Kalana Greene spent far too much time on the bench last night against Vanguard. The reason was simple. When she was in the game she was not looking to get involved offensively.
Greene took only two shots – both 3-pointers – in 15 scoreless minutes against the Lions’ zone looks. She did have four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block, but she is going to need to be more of a factor offensively over the course of the season to keep opposing defenses honest.
“She tends to kind of appear and disappear,’’ Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma said. “Who knows? Kalana’s Kalana. When the other team’s playing zone a lot, she tends to stand around and she doesn’t really assert herself. And that’s not her game to stand out there and shoot it. So it makes it difficult for her to really have an impact. But she’s been practicing well so I’m not worried about it.’’
Heather Buck, playing with her right knee wrapped, continued her quest to find a meaningful spot in UConn’s rotation. Her quest is slow moving at the moment. She did not see action until there was 8:56 left in the second half and then tallied two points, two rebounds and an assist. She also badly missed a couple of layups.
“She’s nervous,’’ Auriemma said. “She’s playing nervous. Everything’s just happening a little too fast right now. Like we have Blue and White … The Blue team is usually the guys that are playing together and the guys that get the most minutes and the White team is the other guys. And when she’s on the Blue team she struggles. She’s nervous. When she’s on the White team she plays like a she’s a first-team All-American because she’s just not nervous. So we’ve got to figure out a way to calm her down a little bit. She gets a little bit ahead of herself. But she works hard. She hasn’t played. All she’s done is practice so she hasn’t played. And it’s a little different in a game than in practice.’’
Recruits Bria Hartley, Stefanie Dolson, Lauren Engeln and Michala Johnson are expected to fax their signed National Letter of Intent to UConn at some point tomorrow on the first day of the NCAA fall signing period. Samarie Walker is slated to sign her Letter Friday.
According the Cypress (TX) Sun, Chiney Ogwumike will sign a National Letter of Intent Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. EST. She has visited UConn, Stanford, where her sister Nneka is a sophomore, and Notre Dame in recent weeks.
Rich
