{"id":31001,"date":"2011-03-15T14:37:32","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T18:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=31001"},"modified":"2011-05-31T11:41:28","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T15:41:28","slug":"ncaa-tournament-returns-familiar-face-to-gampel-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/03\/ncaa-tournament-returns-familiar-face-to-gampel-pavilion\/","title":{"rendered":"NCAA Tournament Returns Familiar Face to Gampel Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<p>Coach<\/a>
Coach Geno Auriemma explains a strategy to his team. File photo by Steve Slade<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seniors Maya Moore (16 points, 13 rebounds) and Lorin Dixon (4 rebounds, 3 assists) played their final game at Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday in the NCAA Tournament and completed a perfect 81-0 home court record during their four years playing in Storrs and Hartford, defeating Purdue 64-40. They advance to the Sweet 16 in Philadelphia on Sunday, where they will face Big East rival Georgetown<\/em><\/p>\n

Jennifer Rizzotti has returned to Harry A. Gampel Pavilion many times since she graduated as an All-American, National Player of the Year, and a key member of Geno Auriemma\u2019s first national championship team. But as the head coach of the University of Hartford women\u2019s basketball team, she has only been on the opposing bench against her former coach when playing on the Huskies\u2019 second home court, in Hartford.<\/p>\n

That will change on Sunday at noon, when Rizzotti walks on to the floor of Gampel Pavilion with her team as the No. 16 seed against the Huskies, the No. 1 seed in the Philadelphia region and overall top seed of the NCAA Women\u2019s Basketball Tournament.<\/p>\n

UConn (32-1), winner of the 2011 Big East Championship, is one of nine Big East teams to make the 64-team field, the most of any conference. No. 8 Kansas State (17-5) of the Big 12 and No. 9 Purdue (20-11) of the Big 10 will also play in Storrs in first and second round games played March 20 and 22. The other No. 1 seeds include Tennessee of the Southeastern Conference in the Dayton regional, Stanford of the Pac-10 in the Spokane regional, and Baylor of the Big 12 in the Dallas regional.<\/p>\n

\"<p>2011<\/a>
The Huskies \u2013 2011 Women's Big East Tournament Champions. Photo provided by Athletic Communications<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With a young team, Hartford started its season with one win in its first 10 games, ending its season 17-15 before upsetting Boston University to win the America East Tournament and earn the automatic bid into the NCAAs. The Hawks are led by senior guard Mary Silva, who averaged 10.1 points per game in America East play and sophomore forward Ruthanne Doherty, who averaged 10.1 points and 6.9 rebounds in conference play.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Jennifer] told me at the beginning of the season that she really liked these kids,\u201d Auriemma said. \u201cShe thought they were going to be good and she enjoyed coaching them. Then when it started the way it did, I think she was a little surprised. I\u2019m happy for them. Coming from 1-9 to start the season to here, that\u2019s a tremendous accomplishment for them. The fact that we have to play them, well you have to play somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rizzotti told the Hartford Courant\u2019s<\/em> Shawn Courchesne that she preferred playing games against UConn in Hartford because it would be \u201cweird\u201d to coach against her alma mater in Storrs. \u201cIt\u2019s not something I wanted to do,\u201d she told the Courant.<\/em> \u201cBut I think it will also be special. My name is up on that [Huskies of Honor] wall and that\u2019s pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn, the defending NCAA Champions, enter the 2011 tournament led by All-American senior Maya Moore, the Big East Player of the Year averaging 22.8 points and 8 rebounds per game; All-Big East junior guard Tiffany Hayes (14.1 points); freshman guard Bria Hartley, Big East Rookie of the Year (12.4 points); and freshman center Stefanie Dolson (9.8 points, 5.8 rebounds), an All-Big East Rookie Selection.<\/p>\n

The Huskies have an overall 11-0 record against Hartford, 6-0 since Rizzotti became head coach, all during the regular season. This will be the first time the teams have played each other in the NCAA tournament.<\/p>\n

Dolson and Hartley played for Rizzotti last summer when she coached the 2010 U18 National Team and helped both to learn about UConn basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought playing for her was great,\u201d Hartley said. \u201cShe knew how it was playing under Coach. She told us a lot of stories. I\u2019m just really excited. Not many people get the experience of going to the NCAA tournament. I\u2019m just happy and blessed that I can have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked by reporters whether it will be difficult to oppose a former player during the NCAA Tournament, Auriemma said: \u201cNo. That stuff only goes so far. It\u2019s like playing Temple [and former assistant Tonya Cardoza] last year. The kids that play for me, they were in grade school when Jennifer played here. They just want to play in their first NCAA game. We have an agenda here. We\u2019ve got work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

As to coaching against Rizzotti in a first round match-up, Auriemma smiled. \u201cMarch is a cruel month, especially for us Italians,\u201d he said, on the day before the Ides of March. \u201cBad things happen in the middle of March. History is not kind to Italians in the middle of March.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geno Auriemma and Jen Rizzotti will coach from opposing benches in the first round on Sunday.<\/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-31001","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":"2026-05-07 06:31:32","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\/31001","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=31001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35953,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31001\/revisions\/35953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31001"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=31001"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=31001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}