I know I know. I’ve forgotten about the UCONN Huskies. There’s so much going on with the MLB playoffs that sometimes it’s easy to forget, especially when your ace throws an absolute gem. But with First Night coming up in eight days, it’s time to catch you up on all the happenings of the men’s and women’s basketball teams at UCONN.
All you gray haired UCONN fans out there, yes you in the gray sweatshirt. Hold your breath and hope another recruit doesn’t suffer an injury playing another sport other than basketball. Elena Delle Donne, with the blessing of Geno Auriemma, is currently playing volleyball for her high school, Ursuline Academy. She will be at First Night along with the rest of the recruits in the 2008 class.
If you’re an Italian, you know the meaning of Sunday dinners. Geno Auriemma knows all about these and he made it a point to stop at the Delle Donne’s this past Sunday for one. I am sure he felt right at home with all that Italian food. Geno and Chris Dailey were there for Delle Donne’s home visit. Nothing like saving the university a few bucks by getting a free meal.
Geno, his wife Kathy, Rebecca Lobo, and Meghan Pattyson-Culmo were just some of the UCONN entourage at the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Civic Center this week. No word whether or not Geno got up on stage.
What is the one thing that this year’s women’s basketball senior class hasn’t accomplished? A trip to the Final Four and obviously a National Championship. For UCONN senior captain Mel Thomas, anything short of a National Championship is not acceptable.
“The only thing on my mind is winning [a national championship] before I get out of here,” Thomas said. “And I’m not excited at all about leaving here. Every time I think about the end, I get sad. But that helps motivate me from the aspect of basketball.”
For me, I’d love nothing more than for the Huskies to win the championship and beat Pat Slummitt and her Tennessee women’s team for the title.
We all saw the size of Kali McLaren last season. She had trouble with her stamina due to her size in UCONN’s running game. She basically disappeared and was buried on the bench at times towards the end of the season. Well this year, she is a lean mean fighting machine. It will be fun to watch a leaner McLaren compete this year as she can play inside as well as outside.
Skip to about the 3:45 mark on the video.
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The UCONN women will play 7 games on national television this year. They will be on CBS January 6th when they play Purdue. They will play Rutgers on CSTV February 5th. They will have 5 games on the ESPN family of networks with four games on the deuce and one on ESPN U. They will play the following games on ESPN2: UNC on January 21st, Notre Dame on the 27th, LSU on Feb 25th and Rutgers on March 3. The February 17th game against Pittsburgh will be on ESPNU. The rest of the TV schedule for CPTV hasn’t been announced but I’d expect to see the rest of the schedule picked up by them.
The UCONN men’s team hopes to use it’s speed this year. At least that’s what Jim Calhoun is hoping. I don’t know about you but I would love the Huskies to play the pressing style like they did in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It was so much fun watching Nadav Henefeld and Doron Sheffer stealing passes and running the fast break.
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