UConn women's basketball

Ten times in the 22-game series between UConn and Tennessee the teams squared off in January. It was the Super Bowl weekend of women’s basketball. CBS couldn’t wait to televise the game. Fans couldn’t wait to tune in.
Pat Summit ended it all when she axed the series following the 2006-07 season. Now the only time the teams will meet is in the NCAA tournament. UConn coach Geno Auriemma said today that aside from Carol Stiff of ESPN trying to save the series in the spring of 2007 he has not been contacted by either CBS or ESPN about again playing Tennessee during the regular season.
Tomorrow, UConn will meet LSU on the day that had so long been reserved for UConn and Tennessee on CBS. Ironically, Tennessee will meet Rutgers in the second half of the doubleheader.
“It is something that when there weren’t a lot of games on and that game had its regularly scheduled time the average guy out there who may not have any interest whatsoever in the game somehow or another was drawn to that game,’’ Auriemma said. “And it did showcase the best of what women’s basketball has to offer. You miss the game and you miss the intensity of it, the rivalry that grew from that. I think you always want to be in that situation whenever possible. When we play Louisville it’s going to be like that. When we play Rutgers it’s going to be like that. When we play at North Carolina it’s going to be like that. We have a lot of national games. The Oklahoma game had that kind of feeling. So in spite of it not being that game, tomorrow (against LSU) might be like that. We still have what we had.’’

Renee Montgomery did not need stitches to close the wound on the right side of her lower lip. However, her lip is still swollen and she has used plenty of ice to help combat the swelling. She has used so much ice that Geno couldn’t help but take a shot at his star point guard.
“I’ve never seen a kid use so much ice as she’s used in the last three days,’’ he said. “We’ve had kids with torn ACLs and you name it not go through so much ice as she has. She’s so anxious to get that swelling to go down. But I don’t think it’s going to prevent her from playing the way she’s been playing. She’s been playing unbelievably well.’’
Renee is averaging 19.3 points, 6.0 assists, 1.0 turnover and 32 minutes in the last three games. She is also shooting 57.1 percent from the field (24-of-42) and 50 percent (9-of-18) from 3-point range.

Recruit Stefanie Dolson, a high school junior who orally committed to play for UConn on Christmas Day, and former UConn players Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Asjha Jones, Maria Conlon and Ashley Valley are expected to be in attendance tomorrow. Add in UConn assistant coaches Jamelle Elliott and Shea Ralph, WTIC-AM color commentator Kara Wolters and Rebecca Lobo, who will be part of the CBS broadcast team, it makes for quite a Huskies’ reunion in Hartford.

Rich

Maya Moore had five points and five rebounds in the first seven minutes Wednesday against Hartford. She was again well on her way to another Maya-like effort. One that sees her fill up just about every statistical category there is on the box score. But Geno Auriemma saw something else from Maya. Something he did not like and he acted on it in a hurry.
It was a lack of effort Maya defensively that miffed Geno. Instead of stepping up to stop Erica Beverly she stepped back and watched her go in for a layup with 12:32 left in the first half. Geno immediately called a 30-second timeout. He ripped into Maya in the huddle and ripped her from the lineup. She would spend the remainder of the half sitting on the bench. And when she wasn’t offering her support to her teammates she was facing the wrath of Geno.
Geno laid into her several times in an attempt to get his message across. At times he wasn’t even paying attention to the game as he chastised the nation’s top player for the defensive gaffe.
“She’s a funny player,’’ Geno said afterward. “As much as she makes you shake your head with what she does when she has the ball in her hands, when she doesn’t have the ball in her hands it just makes you shake your head at some of the things that she does. You just can’t believe that she just did that. Like there was a play … That guy starts dribbling towards the basket. So Maya, as that guy’s dribbling towards the basket, takes a step and then goes, `ahh, (forget) it’ and gets out of the kid’s way so the kid can shoot a layup. And I thought, `Hmm, I never saw that before.’ But I don’t want it to be a pattern. I don’t know that if you’re the best player in the country that you should just get out of the way and let people shoot layups. That’s probably not the winning edge.’’
Maya certainly got the message. She started the second half and had three rebounds in the first 1:21 of the half. She finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and two blocks in 18 minutes.
“I think there’s a lot of interpretation with Coach, but for the most part he makes his points pretty clear,’’ Maya said. “It’s a lot harder to do all the things that he wants from us, but that has to be my expectation as well. I think that I have very high expectations for myself so I’m not going to be upset with him. I’m just going to do what I can to fix it and improve my game.’’
Geno has never played favorites when it’s come to his most talented players. He threw Renee Montgomery off the floor during practice Tuesday. And in the past he regularly hounded his All-Americans, namely Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird. He likes to challenge his best players in an attempt to help them become the best they possibly can during their career. His strategy has worked more times than not.
“I just think that there’s a lot of teams in this country that when their best player doesn’t do what everybody else does they turn around and they yell at their worst player,’’ Geno said. “And I’m not going to get mad at Tahirah or Meghan every time Maya makes a mistake that she’s not supposed to make, especially one of effort when I know that she gives a great effort 99.9 percent of the time. So you never fault Maya’s effort … ever. And you never question it. But you would question a decision to just get out of the way. Then in the second half she blocked five shots I think at the other end. So how did she respond? Probably pretty good.
“But you know what? Maya’s one of those funny people. She’s not in the Top 15 in steals so I told her that. And she argued with me. She goes, `Yes, I am.’ I said, `No you’re not.’ And I showed it to her. `It’s in the Big East Report. You’re not in the Top 15 in this conference steals. You’re averaging 1.8. No. 15 is averaging 1.9.’ So the next game she had (five at South Carolina). So all you have to do is challenge her and she’ll respond. I just don’t know how much she has been challenged up to this point … AAU, high school. How can you be when you’re that good? What’s been the challenge? No one’s good enough to play against you. You think her coach is going to say, `Hey, Maya, I don’t like the fact that you only got one offensive rebound last week.’ Nobody’s going to say that to her. So if I don’t say it I’m doing her a disservice.’’

Here’s a program reminder: Saturday’s game against LSU and Tuesday’s game at South Florida can be heard on WTIC-FM 96.5.

Rich