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Geno Auriemma is a Hall of Fame coach currently trying to lead the Huskies to their seventh national championship. He is a devoted husband and a loving father to three children.
What’s next on his resume? How about grandfather? Auriemma’s oldest child, Jenna, and her husband, Todd, are expecting their first child.
“It’s the next level of parenthood,’’ Auriemma said. “You have children and you hope someday they get to experience what it’s like. They do and all of a sudden you look up and you’re an old guy. Every single person I’ve met that’s had grandchildren says it’s the greatest thing that has happened in their lives. I’m looking forward to it.’’
Auriemma, who will turn 56 Tuesday, said he learned of the news on New Year’s Day when his family was at his home.
“Everybody was hanging around doing nothing and I said, `I’ve got to go,’’’ Auriemma said. “Jenna goes, `When will you be back?’ I said I didn’t know and she said, `Get over here, get over here, get over here.’ `What?’ Jenna goes, `I don’t want to say anything or make a big deal out of it, but I’m pregnant.’ My reaction was `Wow.’ The women were all screaming and yelling and going crazy. The women reacted like women do and I reacted like the dopey father does.’’

Temple coach Tonya Cardoza will face off with Auriemma for the first time in her career tomorrow night in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Spending 14 years as an assistant under Auriemma should aid her in her preparation, but don’t expect her to call another former UConn assistant coach searching for secrets on how to beat UConn.
Cincinnati’s Jamelle Elliott faced the Huskies for the first time as a head coach earlier this season. The Huskies defeated the Bearcats 83-51 Jan. 7 at Gampel Pavilion.
“I don’t think that Jamelle has a secret either,’’ Cardoza said. “She had a moral victory, and we’re not looking for a moral victory right now. So we’re just going to do the same things. Watch film and try to come up with a defensive scheme to try to slow them down as much as we possibly can.
“They really don’t have that many weaknesses. If so, I think they would’ve lost by now. If you try to take away something … Whether you try to take away Tina and Maya, Kalana, Tiffany and Caroline find a way to hurt you. If you try to take away their 3-point shooting they throw the ball inside. So you have to try to limit one thing or the other and hope that someone’s off that night.’’

Cardoza said that there has been no talk of beginning a regular season series with UConn. But that is expected to change in the future.
The Huskies and Owls have not met during the regular season since Jan. 16, 1982.
“I’m sure that’s something that will probably happen in the near future,’’ Cardoza said.

Rich

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There is no telling how many minutes senior Meghan Gardler will see from game to game in the NCAA tournament. Her playing time is based primarily on matchups.
So when Gardler is given the opportunity to play extended playing time, like she was in Sunday’s first round win over 16th-seeded Southern, she knows she has to maximize her time on the court. And once again she did.
Gardler finished with 10 points (2-of-3 3-pointers) and five rebounds in 17 minutes.
“It just feels like a chapter is closing,’’ Gardler said. “I’m trying to like appreciate every single thing that happens because when you’re younger you take it for granted. You think that you have all the time in the world when really you don’t.’’
The scoring output was the most Gardler has registered in 13 career NCAA games. She had scored 20 points in her first 12.
“I love watching Meghan play because she plays with that urgency and that sense of appreciation and respect for every minute that she’s out there because she knows that she has to make the most out of every minute,’’ junior Maya Moore said. “She’s not necessarily the tallest or the strongest or the fastest. But she finds a way, and it’s really great for our underclassmen and Lorin and I to see that too. That’s what it should look like for a senior to play with urgency because that’s what she does and she’s a huge part of our team and the standards that we have.’’
Gardler also set a nasty screen in the backcourt on Tenesha Brown, who was hounding Lorin Dixon as she tried to bring the ball up the court in the final minute with UConn leading 93-39. Brown laid on the floor in obvious pain before play was finally stopped with 39 seconds left and she was helped off the court.
“If this were a hockey game there would have been gloves on the ice,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “No question about it. That was a helluva screen she set and I could tell that it was coming. She didn’t like the way the kid was smacking at Lorin. Meg said, `OK, this is where I come in.’’’
Said Gardler: “The girl was all over Lorin so I just wanted to free up my teammate.’’

Nebraska’s Connie Yori was named the National Division I Coach of the Year by the WBCA today.

Rich

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There are certain plays during the course of a game that truly standout. They leave teammates talking after the final buzzer. They leave coaches feeling a sense of pride. And they define who a player really is deep down inside.
Huskies’ senior Kalana Greene made one of these plays in the second half of today’s 95-39 victory over 16th-seeded Southern in the first round of the NCAA tournament. With UConn leading 79-35, she poked the ball away from Hannah Kador with 9:00 left and streaked down court trying to seize possession of the ball as it continued to roll away her from at the opposite end of the court.
Greene finally gained control of it in the corner, just inches before it went out of bounds. She dribbled on the baseline, eluded a defender and pulled up and made a short jumper four seconds later. Afterwards, Greene was very matter of fact about the play.
“That play, it doesn’t matter if we’re up five or if we’re up 50,’’ Greene said. “I think we make those kind of plays the entire game. That’s what I think makes us a better team than everybody else.’’
The sequence was part of a superb second-half performance for Greene, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and tied her career-high with five steals in 30 minutes. After being challenged by coach Geno Auriemma at halftime, she responded with 10 points and four rebounds in 14 minutes in the second half.
Auriemma thought Greene was not involved enough in the game in the first half. She was extremely involved in the second.
“Coach did challenge me,’’ Greene said. “I didn’t come out and play my best basketball in the first half. I don’t know what to attribute it to, but I just know I can’t let my teammates down. I know this game is going to be a great momentum builder for the next game. I don’t think I had a lack of effort in the first half. Everything just wasn’t clicking. You’re going to have bad halves or a bad games, but I just wanted to pick it up and show my teammates I’m not going to just sit there and stay in the corner by myself the whole tournament. I just wanted to go in there and do the little things, get the rebounds and tipped balls and get involved in the offense. I wasn’t involved at all in the first half.’’

Maya Moore and Tina Charles are among the four finalists for the Naismith Award, it was announced Sunday. They are joined by Stanford’s Jayne Appel and Nebraska’s Kelsey Griffin.
The winner will be announced at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association awards luncheon in San Antonio April 5.
Fans will be able to text their votes for the player of their choice by texting “VOTE’’ to 345345 beginning March 21. The voting will end at 11:59 p.m. April 3. Fans are allowed one vote per 24-hour period.

Rich

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The Huskies will play in the Maggie Dixon Classic next season for the second time in three seasons when they meet Ohio State at Madison Square Garden Dec. 19. Rutgers will meet Texas A&M in the other game of the doubleheader.
UConn defeated Penn State in its first appearance in the event last season.

Rich

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Former UConn forward Willnett Crockett was awaiting a phone call regarding an opportunity to play professionally in France last July. What she received instead changed her entire course of action.
Crockett received a text message from Temple coach Tonya Cardoza, who was an assistant for the Huskies during her career. Cardoza wanted to know how she felt about coaching. It was a profession that Crockett wanted to get into at some point in the future.
But Cardoza wasn’t talking about the future. Brittany Hunter, another former Husky, had left her staff after just one season to return to school. Cardoza wanted Crockett to fill the void.
It didn’t take her long to accept Cardoza’s invitation, viewing it as an opportunity she could not pass up. Even at the age of 25.
“That was something I thought about,’’ Crockett said referring to her desire to continue her playing career. “I’m still young. But it was a great situation. It’s somebody who I loved when I was in school and I knew that she was going to make sure that I was taken care of. She was going to make sure that I knew the ins and outs in coaching. And why not do it with somebody that you know. I think because I had a relationship with her it was kind of one of those things like, `Oh, wow. She thinks that much of me that she thinks I’m capable of doing something like this.’ And sometimes you just don’t want to pass things up. You don’t know if a job like that is going to come along again, and it was just something I had to say … Playing, I’d rather walk away from it then be hurt and be devastated and be like, `I can’t play anymore.’ So I stuck with it and I said, `You know what? Why not?’’’
Crockett went to Temple for an official interview in August and was hired. She said she works with the post players and recruits as well as doing other things for the team.
The eighth-seeded Owls could meet UConn in the second round Tuesday night. They will meet ninth-seeded James Madison in the first round today.
“When I first got the job, Willnett was somebody I thought about hiring but she was still playing,’’ Cardoza said. “When Brittany decided to go back to school … Will is just a person I respect. She’s loyal. She’s a hard worker. I just had a conversation the other day. She’s a lot like myself when I was at UConn my first couple years where she doesn’t say a lot. She only speaks when spoken to. I told her, `You’re a lot like I am, and one of the things that’s going to help you grow is if you get out of your shell a lot earlier. There are things you have you might be thinking and you need to utter those things now and not hold onto them.’ But I think she’s done a great job recruiting. Our players have improved drastically over the last couple months with her. I think she’s going to be a really good coach. The players respect her. She is a loyal individual and I’m glad she gave up playing to come and coach with me.’’
Crockett scored 602 points and grabbed 583 rebounds in 131 games in her career with the Huskies, one that spanned 2002-2006. She was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks with the 22nd overall pick in 2006 and played five games for Phoenix Mercury in 2008. She has also played professionally in Latvia, Africa and Lithuania.
“I’m actually enjoying myself,’’ Crockett said. “It was a decision that I don’t regret and I’m glad that I made. I think I like teaching, period. I think coaching, I know for me, they did a great job of bringing out something I didn’t know I had in me. I think this is a valuable time in their lives where you need somebody to instill something in you. So if I can give that to them that’s something I wanted to do. And to do it with Tonya, somebody I know, why not?’’

Temple has another UConn connection in Trumbull High graduate and Shelton native Stacey Nasser. She is in her second season as a graduate assistant under Cardoza, who like Crockett, pursued Nasser after she graduated from UConn in 2008.
Nasser, who had previously been a manager at UConn, will earn a master’s degree in sport management in May. She said she returns home every couple of months.
“I’ve enjoyed it so far,’’ Nasser said. “It’s almost over, but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I think my next step is probably a (director of basketball operations) job or something of that effect and then maybe eventually get into coaching (at the college level).’’

Cardoza was in Connecticut last Saturday to see Kolbe Cathedral’s Cherelle Moore play.

Rich

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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

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The approach will be the same as it’s been all season for the Huskies. They were not distracted by their pursuit of their then-NCAA-record 70-game winning streak. They contend that they won’t be distracted by the opportunity to become the first women’s team to complete back-to-back undefeated seasons.
“You can’t look at it like we’re making history,’’ senior Kalana Greene said. “We’re just trying to win games and win a national championship. And beat Southern. So you’ve got to win all these games coming up to say we made history because it’s fragile. You could lose. Teams you’ve never played before … you’re not familiar with them. It’s so easy to lose. It would be hard for a team to beat us, but it’s so easy for us just to lose if we slip up, miss a box out or a real off shooting night. It’s easy to lose. We know it’s fragile. So, history, we can look at it after whenever the last game is.’’
Maya Moore said the Huskies will not change anything they’ve done up to this point just because it’s the NCAA tournament. As cliché as it might sound, they have taken things one day at a time, one game at a time. Coach Geno Auriemma is a short-term type of guy, and the players have bought into this philosophy.
“You don’t change at this point in the year,’’ Moore said. “You go with what you’ve worked so hard for. You either have it or you don’t. And I feel like we’re coming to a point in the season where it’s coming together and we’re just trying to sharpen up on the things we’re already good at and try to cover up on the areas we’re that we’re not as sharp at. But you don’t really do a lot of change. You just keep doing what you’re doing. We’re going to have to continue to do a good job of keeping our blinders up and playing one game at a time.’’
The only thing that will change for the Huskies as they enter the tournament will be the fact that they are no longer chasing a national championship that had eluded them since winning the last of three straight championships in 2004.
Aside from having won 72 straight games, UConn is now hunted for being the defending national champion too.
“This is water we’ve never been in … coming off of a national championship and having people want more than anything to beat you and people tired of hearing about us,’’ Moore said. “People just wanting to see Connecticut go down. And knowing that they’re coming after you that way, it absolutely makes you have to be more focused. I think we’re going to have to be even more focused this year because we’re not really chasing that first national championship. We’re trying to do something we’ve never done before and that’s going to require a lot more of us than it did last year.’’

Rich

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The Huskies still lead the nation in field goal shooting percentage at 51.6. They are still second in the nation scoring offense at 81.5 (Oral Roberts, 86.1). But they did not look like an offensive juggernaut during the final two games of the Big East tournament against Top 10 foes Notre Dame and West Virginia.
UConn averaged a combined 59.5 points and shot 43.6 percent from the field (36.7 percent in the first half). It was the only time this season that the Huskies failed to score 70 points in consecutive games and it was just the fourth time they shot below 50 percent in consecutive games.
All-American Maya Moore averaged 10.5 points on 26.7 percent shooting (8-of-30 FG; 3-of-13 3-pointers) in the two games. But as UConn heads into the NCAA tournament this weekend in Norfolk, Va. there is no concern on behalf of the players that this will continue.
“We get good shots,’’ senior Kalana Greene said. “You’re either going to make it or miss it. But it’s what we do after that. And I think the end of the Big East tournament, and in practice, if we’re not making shots we’re going out and getting the offensive boards and we’re finding different ways to score. So I think not making shots is just all part of the game. You’re not expecting to make every shot, but it’s what we do when we’re not making shots. So I’m not really concerned about that. We always know we’re going to score and we always know we’re going to hold teams to not a lot of points.’’
The Huskies averaged 85.0 points and shot 52.5 percent in last season’s national championship run.

With the sophomore backcourt of Caroline Doty and Tiffany Hayes, comparisons can be drawn to UConn’s 2000 national championship team that featured sophomore Sue Bird at point guard. Here is coach Geno Auriemma’s take.
“We had 10 players, and I think what helped Sue was obviously Sue much more mature than her years,’’ Auriemma said. “But we also had Shea (Ralph) and Sveta (Abrosimova). So you’ve got two juniors who are All-Americans. That would be the closest I could come to it. And I remember Sue played great in Philadelphia (during the Final Four) as did Shea and as did Sveta. So if Caroline can be Sue and Maya and Tiffany can be Shea and Sveta … And Maya Moore and Tina Charles can be Swin (Cash) and Asjha (Jones), we’ve got it locked.’’
The Huskies defeated Hampton, Clemson, Oklahoma, LSU, Penn State and Tennessee by a combined 31.2 points to win the program’s second national championship in 2000.

For those who are fortunate enough to be making the trip to Norfolk this weekend, UConn will hold its open practice from noon to 1 p.m. tomorrow. Temple and former Huskies’ assistant coach Tonya Cardoza will practice from 2:10: to 3:10 at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.

Rich