UConn women's basketball

Less than 24 hours after being elbowed in the back of the head and neck, Caroline Doty was in the starting lineup for the Huskies tonight. Coach Geno Auriemma and her teammates didn’t expect anything less from a player known for her toughness.
Doty finished with one point (0-of-3 FG), two rebounds and one assist in 16 minutes. She also dove for a loose ball in the first half.
Doty was clearly not at 100 percent, though. She played just four minutes in the second half.
“She didn’t look right,’’ Auriemma said. “(Assistant coach) Shea (Ralph) noticed it right away. After she went up and down a couple times Shea made a comment. You can usually tell. You ask Caroline a question and she snaps at you, and this one was … `You alright?’ `Yeah.’ Like, `yeah, right. Get her out.’ And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with her. She’s probably just tired and sore and all that. There came a point in time I said, `It’s no more. We’ve got bigger games than this one coning up. Let’s just give her a breather.’’

Rich

Caroline Doty, who was inadvertently elbowed in the back of the head and neck in the final minute of Monday’s win over No. 6 Notre Dame, participated in shootaround this morning. She has been medically cleared to play tonight against No. 9 West Virginia in the Big East tournament final at the XL Center.

Rich

There will be a time in the future when Huskies coach Geno Auriemma will allow himself to take a few minutes to bask in what has been a historical ride into the record books. It pains him to talk discuss the winning streak publicly.
As he stood outside the interview room Monday, Auriemma, though, took a minute to explain what it means to him at this point in time.
“It means that what were doing is really, really good,’’ Auriemma said. “We do it everyday. That if we go to practice and do what we do this can happen. If you go and you work on things and you keep getting better, if you recruit the right kind of people this can happen. And it probably means different things to me than it would to say somebody else because somebody could say, and they have said, `What’s it mean for the game? Is it good for the game? Is it bad for the game?’ There’s people talking about women’s basketball now that wouldn’t be talking about it at this time of the year because of what we’re doing. We have a way here at Connecticut of making everybody around the country talk about women’s basketball. We’ve been known to do that, for a long time. We have a knack.’’
The only streak standing in the way of immorality in the sport is the 88-game winning streak set by the UCLA men’s basketball team under John Wooden from 1971-74. Auriemma revealed Monday that he has been carrying one of Wooden’s books in his briefcase for about a year now.
“I’ve had it for about three or fours years and usually it’s in my office somewhere,’’ Auriemma said. “But one day I just grabbed it and threw it in my briefcase because I was going on a plane trip. I said, `Let me look through some of this stuff just for the (heck) of it.’ I look through millions of things all year long just to get an idea here and there, get something that maybe I’d forgotten or didn’t know, which is a lot of stuff. And for some reason this one has stayed in my briefcase. And there’s some interesting stuff in there. He’s got some interesting viewpoints. People don’t know that he lost a lot of games at UCLA early before they got good. They didn’t win a whole lot at UCLA. But then when they figured out how to win they won them all, didn’t they. That was fun. That was fun watching that.’’
Auriemma has been compared to Wooden on some fronts because of the level of success he has attained with the Huskies. That, too, makes him uneasy. Wooden is a legend in his eyes. Humbly, he doesn’t put himself in Wooden’s class. And he certainly doesn’t believe that his colleagues in the women’s game hold him in such high regard as the men’s coaches do with Wooden.
“Believe me, I don’t think anybody that coaches in the women’s game looks at me like the men’s coaches look at John Wooden,’’ Auriemma said. “There maybe one or two other coaches in the women’s game that people think is John Wooden. But I don’t know that I’m one of them.’’

Auriemma doesn’t consider himself to be overly superstitious, especially when he has All-Americans like Tina Charles and Maya Moore to lead his team. Yet, with the Huskies struggling offensively in the first half against No. 6 Notre Dame Monday in the Big East tournament semifinals he was hit with a solid dose of superstition.
“Am I superstitious? I used to be more superstitious before Tina and Maya got here,’’ Auriemma said. “I’m kind of less superstitious now. I wear the same watch all the time because my wife got it for me for Christmas. This watch right here is 71-0. This watch has not lost a game. So other than that, I really don’t have a whole lot of superstitions. I should’ve known. I even parked in like spot No. 13 (Monday). Coming down here I thought, `That might not be a good idea.’ Then I said, `Forget it.’ I’m spitting in the face of superstition. At halftime I was like, `(Team manager) Greg (Mihailides) go move my car.’’’

Rich

Sophomore guard Caroline Doty provided the Huskies with a big lift in the first half tonight by making three 3-pointers. Top-ranked UConn might have to compete in the Big East tournament final Tuesday night against No. 9 West Virginia without her.
Doty was inadvertently elbowed in the back of the head and neck by Notre Dame senior Ashley Barlow with 58 seconds remaining in UConn’s 59-44 victory. Irish freshman Skylar Diggins stole the ball on the play.
Doty fell to the ground immediately and was facedown on the court when play was finally stopped with 49.7 seconds left.
“She may have a concussion,’’ UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “And, obviously, if she has a concussion, she’s not playing tomorrow. But just by the looks of it, that might be the worst of it. We were worried it might have been worse, but that’s about the worst of it.’’
Doty was motionless for several minutes before she was helped up and led to the locker room by team trainer Rosemary Ragle and team doctor Tom Trojian. Auriemma said that Doty did not lose consciousness and that she did not need to go to a hospital.
The UConn medical staff was to evaluate her following the game. More information is expected to be made available tomorrow morning.
“She was better in the locker room,’’ Auriemma said. “She’s really hurt. Scared. All those things. You get hit in the back of the head that’s not a good thing. But she’s alert. She moving around. How are you going to hurt her, especially in the head.’’

For what it’s worth, Tiffany Hayes said via her Twitter account that Doty does not have a concussion. “No concussion everybody,” she said.

Rich

Single-session tickets for the Big East tournament are still available for tonight’s semifinals and Tuesday’s final. The Huskies, who have won 70 straight games, will be looking to make history tonight when they meet Notre Dame at 6 at the XL Center.
Tickets are $30 for the semifinal doubleheader and $30 for the final. They may be obtained by phone at 1-800-745-3000, on-line at www.xlcenter.com or www.ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster outlets and at the XL Center box office.
All ticket purchases are subject to additional convenience fees.

Rich

The Huskies are on the verge of winning their 71st straight game. They will get their chance to make history yet again when they face No. 6 Notre Dame in the Big East tournament semifinals tomorrow night at the XL Center.
UConn has not lost in nearly two years. Since April 6, 2008 in the national semifinals to Stanford in the national semifinals in Tampa, Fla. to be exact. In fact, the Huskies have lost a mind-blowing 44 games since the start of the 1933-94 season. That’s an average of 2.6 losses in 17 seasons.
Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma said today that he has every one of those losses on file in his mind too. And that he certainly has not forgotten what it’s like to lose due to the team’s most recent success.
“You never forget that feeling, trust me,’’ Auriemma said. “It’s like doing something wrong at home and then you don’t do it again for another six months. All of a sudden it happens, and it doesn’t take much to remind you. I worry that Caroline (Doty) and Tiffany (Hayes) don’t know anything about losing. They’ve not lost a game. They’re 70-0 at Connecticut. And that’s kind of amazing. That’s just… I don’t know how you interpret that for them.’’
It truly pains Auriemma to have to talk about The Streak. So much so that he joked that was going to send associate head coach Chris Dailey to meet with the media following today’s win over Syracuse. He has no use for the streak. And neither do the Huskies, for that matter.
Auriemma said last week following practice that it was insignificant. He reiterated that fact today.
“Unless you’ve been in that situation the average person out there thinks we get up every morning … Like we’re in a prison cell, we get up every morning and go to the wall and carve out another `X’ and say, `That’s one less day I’ve got to worry about this,’’’ Auriemma said. “That’s so far from what the reality is. I don’t think there’s been one day that I’ve gone to practice thinking at all about how many games we’ve won. And the average person won’t understand that, but it’s true. It’s honest to God true. When you get an obsession and you get something obsessive that kind of gives you some tunnel vision, and tunnel vision is not good. You need to be able to take the blinders off and be able to see everything that’s going on in front of you. And that’s why I don’t talk about it. I don’t think about it. I don’t care I guess is my biggest thing. I know everybody else around the country does. I know everybody wants to ask me. I know everybody thinks it’s a big deal, and I guess in the world we live in today I guess it is a big deal. And maybe it’s supposed to be a big deal. But what’s that 70 in a row going to do for you if we lose tomorrow? You know what we talked about all day long today in practice and actually in every time out and everything leading up to this game … It’s the same thing we talk about all time. If you don’t give up 3s, if you don’t foul people and you don’t give up second shots then we will win every single game we play. Do you know if you count 3s, free throws and second shots (Syracuse) outscored us 36-26? So you want to know what I spend my time thinking about? Dumb stuff like that.’’
It has come to the point where Dailey recently asked Auriemma if he was secretly hoping the Huskies would lose so that all of this talk would go away and they could just get back to the business of concentrating on winning the national championship. Much like they did in 2003 when the first 70-game winning streak was stopped by Villanova in the Big East tournament final at Rutgers. UConn then went on to win the second of three straight national championships.
Auriemma admitted that he has actually formed the speech he would deliver once UConn does lose again.
“You might think this is crazy, but I actually prepare what I’m going to say after the game if it happens,’’ Auriemma said. “I do. Like we’re at Notre Dame (last) Monday, and if today’s the day, here’s the way it happens. Unless there’s a kid from the student paper that really (makes me angry), this is what I’m going to say. But I just have never gotten comfortable with … every game is going to be a W. I haven’t truly embraced that. I can’t. I think my makeup for whatever reason won’t let me. I think when you’re sitting over there where you guys are sitting, it’s probably a done deal, right. It’s going to be 71. It’s going to be 81. It’s going to be 91, 101. I just cringe and go, `Boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. If they could only see it from this side.’’’
Auriemma was referring the night of the loss to Villanova when he blew up at former Daily Campus reporter Amanda Alnutt after she asked him what he was going to do to make sure it didn’t happen again. His outburst was then re-played repeatedly on ESPN.
Here’s the speech he said he was going to deliver if they had lost to the Orange today.
“`Hey listen, last time we lost in the Big East Tournament, we won a national championship. Don’t worry about it. Take 4 or 5 days off for spring break, and I’ll see guys on Saturday,’’’ Auriemma said. “I had it all planned. Secretly, I would go out tonight and get dinner thinking, `Yeah. Now we’re ready!’ I’m holding that speech. I better not have to use it after this week, though. After this week, no speeches.’’

Rich

UConn recruit Kiah Stokes, a 6-foot-3 post player from Marion, Iowa, was named the captain of the Class 4A all-tournament team after leading Linn-Mar High to a 38-35 win over East in the final Saturday. Stokes finished with 20 points and 18 rebounds.
Linn-Mar completed the season 26-0.
Stokes is one of several players from the Class of 2011 who have received scholarship offers from the Huskies. Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, a 6-0 wing from Anaheim, Calif., orally committed to attend UConn in October. Bonnie Samuelson, a 6-2 forward from Huntington Beach, Calif., and Betnijah Laney, a 6-0 wing from Clayton, Del., have also been offered.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma is expected to attend a game involving Elizabeth Williams, a 6-3 post player from Virginia Beach, Va. who is regarded as the top player in the class, later this week.

Rich

Syracuse senior Nicole Michael returned to the lineup for the Orange in today’s 76-71 win over eighth-seeded Providence in the second round of the Big East tournament at the XL Center. She had missed Friday’s first-round win over 16th-seeded Seton Hall.
Michael, who is Syracuse’s career leader in scoring (1,737) and rebounding (958), finished with 12 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes.
“I feel good,’’ Michael said. “It felt much better today. It’s getting better and better every day.’’
Michael has been bothered by discomfort in her right foot for some time this season. It finally reached a breaking point in Tuesday’s victory over No. 7 West Virginia when she landed on it wrong.
Michael sat out the final 14 minutes against the Mountaineers and could not play against 16th-seeded Seton Hall in the first round Saturday. She was in the starting lineup. However, with about three minutes remaining on the pregame clock it was decided that she would not play.
Michael said that her foot is at 93 percent strength right now. Orange coach Quentin Hillsman subbed her out of the game six times in the first half and five more times in the second half today.
“Pretty much Coach was taking me out because of my foot,’’ Michael said. “So every time I went back in I just kept on working harder.’’
“My assessment is she was good,’’ Hillsman said. “She was her normal self to me. I thought there was a few possessions where she looked a little winded, but she hadn’t run in a week. She’s been in a boot all week back at school. So overall I thought she played a very good game for her to have 12 points and four rebounds in 18 minutes.
Hillsman could not affirmatively say how many minutes Michael would see tomorrow against the Huskies. She was averaging 26.3 minutes through her first 29 games.
“I have no idea how her foot is going to react over the night,’’ Hillsman said. “So we have to see where she is. Today was more about her conditioning than it was about her foot.’’

Junior Erica Morrow has scored 42 points on 12-of-36 shooting (3-of-13 3-pointers) in the first two rounds of the tournament. When asked if she was aware of UConn’s 69-game winning streak, she said she had no idea.
“I actually wasn’t aware of it,’’ Morrow said. “We’re just going to come out and compete. It’s a great opportunity. Their record … It really doesn’t affect us. We’re just going to come out and try to play a great basketball game.’’
Hillsman doesn’t believe that UConn seeking to tie its own record of 70 straight wins will provide any further motivation to want to take down the Huskies tomorrow and advance to the semifinals. He knows the Orange face an up-hill battle tomorrow.
“We’ve got to go play a basketball game,’’ Hillsman said. “They’re a great basketball team. Geno’s a great coach and he gets his players to play really hard. So I know they’re going to come out and compete tomorrow. I’m sure their fans can’t wait to see them play so it’s going to be a great atmosphere for a women’s college basketball game. So we’re going to come out and play as hard as we can and we’re going to compete. You’ve just got to give them a lot of credit. To have an undefeated team in your conference, it’s a great honor to have them in our conference. So we’re going to come out and play basketball tomorrow. Somebody has to play them so I guess it’s us. So we’ve got to get ready to play tomorrow.
“We’ve just got to rebound the basketball and get back in transition. They’re a very good transition team, obviously, the way Tina (Charles) and Maya (Moore) run the floor. It’s tremendous when you watch them on tape how fast they get up and down the floor. And therefore they’re down there to get misses. So we’ve got to really get back on defense and try to limit their transition points and rebound the basketball.’’

Rich