The Huskies are facing a run towards history. They could become the first women’s basketball team to complete back-to-back undefeated seasons. They are heavy favorites to roll through the tournament and win their seventh national championship. And they have won an NCAA record 72 straight games.
Are the players feeling any pressure? Hardly. They played a game of Pictionary in the locker room Saturday morning that featured much laughter and hooting and hollering. Once UConn took the court for its scheduled open practice the players managed to squeeze 11 basketballs into a hoop, with Maya Moore getting the last one on top of the pile before being mobbed by her teammates in the lane.
This is not a team that is tight as it braces to begin the NCAA tournament.
“Maybe C.D. is,’’ senior Kalana Greene said. “You know how C.D. is. We always play a couple games in the locker room just to kill time. But Coach (Geno Auriemma) said we shouldn’t be the same people we were during the year. We should come with a sense of urgency. But, with us, we don’t want to be uptight and nervous because we’ve never played a game like this season. We weren’t nervous going down to Oklahoma or nervous against Stanford. So why be nervous for another game? This is what we love to do. We take it seriously. When we go on the court and go to practice, it’s all business. There’s no laughing and games there. But when we’re in the locker room we’re just having out and having fun just trying to kill time. Except for C.D.’’
Greene said she expects about a dozen friends and family members to be in attendance at the Ted Constant Convocation Center tomorrow when the Huskies meet 16th-seeded Southern. Much of the group will drive in from Greene’s hometown of Saint Stephen, S.C., which is about five hours from Norfolk, Va.
“I just look at it economically, like 10 people trying to get on a flight to come somewhere else is a lot of money,’’ Greene said. “You drive two cars and it probably pays for one flight right there. I think it’s good. It’s my last year, and a lot of people who weren’t able to make a lot of games during the season will be able to drive down. I was screaming and yelling during the Selection Show that we were playing in Norfolk. It’s not often that your family from like 800 miles away can come see you play.’’
ESPN will utilize whip-around coverage tomorrow on the ESPN2HD, meaning the UConn game will not be shown in its entirety. Fans wishing to watch the game in its entirety can do so on the standard ESPN2 channel and on ESPN360.com.
Rich
Apparently “whip around” to the folks at Cablevision means “don’t broadcast the Southern/UCONN game”. I partially enjoyed the DePaul/Vanderbilt game on both ESPN2 and ESPN2HD. Cablevision was clueless about the broadcast options when I called–twice. I even read them the broadcast map info from the ESPN website. Without adequate radio coverage in Fairfield County (how can a solo radio station be considered a “network”?), I listened to the game in the car. At least the Huskies won. Will Cablevision get a clue by next weekend?
Comment by Kelly — March 21st, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
I had the same problem and also called Cablevision-she told me they were “working on it” , but to keep watching because the Depaul/Vanderbilt game would end before the Uconn game and it would probably switch over-well that game went into overtime, so we didn’t see anything of the uconn game except for a few minutes at the end of the first half. Cablevision doesn’t care about their Ct. customers. Uverse did show the Uconn game. Also, if you have Cablevision you can’t watch ESPN360 and you don’t get ESPNU-maybe it’s time to switch to Uverse.
Comment by Pat — March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:33 pm