemma said. “I think she’s better than she showed last year too. Last year she was just like, `I’m here.’ She’s much more aggressive now, much more assertive. She knows that she has to play great, and really good players want that. And she’s OK with it.’’

Charles earned one vote for Big East Player of the Year. That’s the type of year those outside of Storrs are expecting from the Huskies’ All-American center.

Here are the thoughts of Notre Dame senior Lindsay Schrader about having to play UConn twice during the regular season:
“I love it. I love it. I say bring it on,’’ she said. “Someone actually came up to me and said, `Oh, my God, you’ve got to play UConn twice. How do you feel about it?’ It’s great. I love to play. I think we’re going to give them a run for their money. And you know what? I think we’re coming into this season with a chip on our shoulder. Yeah, we’re worrying how to guard them. But they have to worry how they are going to guard us. And that’s a big part this year because have so many weapons, including Skylar Diggins now, that they’ve got to worry about us.
“And we should have that attitude. And we didn’t last year, but we do now. I think it’s because of our experience and because of everyone returning. And Skylar has that attitude as a player. And so do I. She’s the kind of player that kind of looks you in the eye and says, `You know what? We’re not going to lose.’ And that’s how everybody on our team is now.’’

Rich

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2009-10 Preseason Big East Coaches’ Poll
1. Connecticut (14) 225
2. Notre Dame (1) 210
3. (tie) DePaul 171
Louisville 171
5. Pittsburgh 167
6. Rutgers 156
7. Syracuse 126
8. Georgetown 124
9. West Virginia 121
10. Marquette 111
11. South Florida 86
12. St. John’s 84
13. Villanova 78
14. Seton Hall 33
15. Providence 31
16. Cincinnati 26
NOTE – First-place votes in parentheses.

2009-10 Preseason Player of the Year
Maya Moore, UConn, Jr., F

2009-10 Preseason Freshman of the Year
x-Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame, Fr., G

2009-10 Preseason All-Big East Team
Ashley Barlow, Notre Dame, Sr., G
x-Tina Charles, UConn, Sr., C
Keisha Hampton, DePaul, Soph., G
Tiffany Hayes, UConn, Soph., G
Nicole Michael, Syracuse, Sr., F
x-Maya Moore, UConn, Jr., F
Deidre Naughton, DePaul, Sr., G
Liz Repella, West Virginia, Jr., G
x-Angel Robinson, Marquette, Jr., G
Kahla Roudebush, Cincinnati, Sr., G
Lindsay Schrader, Notre Dame, Sr., G
Da’Shena Stevens, St. John’s, Soph. F

2009-10 Preseason All-Big East Honorable Mention
Deseree Byrd, Louisville, Jr., G
Kalana Greene, UConn, Sr., G
Brittany Ray, Rutgers, Sr., G
x–unanimous selection

Rich

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There are those who have said that Bria Hartley has been the one recruit UConn coach Geno Auriemma has coveted from the Class of 2010. A 5-10 point guard from North Babylon, N.Y., Hartley has already drawn comparisons to former Huskies’ All-American Sue Bird and Auriemma has long said that great guard play is vital to winning national championships.
Auriemma landed the talented guard Monday night when Hartley ended what has been a long process by giving an oral commitment to play for UConn. She ultimately chose the Huskies over North Carolina. Stanford and Duke were also in the mix.
“It’s a big relief,’’ Hartley said. “Now I don’t have to worry about it. I knew it was a good decision for what I wanted. UConn has a great history. I’m really excited. Coach Auriemma is one of the best coaches. I’m really excited to see what happens. I’m going to work hard and hopefully have a successful career.’’
Hartley becomes the fifth player from the current class of high school seniors to commit to UConn, joining Stefanie Dolson, a 6-5 center from Port Jervis, N.Y., Lauren Engeln, a 5-11 guard from Laguna Hills, Calif., Michala Johnson, a 6-3 forward from Lombard, Ill., and Samarie Walker, a 6-1 swingman from Dayton, Ohio, in what is yet another sensational recruiting class for the Huskies.
UConn continues to wait on a decision from Chiney Ogwumike, a 6-3 post player from Cypress, Texas. She visited UConn this past weekend along with all of the aforementioned players and will visit Stanford this weekend.
Hartley, who has 1,373 career points, averaged 22.4 points, 5.5 steals and 5.3 assists in leading North Babylon to a 19-2 record and a trip to the Suffolk County Class AA semifinals last season. She was named the 2008-2009 Gatorade New York State Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
“Overall, I think it’s going to be a great fit,’’ North Babylon coach Mike Petre said. “I think the pace and the tempo of the games and the style of play is similar to what we’re doing and certainly well suited to her strengths, which are many.’’

Rich