UConn certainly took note of West Virginia’s win at Notre Dame Sunday. News of it quickly spread. But if any of the players or coaches missed it, a reminder of its importance was delivered Monday when the Huskies moved up a slot to No. 2 behind Baylor in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Of course, UConn, always the coolest kid in school, did what it usually does in these situations; shrugged its collective shoulders, stifled a yawn and went about its business at Oklahoma.
“We just have to stay focused,” Bria Hartley said. “We need to make sure we pay attention in practice, get better every day during season, keep playing hard.”
At some point during his first day on the job as UConn’s new athletic director, Warde Manuel tried to call his women’s basketball coach, Geno Auriemma. The boss got the voice mail of his Hall of Famer.
But soon, after Auriemma returns from a recruiting trip to California Tuesday, he will sit down with a man he’s heard many good things about.
“I got a phone call and he left a voice mail,” Auriemma said Monday night. “I am going to be away tomorrow (Tuesday) so I guess I will find out when he’s back on campus. I will talk to him at some point soon, but everything that I have heard has been nothing but great things.
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Don’t think for a second that Geno Auriemma will have it easy when USA Basketball gets around to cutting nine players to get down to the 12 who will play in the Olympics.
How would you like to have so many of your favorite people in a room and tell them they can’t go on vacation with you?
Well, Geno has Maya Moore, Asjha Jones, Renee Montgomery, Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles and Swin Cash among the 21. And let’s face it, if all seven of them make the team….I don’t even want to get into that right now.
Geno Auriemma really didn’t have much to say this afternoon about the hiring of his new boss, UConn AD Warde Manuel.
“I heard about it yesterday at the same time everyone else heard it,” Auriemma said. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to him. I’ve never met him. But from everything I hear, he is exactly what we need. I’m sure I will get a chance to catch up with him at some point.”
There have been many days over the last four years when Geno Auriemma has been asked to juggle his two immensely difficult jobs; coaching the No. 2 UConn women and the USA senior national team. Monday was one of those days.
Just six hours before the Huskies took on Oklahoma at Lloyd Noble Arena, Auriemma took part in a USA Basketball conference call to help announce the 21 finalists for the 2012 Olympic team that will try to win its fifth straight gold this summer in London.
“It’s fun, its draining, it’s exhausting, it’s pressure,” Auriemma said “It’s all the things that you would want. There is no way to get around it. But I don’t go to work at Connecticut thinking necessarily about what I want to do with the Olympic team. And I don’t spend time when I am with the national players thinking about what I want to accomplish at UConn. Those thoughts may occur, but they are not conscious decisions on my part.”
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Once again, the UConn women will not need to travel far to play their first two NCAA playoff games next season.
Here is the press release from the NCAA….
Follow along with The Courant’s John Altavilla as he tweets during the USA Women’s Basketball Conference Call with coach Geno Auriemma. The call is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.
What shooting slump? KML is the Big East’s rookie of the week for the seventh time this season, which ties her with Rebecca Lobo behind Miss Maya (10 picks) for most in conference history.
Mosqueda-Lewis averaged 14.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in wins over Louisville and Georgetown. Her 23 points (10 of 16), six rebounds, four assists and two steals led the Huskies to the 80-38 win over the Hoyas Saturday at Gampel Pavilion.
USA Basketball has just released the names of 21 players who will compete for the 2012 Summer Olympic Team coached by Geno Auriemma.
Here is the press release from USA Basketball.
Highlighted by a trio of two-time Olympic gold medalists and featuring a total of nine players who have won Olympic gold, 21 USA Women’s National Team members were today named as finalists for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team. The player selections were made by the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Player Selection Committee.
“Now that we’re down to 21 finalists, you look around and you see a group of players that have tremendous experience,” said Geno Auriemma, 2009-12 USA National Team and University of Connecticut head coach. “(We have) players that have won (Olympic) gold medals, won World Championships, there are WNBA champions on the list, players that have won in Europe in international competition. You’ve got a group of players that have experienced everything there is to experience and as a coach, as someone who’s been around these players, I couldn’t be happier with this group. They represent the best of what the United States has to offer.”
The 21 finalists for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team include: Jayne Appel (San Antonio Silver Stars), Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Rebekkah Brunson (Minnesota Lynx), Swin Cash (Chicago Sky), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever), Tina Charles (Connecticut Sun), Candice Dupree (Phoenix Mercury), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Brittney Griner (Baylor University), Lindsey Harding (Atlanta Dream), Asjha Jones (Connecticut Sun), Kara Lawson (Connecticut Sun), Angel McCoughtry (Atlanta Dream), Renee Montgomery (Connecticut Sun), Maya Moore (Minnesota Lynx), Candace Parker(Los Angeles Sparks), Cappie Pondexter (New York Liberty), Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury), Lindsay Whalen (Minnesota Lynx) and Sophia Young (San Antonio Silver Stars).
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The University of Connecticut has just named its new athletic director. Here is the press release from the university…
Warde J. Manuel, who has had a distinguished career in intercollegiate athletics that ranges from being a student-athlete to a director of athletics, has been named the new Director of Athletics at the University of Connecticut by President Susan Herbst.
Manuel, a 1990 graduate of the University of Michigan where he played both football and track and field, has most recently been the Director of Athletics at the University at Buffalo for the past six years.
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