The American Women’s Tournament Preview

On Friday afternoon, the American Athletic Conference announced the conference’s major award winners – Coach, Player, Rookie and Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Just like on Thursday, the University of Connecticut women’s basketball team took home some more hardware.

Sophomore Breanna Stewart was honored as the Player of the Year and head coach Geno Auriemma was named the Coach of the Year.  Rutgers’ Tyler Scaife was earned the Rookie of the Year honors, while Antonita Slaughter from Louisville was the Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Stewart was a dominating force during the regular season. She averaged 19.8 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game. This should be the first of many awards that Stewart will earn this postseason. She is a finalist for most National Player of the Year awards and should be named a First Team All-American.

Auriemma has led the Huskies to another undefeated regular season. Dating back to last season’s NCAA Tournament, No. 1 UConn has won 37 straight games and will be the favorite to win the AAC postseason tournament and the program’s ninth national title.

UConn will begin American Tournament play on Saturday in the second quarterfinal game at 2:00pm on ESPN3. The top-seeded Huskies will face No. 8 seed Cincinnati at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

The Bearcats hung on for a 54-52 win over No. 9 seed Central Florida in the opening round on Friday night and will play UConn for the third time this season. In the second game of the opening round, No. 10 seed Houston upset No. 7 seed Memphis and will play No. 2 seed Louisville on Saturday evening.

AAC Preview

Dark Horse-

South Florida is fighting for its NCAA Tournament lives.  They earned the No. 3 seed with a win at Rutgers this past Monday. Two more wins would get them to 20 for the season and the championship game which should guarantee them an NCAA bid.

Game to Watch-

Rutgers vs. SMU – Rutgers has been ranked during the regular season and should make the field of 64.  However, they have lost their past two games (at UConn and vs. USF).  Have they done enough to get into the NCAA Tournament?

A Final Goodbye-

UConn can possible play Rutgers and Louisville for the final time in a conference postseason tournament. Next season Rutgers is off to the Big Ten while Louisville is heading to the ACC.

Just like the Old Big East-

UConn should win their first American Athletic Conference Tournament Championship on Monday night. They have been the best team all season and have the best player and coach in the conference – if not the country. If the Huskies win, it will be their 38^th conference championship. 

American Athletic Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament Schedule

Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Conn.

Quarterfinals – Saturday, March 8, 2014

12pm – No. 4 Rutgers (21-8, 12-6) vs. No. 5 SMU (17-12, 8-10)

2pm – No. 1 Connecticut (31-0, 18-0) vs. No. 8 Cincinnati (13-17, 5-13)

6pm – No. 2 Louisville (28-3, 16-2) vs. No. 10 Houston (6-24, 1-17)

8pm – No. 3 South Florida (18-11, 13-5) vs. No. 6 Temple (14-15, 8-10)

Semifinals – Sunday, March 9, 2014

1pm – Semifinal No. 1 (ESPNU)

3pm – Semifinal No. 2 (ESPNU)

Championship – Monday, March 10, 2014

7pm – Winner of the Semifinal Games (ESPN)

Weekly Recap on the Huskies

The UConn men's basketball team took care of business against two of the cellar dwellers in the American Athletic Conference this past week.  Without Ryan Boatright and in front of  a cozy home crowd due to a snowstorm, the Huskies destroyed the Temple Owls (99-66) on Tuesday night at the XL Center in Hartford.  Last night, UConn made a final conference road trip to Northern Jersey and the Rutgers Athletic Center - a horrible building in its own right - and dismantled the Scarlet Knights (82-71).

On Tuesday night, behind stellar performances by Shabazz Napier (27 points) and DeAndre Daniels (31 points), the Huskies outright dominated new conference foe Temple.  It was a performance for the ages for these two.  They came a few points short of becoming the first UConn duo to score 30 points a piece in a game.   The team was on fire from the field, hitting 53.4% of their shots, and going 12-23 from three point range.  The Huskies also held their own on the glass, winning the battle of the boards 45-25.

Saturday night, the Huskies started the game up 1-0 before tip-off at Rutgers.  Referee Duke Edsell (yes, brother of former UConn football coach Randy Edsell) called an administrative technical foul while Rutgers was in the lay-up lines.  A Rutgers player was dunking the ball when he was not suppose to.  The crowd was electric at the RAC.  It could be the little shop of horrors in what looks like a bomb shelter.  The game was back and forth, but the Huskies were able to build a ten point lead midway through the first half.  They kept Rutgers in the game throughout.  Niels Giffey (9 points in 33 minutes) hit open threes and Amida Brimah (10 points and 8 rebounds) was a force down low.

Rutgers did cut the lead down to five at the half and took it early in the second half on an 11-0 run.  Little used freshman guard Terrance Samuel came into the game, provided some instance offense with the Huskies struggling, and converted on a three point play which gave the Huskies back the lead.  Napier took over in the final 18 minutes of the game scoring 20 points.  Napier finished with a game high 26 points.

The big concern are the ankle injuries of two key players.  Omar Calhoun injured his ankle during the Temple game and did not play on Saturday.  DeAndre Daniels suffered a high ankle sprain late in the first half on Saturday. A good thing the schedule is spread out the next couple of weeks.  The Huskies play twice in the next 12 days.  This gives time to heal.

Expect the Huskies to be ranked in this coming week's AP and USA Today polls.  They are winners of five of six games.  UConn is 16-4 overall and 4-3 in the American.  Currently, they are fifth place in the American - only a half game out in the loss column of third place (Memphis and SMU are 4-2).  Cincinnati (7-0) and Louisville (6-1) are the top two teams in the conference.

The Huskies are off until Thursday night when the host Houston at 9pm at Gampel Pavilion.  (Yes, those Houston Cougars who knocked off UConn on New Years Eve.)  The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.  If you do not get the game on your local tv package, listen to the game on the radio (1080AM - Hartford or 960AM New Haven) - do no pay UConnHuskies.com to listen to the broadcast online.  There is no online coverage of the game.  You only can listen for free online, tune in to WHUS.org, 91.7FM, the UConn student radio station.