UConn vs. UMass-Lowell: Checking in at XL … Pregame Notes

Checking in from the XL Center for UConn vs. UMass-Lowell in the second and last exhibition game for the Huskies. A few notes, with  game time 90 minutes away ….

Omar Calhoun, who scored 24 vs. AIC, breaks into the starting lineup. It’s Shabazz Napier, Ryan Boatright, Calhoun, Tyler Olander and DeAndre Daniels.

Details have been in the works for a couple of weeks, but now it’s official. Jim Calhoun will join Joe D. for the UConn radio broadcast in Germany next Friday. With UConn-Pitt football that night, choices have to be made. Joe is going to Germany, ending his streak of 189 consecutive football games, and he will work with The Coach.

Bob Joyce and Wayne Norman will handle football here.

Ryan Boatright and Shabazz Napier came out wearing what looked like flak jackets, but they are not. They are new Nike shirts with soft padding built in to protect the ribs.

I spent a fun afternoon Saturday interviewing Niels Giffey, Enosch Wolf and Leon Tolksdorf about their lives back home in Germany, and their college lives and basketball careers at UConn. Lots of funny, and serious stuff for a story to come in The Courant this week, advancing the Huskies’ trip home to play at Ramstein Air Force base.

Each player is allotted four tickets to see the game in the airplane hangar, but, of course, most players won’t need them, so Giffey, Wolf and Tolksdorf are collecting as many as they can. Wolf, whose home town is about three hours away, has about 30 tickets. Tolksdorf and Giffey, who come from Berlin, six hours away, are working on their collections.

As we mentioned, former UConn center Souleyman Wane will be here as an assistant coach with UMass-Lowell. Here is my story on him in the Sunday Courant.

UConn fans, Terrence Samuel, one of UConn’s commits for next season, would like you to follow him on twitter. He is at @TsamuelUconn.