Senior forward Kaili McLaren is expected to play tomorrow night when the Huskies host Cincinnati and former UConn player/assistant coach Jamelle Elliott at Gampel Pavilion at 7:30 p.m. McLaren did not play Monday against South Florida after landing wrong on her right ankle in practice Sunday.
McLaren, who missed the season opener against Northeastern Nov. 14 due to a sore right foot, fully participated in practice today. She said the injuries are unrelated.
“I’m alright,’’ McLaren said. “It’s a little better now. It was a little stiff. I practiced the whole practice so that was good.’’
McLaren was one of the players closest to Elliott, who spent the past 12 seasons as an assistant coach with the Huskies. McLaren said she is excited about seeing Elliott again and that the one word that comes to mind when she thinks about her is “excitement.’’
“She’s just always up about everything,’’ McLaren said. “We’ll probably see her first right after shootaround (Thursday) since they come on right after us. But just seeing her I know it’ll be crazy and everybody will be happy. I just can’t wait to see her when game time comes and the ovation she’s going to get when they introduce her.’’
McLaren said it will be different seeing Elliott on the opposing side of the court. And she might catch herself staring at Elliott during the game.
“I might say a couple words during the game,’’ McLaren said. “I’m excited for her. This is definitely new for her and different and I can’t wait to see what she does with that program.’’
There is little doubt that tomorrow night will be a memorable one for the Huskies and Elliott. For a variety of reasons, McLaren will also never forget the day last spring when Elliott informed the team that she had accepted the head coaching position at Cincinnati either.
“That was just a bad day,’’ McLaren said. “I woke up late and I didn’t know there was a meeting and I looked at my phone and I was already five minutes late. So I parked outside. I ran down here and then she told me and I just sat there. And then five minutes later I walked outside and I got a ticket on my car. So it was just a bad day all in all. When we lost Tonya (Cardoza to Temple) everybody was just kind of down and kind of out of it. And then the same thing happened with J. We kind of knew it was happening, but it was still kind of like, `uhhh.’ We knew we couldn’t be selfish and we had to be excited for her because she was taking a step in her life that she needed to make.’’
The Huskies will host the first ESPN College GameDay for women’s basketball at Gampel Pavilion Jan. 16. The live show will air at 10 a.m. The day will be capped by the matchup between No. 1 UConn and No. 3 Notre Dame at 9 p.m. on ESPN.
In an attempt by ESPN to gather some advance footage, Huskies coach Geno Auriemma wore a microphone during practice today and the Huskies filmed a promo for GameDay.
“Basically, it’s trying to fill time for the GameDay show,’’ Auriemma said. “They’re here all day so they’ve got to have a bunch of stuff to talk about. Typical TV, ESPN stuff. It usually involves making fun of (ESPN analyst) Digger (Phelps) somehow, someway.’’
Just a reminder: My weekly live chat will be held tomorrow from noon to 1 p.m.
Rich
