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November 17, 2008
Huskies Move On/Kids Running Wild at Geno's
This wasn’t Division II Stonehill or Team SRP on the same court with the top-ranked Huskies Sunday afternoon in their season opener. This was a young, athletic and talented team from Georgia Tech that was looking to make a name for itself at the expense of the top-ranked Huskies. And make a name for itself it did.
With 10 underclassmen on their roster, led by dynamic freshman Mo Bennett, the Yellow Jackets were within three points with 5:12 left in the game and then missed two layups in the next 70 seconds when they had a chance to climb even closer. The Huskies survived because they have All-Americans Maya Moore and Renee Montgomery as well as Tina Charles on their roster. The Big Three made the plays they needed to for UConn to avoid the upset, something Stanford and Maryland could not do over the weekend.
The Huskies can take away many things from this game. And I’m sure the tape provided Geno with plenty of ammunition to take with him to practice. First, they need to execute better offensively. Many times it appeared as if they were settling for any shot rather than running through the offense one more time to get a more desirable shot. They missed 15 of their 19 3-point attempts. That will have to improve, or they can just pound the ball into Tina inside. She looks like she’s going to have an All-American-type season.
And, most important, is the fact that the Huskies received virtually nothing from their bench. This definitively will have to change or they will have a difficult time winning the national championship. Renee can’t be asked to play 40 minutes every game or even in the high 30s. She’ll be cooked come March. So will Maya, who played 39 minutes Sunday.
Tiffany Hayes, Lorin Dixon and Kaili McLaren combined for eight points, three rebounds, two assists, four turnovers and four fouls in 36 minutes. Kaili played just nine minutes, the least on the team.
Geno was joking about how many kids have been produced by the members of the 1994-95 national championship team following the game. He said there are 19, and they were running around his house during a get-together Saturday night. One that he said was one of the most fun nights he has had in a long, long time.
Here’s his take on the night:
``There was 50-something people there and there was kids everywhere. And I told Rebecca, `You guys were always pretty bad defensively so I’m not surprised.’ But she made a great point. She said, `Well, Coach, we were always very productive on the court.’ And I just looked around and I just could not believe how many kids were there. It’s just unbelievable. The transformation from those kids from then to now it’s like as good as they were when they played and they kind of changed the face of women’s basketball. When you see what they’re doing now and how they’ve grown up it’s like they never stopped being different than everybody else, special. And the way they interacted with these guys (that are on the team now) I thought was one of the highlights of the night because a lot of them in 1995 … I don’t think that’s the reason they came to Connecticut.’’
Nykesha Sales, who’s career seems to be limbo at the moment, spent two days practicing with the Huskies at Gampel Pavilion last week. Geno couldn’t help himself with this one. The sarcasm was flying – again.
``’Kesha came to practice the last two days,’’ he said. ``She hasn’t played since April. She thought she was coming over to get a couple shots in and run around. So we put her on defense so that she could simulate Georgia Tech’s trap. And she just terrorized these guys for two days. I hope we don’t go on probation for having her come to practice twice. I hope it doesn’t reach those places where we get in trouble for having players come to practice, but it was good to see her out here. It was good to see the whole crowd. It was really good.’’
Rich
Posted by Elliott on November 17, 2008 6:02 PM
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