{"id":76127,"date":"2013-04-16T16:57:53","date_gmt":"2013-04-16T20:57:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=76127"},"modified":"2015-10-02T10:45:52","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T14:45:52","slug":"groundbreaking-celebrates-new-basketball-development-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/04\/groundbreaking-celebrates-new-basketball-development-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Groundbreaking Celebrates New Basketball Development Center"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UConn<\/a>
UConn officials and friends celebrate groundbreaking for the University\u2019s new basketball practice facility on April 16. From left, UConn supporter Sonny Whelen; President Susan Herbst; Board of Trustees Chairman Larry McHugh; Rosalind Shenkman; UConn Foundation Board of Directors Chairman Mark Shenkman; UConn supporter Peter Werth; women’s basketball player Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis; men’s basketball player Ryan Boatright; Athletics Director Warde Manuel; men’s basketball head coach Kevin Ollie; women’s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma; and UConn Foundation Board of Directors Member Robert Skinner. (Steve Slade ’89 (SFA) for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Official groundbreaking ceremonies for a dedicated new practice facility for UConn\u2019s championship men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs were held Tuesday on the site of the facility\u2019s home behind Gampel Pavilion.<\/p>\n

The event, which occurred a week after the Huskies brought home their eighth national title, tying Tennessee for the most wins in women\u2019s basketball history, was attended by officials from the University, the UConn Foundation, alumni, and donors, and several current and former players as well as students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a landmark day for UConn,\u201d said UConn President Susan Herbst. \u201cOur coaches and athletes have made UConn basketball the envy of the nation. They earned this facility with their hard work and their dedication.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new stadium is also a testament to the strength of the University\u2019s alumni and supporters, whose donations are providing the financial support. \u201cThis facility is being built by our donors,\u201d said Herbst. \u201cWe are so grateful to them for their support as we make our way to being one of the highest ranked research universities in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility is going to be a great landmark for our University and for our student athletes and alumni,\u201d said men\u2019s basketball head coach Kevin Ollie, who expressed his gratitude to former men\u2019s basketball head coach Jim Calhoun and women\u2019s basketball head coach Geno Auriemma for their leadership and to the alumni and donors who supported the project. \u201cThis building is going up as a foundation for the future of our program, and I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auriemma said, \u201cWhen I came to Connecticut, it was because of the people and it\u2019s still about the people. Having said that, we have the best people and the best students and they deserve the best facility. If we are going to be the No.1 school in America, then we should be the No. 1 school in everything we do, and this building helps us do that.\u201d Auriemma also played down concerns over the college basketball conference realignment. \u201cNone of that means anything. We are in a league of our own, and that\u2019s where we are going to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new 78,000 square-foot facility will feature practice gyms for the men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs, along with locker rooms, coaches\u2019 offices, and areas for academic support, video analysis, sports medicine, and strength training. The facility will allow basketball student-athletes to practice, train, study, and dine in one location.<\/p>\n

The facility is one of the projects supported through the fundraising campaign launched in September 2009 by the UConn Foundation. So far, the Foundation has received about $28 million in donations and pledges for construction of the new facility, which is estimated to cost about $35 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Official groundbreaking ceremonies for a dedicated new practice facility for UConn\u2019s championship men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs were held Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":76125,"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":[1727,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[132],"class_list":["post-76127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-construction","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-24 08:11:52","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\/76127","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\/60"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76127"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104889,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76127\/revisions\/104889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/76125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76127"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=76127"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=76127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}