{"id":23793,"date":"2010-11-04T08:39:24","date_gmt":"2010-11-04T12:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=23793"},"modified":"2010-11-10T09:21:15","modified_gmt":"2010-11-10T13:21:15","slug":"women-still-no-1-as-new-season-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/11\/women-still-no-1-as-new-season-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Women Still No. 1 as New Season Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Senior<\/a>
Senior Maya Moore has been practicing and playing with the best professional players in the world. Photo provided by Division of Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having spent most of 2010 attending to perfection \u2013 completing a second consecutive perfect season, winning a seventh national championship, and then leading the USA Women\u2019s Basketball Team to a world championship \u2013 Geno Auriemma should not have been surprised by the first day of practice of the 2010-2011 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day was as bad as any day I\u2019ve ever had since I got the job coaching at Connecticut,\u201d the Hall of Fame coach said of a team made up of five returning players and five untested first year players who made the kind of mistakes freshmen will make under his watchful eye on Day One. \u201cBut each day it\u2019s gotten better and better and better. There were actually a couple of days when I thought, these guys can be pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma will find out if \u201cpretty good\u201d is enough for the consensus pre-season No. 1 Huskies with a schedule that will test a young team led by All-Everything senior Maya Moore. He says the Big East is as competitive as ever, with four other league teams (West Virginia, Georgetown, St. John\u2019s, and Notre Dame) in the Top 25 national rankings. There also is the out-of-league schedule, which includes six other nationally ranked teams (Baylor, Stanford, Duke, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and Texas A&M).<\/p>\n

Then there is the streak: 78 consecutive games won over two years, something that Auriemma says will end this year, which has the media questioning why a coach would admit to the possibility of losing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m realistic,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not going lie and say we\u2019re so much better than Baylor, Duke, or Stanford \u2026 I\u2019m not putting it out there to motivate anybody or for any ulterior motive. I\u2019m just telling you what I think is the honest to God truth \u2026 I don\u2019t know that the expectation should be less in terms of winning, but I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be as overwhelmingly easy as it has been. There\u2019s going to be some losses along the way. There\u2019s going to be some nights when these freshmen don\u2019t have it. There\u2019s going to be some nights when foul trouble gets us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many ways, having the defending national champions return with the best player in the country leading an inexperienced team provides Auriemma with a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, thinking back to the 2002-2003 season. That was the year after Swin Cash, Sue Bird, Asjha Jones, and Tamika Williams led the Huskies to the NCAA championship and were among the top picks in the WNBA. Diana Taurasi returned to lead the Huskies and several freshmen to the second of three consecutive championships. Many considered that season Auriemma\u2019s finest coaching effort.<\/p>\n

\"<p>Junior<\/a>
Junior guard Tiffany Hayes is the first player to wear the No. 3 jersey since Diana Taurasi. Photo provided by Division of Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI was kind of proud of that year, especially when you lose four pros and you don\u2019t lose until the last game of the regular season,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the second week of practice that year, we were going up and down; I looked at one of my friends who was at practice, and I said: \u2018You know what? We\u2019re going to be just as good as last year.\u2019 One of the reasons I said that is \u2026 because Diana could play any position. That\u2019s where the whole, \u2018We\u2019ve got Diana and you don\u2019t\u2019 thing came from. Whenever I needed a sub for a particular spot, I just put her there. Can we do that with Maya? Well, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore spent the summer as the only collegiate player on the USA Basketball Team that won the 2010 FIBA World Championship, practicing and playing alongside the top professional basketball players in the world. Part of that time was spent observing Taurasi, trying to learn from the player widely considered the best in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watched how she carried herself on the national team, seeing how she interacts with her teammates, the things she would say and how she would play on the court when the shot was needed,\u201d said Moore, the consensus Big East pre-season Player of the Year and a pre-season Wooden Award selection. \u201cI feel I have help. I\u2019m very confident in the players we have coming back \u2013 Tiffany (Hayes), Kelly (Faris), and Lorin (Dixon). It\u2019s not all on my shoulders. I have a team and players behind me who are really good and willing to step up to fill those places that need to be filled. With them behind me, that gives me all the confidence in the world to go and what I know I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior guard Hayes, a unanimous All-Big East pre-season selection who also is on the Wooden Award list, said she has gained confidence as she has worked to improve her game, and is ready to help lead her younger teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready to step up,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m more confident as a player and as a person. You have to go into every game knowing you have people looking up to you, especially this year with five freshmen. You can\u2019t put pressure on them to come in and save us from missing everyone who left. But at the same time they have to play a role for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior guard Dixon knows that Auriemma will be counting on her experience working with Hayes and Moore in the backcourt, without junior Caroline Doty, who is lost for the season after surgery for a torn anterior cruciate ligament.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaya has the ability to make everybody alongside of her better,\u201d Dixon said. \u201cShe\u2019s been playing with the best guards in the world. She\u2019s going to expect me and Tiffany to be on our game and sharp. That\u2019s going to make me and Tiffany raise our game even higher. It will make the team better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"<p>Senior<\/a>
Senior guard Lorin Dixon will play an important leadership role on a team with five freshmen. Photo provided by Division of Athletics<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the graduation of Player of the Year center Tina Charles and clutch senior Kalana Greene, the Huskies will be more of an outside-in team this season, depending on their guard play as redshirt sophomore center Heather Buck and freshman center Stefanie Dolson evolve their play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I really want is to be a player Coach can rely on; be consistent and dependable,\u201d said Buck, the only Connecticut native on the roster. \u201cYou look at our schedule and there\u2019s not an easy game on there. We\u2019ve been mentally preparing; it\u2019s going to be hard, physical, and everybody\u2019s going to be coming after us. I\u2019m ready to step up and take that role.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the early days of pre-season practice, Auriemma said his freshman players are developing at different paces, as he expected. He is looking to guard Bria Hartley and center Dolson to help the team immediately. Guard Lauren Engeln is struggling toward greater consistency in her play. Forwards Michala Johnson and Samarie Walker are working their way back from injuries.<\/p>\n

Auriemma notes that when the Huskies have had their greatest success, they have had two All-American players playing together. Moore is there already. Hayes, the first player to wear the No. 3 jersey since Taurasi, appears to be heading toward that kind of recognition with her inclusion on the Wooden Award, which recognizes the nation\u2019s Top 30 players.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf she can be that other All-American,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the 2010-2011 women’s basketball schedule, go to the Athletics website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the women’s stellar record, Coach Auriemma keeps a ‘realistic’ perspective on perfection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-23793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-13 15:30:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23793"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24511,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions\/24511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}