UConn women's basketball

For all of the wins and Big East and national championships the Huskies have earned on the court, it’s easy to overlook that they are, after all, student-athletes. Aside from learning and excelling at Coach Geno Auriemma’s system, they must also excel in the classroom.

Having success off the court is also something that UConn takes great pride in. And at halftime of Saturday’s game against No. 14 Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion, the most successful players on the team will be honored for earning a 3.0 GPA in either the Spring 2011 or Fall 2011 semesters.

Heather Buck, Caroline Doty, Stefanie Dolson, Kelly Faris and Kiah Stokes will be recognized before what possibly could be UConn’s first sellout crowd in 16 home games this season. The Huskies drew season-highs of 9,882 at Gampel Pavilion against Rutgers Feb. 4 and 13,771 against No. 4 Stanford at the XL Center Nov. 21.

“I do (take pride in that), especially in this day and age when everybody is talking about that kind of stuff,’’ Auriemma said. “I think it’s important that you recognize that there’s a tremendous amount of kids, all over the country really, that do a great job of trying to balance the two things … Playing basketball or any other sport and doing really academically. And that’s a something that our team takes great pride in.’’

Said Dolson: “I didn’t even know we were being honored until the coaches told us after we all got our grades. But it’s definitely motivation because it’s nice to be honored for things. When you come to a place like this where there’s so much basketball, to be honored for something academic that’s not basketball is definitely a motivation.’’

In an effort to provide the Huskies with further incentive in their quest to earn high marks in the classroom, the coaching staff makes a game out of it. It’s a game the Huskies want to win too. They are divided up into three teams with UConn associate head coach Chris Dailey and assistant coaches Marisa Moseley and Shea Ralph each drafting a team.

The team with the highest combined GPA wins.

“I don’t have a team,’’ Auriemma said. “Nobody wants to be on my team. All three of those guys on my staff were really good college students. So they know what it takes to be a really good college student. I don’t think anybody would be on my team. They wouldn’t learn. If I taught them what I did in college I don’t know that they’d win any prizes.’’

Doty, Tiffany Hayes, Lauren Engeln and Stokes were on Ralph’s team. Buck, Brianna Banks and Dolson were on Dailey’s team. And Faris, Bria Hartley, Michala Johnson and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis made up Moseley’s team.

Dailey’s team apparently won the competition, while Ralph’s team was second. But a team spokesman said today that there was some technicality so this semester it is double or nothing.

Faris said she thought her team was doing well. She was not happy about finishing last. Academics is something that has been important to her for many years.

“I would like to think it’s important (to the team),’’ Faris said. “I know personally it is for me. I kind of grew up that way. I’ve definitely always been taught to excel in both aspects of it. The second you decide you want to be an athlete you constantly hear from people that your career could end any day, any moment, any play. So that’s kind of what you constantly hear. And it depends. It depends on your motives and your attitude (how you react). But they’ve definitely instilled in us that they want us to do well in the classroom. We have academic teams. Any competition with us is a challenge, and we constantly try for it whether it’s at Ping-Pong or school. There’s always going to be a challenge and we’re always going to make a game out of it.’’

Here is what Dolson had to say about the difficulty the Huskies face when it comes to balancing academics and athletics …

“It’s definitely hard,’’ Dolson said. “I think it’s hard when you first get here. But I think when you’re around so many players on the team that everyone in the same boat, we all have to balance basketball and academics. So I think you kind of get used to it. You kind of get into a rhythm or like a routine of when’s a good time to study, when to focus on basketball. When you’re on the court it’s all about basketball. When you’re off the court you’re still working on your game but you have to focus on academics. It’s hard, but we have so many resources that help us. We have tutors that help. Everybody helps.’’

Rich

The UConn women’s basketball team has struggled to take care of the ball for the better part of the last three weeks. It has been the worst stretch of the season for the third-ranked Huskies.

The players agree that the recent high number of turnovers is a considerable problem entering Saturday’s game against No. 14 Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion (4 p.m.; SNY). And judging by the level of sarcasm from UConn coach Geno Auriemma on the topic, this is not sitting well with him either.

“No, I’m not concerned about it,’’ Auriemma said. “I don’t mind when we have more turnovers than field goals. I think that’s an opportunity for us to even out the playing field. We’ve won so many games in a row. We’ve won so many Big East championships in a row. I think it’s an opportunity for us to give other teams a chance to win. I think it’s something that we owe to the rest of the league. So Saturday we’re going to continue to throw the ball away and make dumb mistakes because we feel like it’s good for the game. It keeps the game competitive and it helps us build parity in our league and around the country. So we’re instructing our players to throw it away as many opportunities as they can. And they’re listening to us.’’

UConn (22-2, 9-1 Big East) is averaging 15.0 turnovers per game. However, the average is 17.7 over the last six games.

Led by a career-high six turnovers by sophomore center Stefanie Dolson, the Huskies committed 22 in Tuesday’s 56-46 win at No. 20 Louisville. It was their second highest total this season behind the 27 they committed in an overtime-loss at No. 2 Notre Dame Jan. 7.

UConn has committed at least 18 turnovers in four of the last six games, twice exceeding 20 in the last three games. The Huskies had committed 18 turnovers just once and averaged 14.1 over the first 18 games this season when they had 13 or less in eight games.

“It’s a huge concern,’’ junior guard Caroline Doty said. “Even in practice we’re turning the ball over. It gets frustrating after a while. You’re turning the ball over and it’s contagious. And it just deflates your confidence. The coaches are mad. And then you get frustrated and then you’re teammates get frustrated. It’s just not pretty. So the fact that we had 27 turnovers in a game, that’s unacceptable. And it reflects on what we do in practice too. So we just need to work on it. That’s our No. 1 thing because we’re our biggest monster right now.’’

Tiffany Hayes and Bria Hartley each have 19 turnovers in this recent span of futility. Dolson has 16. Kelly Faris has 14. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis has 11.

Doty, who continues to be a stabilizing presence offensively, has just six. And Kiah Stokes has five.

“It’s a huge problem right now,’’ Faris said. “Obviously, in practice it’s always a problem. But we kind of eventually started doing better in games and now it’s back to 20-some turnovers a game. So that’s what he’s sitting here doing the last couple practices is just making us sit there and go through and getting passes inside and being able to catch it. It’s frustrating. I know it’s killing him because we work on it almost the entire practice and then we get in games and we get frazzled and throw the ball away. There’s no explanation for it. There’s no excuse for it, other than just lack of focus.’’

It will not get any easier offensively for UConn, who is averaging just 61.0 points over the last three games, against Georgetown (19-5, 8-3). The Hoyas are forcing an average of 23.2 turnovers this season. They have forced at least 20 in 18 games and at least 30 three times.

The Huskies struggled in three games against the Hoyas last season, averaging 59.7 points and 21.7 turnovers. UConn committed 26 and 21 turnovers, respectively, in the first two meetings. That represented the highest number of turnovers in a game for the Huskies.

UConn then committed 18 turnovers and needed to rally from a seven-point deficit in the NCAA Philadelphia regional semifinals.

“We know from last year playing Georgetown multiple times that they’re going press and they’re going to force turnovers,’’ Hartley said. “And I know the first time we played them last year it definitely wasn’t the type game we wanted to have. And we had a lot of turnovers. I know we want to improve on that and we know down the stretch going into March and going into the end of the season that one of the things is our turnovers. And we want to take care of the ball.’’

UConn has six games remaining in the regular season. The time to win championships is at hand.

The Huskies realize fully that if they do not limit their turnovers they could be denied their chance to win a sixth straight Big East regular season championship, a fifth straight conference tournament championship and an NCAA record-tying eighth national championship in the weeks to come.

“I think it’s just that part of the season,’’ Faris said. “It’s getting towards the end and everybody’s kind of getting beat up. Everybody from all the teams are like that. And we’ve got to learn how to handle it better. Teams are going to start putting the pressure on us and start getting in our face because they’re going to watch games like (Louisville) and think, `OK, that’s all you’ve got to do to them and then they’ll back down.’ That’s not a good thing for us. We’ve got to start turning it around and thinking, `OK, we have to be able to accept that pressure and put it back on them.’ Those should be the good games for us. The second people put pressure on us we should run them up and down the floor and get transition buckets. We do in spurts and then we kind of back down. So we’ve got to kind of keep working on that. And I know that’s what we’ve been doing.’’

Rich

UConn guard Caroline Doty was held out of practice today. She did, however, participate in a weightlifting session and is listed as probable for Saturday’s game against No. 14 Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion.

With three days between games this week, it provided Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma with an opportunity to give Doty some rest. Plus, UConn will play two games in three days with a trip to Oklahoma looming Monday.

“She had yesterday off and today was a good opportunity because we play Saturday-Monday to give her another afternoon,’’ Auriemma said. “The knee swells up after every game. So there’s nothing she can do about that. So an extra day is always good.’’

Doty said that she could have practiced today. This was not a setback of any kind.

“My body’s not the same as it was freshman year,’’ said Doty, who has three times torn the ACL in her left knee. “But I feel good. I’m ready to go. If they told me to practice today I would’ve been able to practice. I came in to practice earlier today ready to practice. I’m just going to follow the rules and just kind of see what my nobody gives and just go with it.’’

Doty played a team- and season-high 35 minutes in Tuesday’s 56-46 win at No. 20 Louisville. She also matched her season-high with 15 points and added three rebounds, three assists and four steals despite experiencing soreness in her left knee at practice Monday and during shootaround Tuesday.

“I was going to go out and play no matter what,’’ Doty said. “These games are getting crucial now towards the end of the season. You want to keep getting better, keep improving. It felt great to play again. It’s been a while since I played that much in a game. I felt good. I felt fresh while I was on the court. I went back to the locker room and put ice right on that knee. Both of them, actually. I was definitely exhausted after it, but during the game I didn’t feel anything. I felt great.’’

Rich

UConn-bound recruits Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck have been named McDonald’s All-Americans. The announcement comes one day after they were all named WBCA All-Americans.

The McDonald’s All-American Game will be held March 28 at the United Center in Chicago (7:30 p.m.). Stewart will be a member of the East team. Jefferson and Tuck are on the West.

“I would say it’s expected,’’ Auriemma said. “It’s always great that it happens. I’m sure they’re really proud of their accomplishments in high school. And if you asked all of them I’m sure they would tell it’s more important that they keep playing and keep winning. There’s nothing like finishing your high school career with a state championship. So I’m sure that’s probably the next thing on their list. But I think they’re probably pretty proud of themselves. They’ve all worked really, really hard and they certainly deserve it.’’

Rich

There are less than 500 tickets remaining for Saturday’s game between No. 3 UConn and No. 14 Georgetown at Gampel Pavilion (4 p.m.; SNY, CSNE). Fans are urged to wear pink as the game will be part of the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund’s “Play 4 Kay’’ initiative.

Fans can purchase tickets at this site and make donations here.

UConn will also honor its student-athletes that have earned a 3.0 grade point average or higher in the Spring 2011 or Fall 2012 semester, those with a 4.0 GPA and UConn’s academic support staff at halftime. The Huskies who will be honored are Heather Buck, Stefanie Dolson, Caroline Doty, Kelly Faris and Kiah Stokes.

Rich

UConn sophomore Bria Hartley and freshman Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis are among the 20 players named to the USBWA Midseason Watch List for the Women’s National Player of the Year. The list was selected by the association’s board of directors.

Notre Dame has three players on the list (Skylar Diggins, Natalie Novosel and Devereaux Peters). Baylor (Brittney Griner, Odyssey Sims), Stanford (Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike), Ohio State (Tayler Hill, Samantha Prahalis) and Miami (Shenise Johnson, Riquna Williams) also had two players selected.

The award will be presented at the USBWA’s Women’s College Basketball Awards Breakfast in Denver April 3.

Rich

The Big East officially welcomed Memphis as its newest member today. It will join the conference as an all-sports member in the 2013-14 academic year and will boost the football membership to 12 schools once Pittsburgh and Syracuse bolt for the ACC and West Virginia to the SEC.

Along with Memphis, the Big East has also added Central Florida, Houston and SMU as all-sports members and Boise State, Navy and San Diego State as football-only in recent months.

The 2015 Big East football membership will consist of Boise State, Central Florida, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, Louisville, Memphis, Navy, Rutgers, San Diego State, SMU and South Florida. And in 2015, the conference basketball membership will include Central Florida, Cincinnati, UConn, DePaul, Georgetown, Houston, Louisville, Marquette, Memphis, Notre Dame, Providence, Rutgers, St. John’s, Seton Hall, SMU, South Florida and Villanova.

Here are UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s thoughts on the addition of Memphis …

“I don’t know that much about Memphis’ football program,’’ Auriemma said. “I do know about the basketball program. So I think from a purely basketball standpoint I think we’re doing a great thing. All the talk the last couple of months or years has been about the football thing, the football thing, the football thing. And here we’re adding a team, that obviously plays football and is going to play football, but it’s as much a basketball move as it is a football move. And I think it’s great for the conference. I think it strengthens an already strong conference.’’

Auriemma also made it perfectly clear where he hopes the Big East will turn to next for expansion.

“I hope Temple’s next,’’ Auriemma said. “That would be my unsolicited opinion. I hope the next team we add is Temple. They have a great (basketball) program, men’s and women’s. It’s a great school. Their football program’s great for where they were to where they are. So I hope we’re not done. I hope that’s the next school that we invite.

“I think anybody that understands the East coast and how it’s configured will tell you that there are not very many places where basketball and the athletic department is as up and coming and has a better guy on staff than (men’s basketball coach) Fran Dunphy and Tonya Cardoza on the women’s side,’’ Auriemma said. “I think they’re a natural for us. And I hope that that’s what we do because I think they’re great and it’s a great city and it will be a great rivalry with Villanova. I’ve always been partial to them and I hope that that’s the next thing that we do.’’

Louisville 6-foot-4 sophomore center Cierra Warren has decided to quit the team because she was not prepared to work as hard. She averaged 8.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 16.7 minutes in 22 games (10 starts) this season.

“They kind of had a team meeting after the DePaul game (an 86-61 loss Jan. 31),’’ Cardinals coach Jeff Walz said. “The players were just like, `Hey, this is not acceptable. We’ve got to go hard. We’ve got push ourselves.’ And Cierra just decided that she really didn’t want to work that hard. So she came into my office (last) Thursday and just said, `Hey, I think I’m going to quit.’ And that’s her choice. But, unfortunately, I just think kids don’t really actually think through what they’re doing. But I know that if she’s not willing to work hard then it’s not fair to everybody else on this team who is. So we just move on. It’s all you can do.’’

Rich

UConn-bound recruit Breanna Stewart has been named the 2012 State Farm/Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Association (WBCA) National High School Player of the Year, the WBCA announced today. She will also join fellow UConn 2012 commits Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck in the WBCA All-America Game March 31 at the Pepsi Center in Denver as part of the Final Four.

Stewart, a versatile 6-foot-4 post player, is the nation’s top-rated player in her class. She will be formally honored at halftime of the All-America Game.

“Congratulations to Breanna for earning this award,’’ WBCA CEO Beth Bass said. “She has set the bar higher than ever for high school student-athletes, and the WBCA would like to wish her the best on her future in collegiate women’s basketball.’’

Stewart becomes the seventh WBCA National High School Player of the Year to sign with the Huskies, joining Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (2011), Maya Moore (2007), Tina Charles (2006), Ann Strother (2002) and Tamika (Williams) Raymond (1998). Elena Delle Donne (2008) initially signed with UConn before transferring to Delaware.

Rich